Well, Antifa beat up more people they didn’t like in Berkeley last weekend and now its mayor is saying that it could be time to classify the far left group as a gang. The progressive bastion was supposed to hold a rally called Patriot Prayer, which was cancelled on Sunday. That didn’t stop Antifa members from beating up Trump supporters and members of the media, as they celebrated their victory. Contrary to other reports, this was not a white supremacist rally; it was a free speech event that was shut down by leftist thugs. Mayor Jesse Arreguin urged UC Berkeley to cancel Free Speech Week to avoid more violence. He said that he was a supporter of freedom of speech, but not at the cost of public safety. At least now he’s recognizing that Antifa is a problem (via CBS SFBayArea):
Mayor of Berkeley Jesse Arreguin on Monday said it is time to confront the violent extremism on the left by treating black-clad Antifa protesters as a gang.
A large number of masked Antifa activists were seen jumping the barriers at a largely peaceful demonstration in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Civic Center Park on Sunday.
Some began attacking Trump supporters at the rally.
“I think we should classify them as a gang,” said Arreguin. “They come dressed in uniforms. They have weapons, almost like a militia and I think we need to think about that in terms of our law enforcement approach.”
Arreguin said that while he does not support the far right, it was time to draw the line on the left as well, especially on the black-clad activists who showed up in force and took over both the protests and the park, and played a part in Sunday’s violent clashes.
And yes, the far right white nationalists are terrible as well. That’s agreeable, Mr. Mayor. This all stems from the chaos that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists supposedly gathered to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue earlier this month. Antifa was also there, fights broke out, and one woman was killed when a white nationalist plowed into a crowd of counter demonstrators. Scores of other people were injured in the violence as well. It was a day that represented the worst of American political society. It was truly the most despicable wings of America meeting in the hometown of Thomas Jefferson to rumble. While Democrats at the federal level are not lining up to denounce Antifa in droves, at least some at the local level seem to realize that these groups could be as much trouble as alt-right groups.