PRO-TRUMP BERKELEY CLASH
“GRAB AMERICA BY THE PUSSY AND MAKE IT GREAT AGAIN”
photo reportage by Zarina Zabrisky and Simon Rogghe
On March 4, about 150 pro-Trump rally participants — mostly white middle-aged men and women in red hats and American flag outfits and really buff younger men in wife-beaters with baseball bats, gas-masks, and helmets, obviously out-of-town— arrived to Martin Luther King Jr Civic Park in downtown Berkeley, around 2 pm. Most people in Berkeley were not aware of the event.
The pro-Trump rally was a part of the the so-called Spirit of America rallies in at least 28 the country’s 50 states.
They were greeted by a few groups of policemen in full attire standing on both sides of the park, TV-trucks that arrived on the previous night and anti-Trump protesters: a mix of UC Berkeley students and residents, Saturday farmer market shoppers, hippies and musicians of all ages who started their counter-protest around 12.30 pm.
Around 2.15 pm about 10–15 Antifa members in black attire and black bandannas joined the anti-Trump group and put a large banner on a tree.
We recognized a provocateur from UC Berkeley protest on February 1.
First, some people engaged in discussions.
Around 3 pm fist fights started. Antifa threw smoke bombs.
A couple of people complained of being pepper-sprayed but recovered fast and continued the confrontation.
More pro-Trump people arrived. They held posters like GRAB AMERICA BY THE PUSSY AND MAKE IT GREAT AGAIN and RUSSIA ATE YOUR HOMEWORK. More fist fights ensued.
An Antifa member waved the banner of the USSR over the anti-Trump part of the group. I talked to him: he seemed to be about 18–19 years old, friendly and polite, and expressed surprise and disbelief that the flag he was holding used to be a flag of the country that is currently Russia, that Putin is/was a communist and that this flag might send confusing signals to the public.
As confrontation continued, Trumpists, anti-Trumpists, Antifa, libertarians, hippies, people in pussy hats and men with white supremacists’ paraphernalia mixed under Confederate, Soviet, American, Libertarian and some other flags unknown to us to the chants “No Trump, No KKK, No fascist USA!” and “USA!USA!USA!” and rap.
The crowd ran from one side of the lawn to another like football teams on speed and at times it was not possible to determine who was who.
Around 4 pm, one Antifa member ran to seek protection from the police, his head bleeding. He was helped by a paramedic. Another Antifa member got restrained and arrested.
This was the first time that the police interfered. Most of the time they just stood around the perimeter, videotaping and watching and not reacting to calls for help from the anti-Trump protesters or to the ensuing fights and smoke bombs being thrown. Starting at 4, the police started to interfere, at times protecting pro-Trump rally participants.
Between 4 and 4.30, all groups marched from the park towards the campus, mixing and forming one procession. Anti-Trump protesters chanted: “Our street!” and blocked the way. The trumpists had a hard time figuring out the way to the campus and were unable to locate it, marching past it. At this point, telling groups apart became impossible. Everyone marched together, occasionally fighting and screaming at each other, with media following with videocameras.
Around 4.30 a small group returned to the park where the confrontation continued and aggravated as more media and police force arrived.
Anti-Trump protesters burned red hats and American flags. Police confiscated baseball bats. The scene looked tribal. One of our friends was pushed by a police officer; here is his account:“Two cops barked at me to move out of their way and I said, ‘No.’ Instead of walking around and respecting my right to be there they chose to harm me.”
Helicopters arrived around 5 pm. We have left the scene at this time.
***
OPINION
Who won? I suppose, no one wins in a civil war. It is tragic and comic at the same time, painful to watch and confusing as hell.
However, here is a thought I have, a very personal take: It is unfair to leave young people alone in their fight against the forces that destroy our country. All anti-Trump forces should stand up against the injustice instead of waiting for someone “up there” to end this situation.
Yesterday a few uneducated and inexperienced teenagers outraged by the violation of their moral and ethical sense confronted a much older crowd of right and conservative older people. Both groups engaged in tribal and primitive behaviors, driven by testosterone, primal sexual drive and aggression, territorial instincts and propelled by ego and total lack of self-reflection and communication skills. The left, the most intellectual and educated part, on the other hand, stood by, paralyzed by the burden of analytical thinking, tendency to debate every step, ethical and moral concerns, traditional pacifism and Hamletian self-doubt; like any intelligentsia class, it is virtually impotent. The law and enforcement system used this irreconcilable conflict to divide and suppress all groups while, in its turn, being exploited and assuming the role of a scapegoat and a placeholder for people’s hatred. The dysfunctional group that calls itself “government” was struggling to stay on top and survive.
Behind this clusterfuck, safe in the triple shadow and empowered by the longterm study of collective psychology, well-designed mechanisms of mind control and motivated by its lust for power, reigns — as of now, invincible — conglomerate of the Russian mafia and KGB.
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