BERKELEY, Californina, US -- Hundreds of masked, black-clad anarchists who overwhelmed a peaceful California protest and assaulted at least five perceived political enemies have reignited the debate over ensuring free speech while protecting public safety in the city where the US free speech movement was born in the 1960s.

After planned weekend rallies were violently disrupted or cancelled, supporters of President Donald Trump and other politically conservative activists complained their free speech rights were blocked by liberal politicians who they say incited left-wing extremists.

When Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson cancelled his San Francisco rally Saturday, he blamed San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Democratic US Representative Nancy Pelosi for falsely labelling the organisation as a hate group and inciting extremism to vow violent disruption.

Others said that the violence on Sunday in nearby Berkeley, known as the US heart of the free speech movement, tarnished their peaceful opposition to Trump's policies.

“It played into the false narrative that some conservatives have spun,” about violent left-wing stifling of free speech, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said Monday, a day after the anarchists assaulted the people they thought were right-wing extremists and pepper sprayed Mr Gibson.

Mr Gibson's supporters said the Berkeley police failed to protect the handful of right-wing supporters who showed up at the park Sunday afternoon by allowing the black-clad demonstrators to take over the city park without opposition. The right-wing group was outnumbered by thousands of opponents, but the rally was tense but peaceful until the anarchists arrived.

Several demonstrators tried to stop the violence and helped the assault victims escape while others screamed for the beating to stop.

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Yvonne[Yvette - edit by TM] Felarca, a spokeswoman for the militant left-wing organisation By Any Means Necessary, defended Sunday's violence. She called it self-defence, though it there were no indications anyone one tried to physically harm the anarchists at the park.

She said right-wing extremists are often armed and want to fight left-wing opponents, concluding that Sunday's violence was a “success” and sent a message that speech her group considers fascist will not be allowed in ultraliberal Berkeley.

Ms Felarca was charged last month with assault and helping incite a riot in Sacramento last year. The June 2016 melee between about 30 members of a neo-Nazi group and 300 counter-protesters ended with 14 people suffering stab wounds, cuts and bruises.

Berkeley Police Chief Andrew Greenwood said he ordered officers to abandon the park when the black-clad activists arrived. Confronting them would have risked escalating the violence and jeopardising the safety of the peaceful protesters, Mr Greenwood said.

The mayor said the police acted appropriately, saying the anarchists “were trying to provoke the police.”

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http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/13...e-speech-debate
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This outcome was so predictable! When anarchist violence is tolerated [because it favors the political beliefs of the politicians] suddenly we're left with an "unsafe environment" for free speech. So the only logical thing to do is to cancel the event. BRILLIANT!!! TM





http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/13...e-speech-debate