Tension Expected in US Cities as Rallies Planned to Confront White Supremacy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Cities across the US are facing further disputes over anti-racism and white supremacy as activists plan to stage further protest rallies in coming days.
According to media reports, activists are set to start a 10-day march from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC on Monday to confront white supremacy and demand President Trump's removal from office.
"The March to Confront White Supremacy," is set to start in Charlottesville Monday, Aug. 28 and end in Washington, DC on Wednesday, Sept. 6. Organizers say the march will be followed by an occupation of Washington, DC with daily nonviolent demonstrations.
"The March to Confront White Supremacy," is being planned by a number of activist groups such as the Women’s March, Working Families Party, the Action Group Network, United We Dream, Color of Change, and others.
The announcement came as a free-speech rally planned for San Francisco this weekend that local leaders had urged residents to boycott as dangerous and “white supremacist” was canceled on Friday by organizers who said that those comments had drawn extremists and made it unsafe.
The planned gathering by Patriot Prayer had been the centerpiece of a weekend of protests in the Bay Area that had raised concern among San Francisco police and elected officials two weeks after right-wing activists, including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, fought with anti-racism protesters in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.
A woman was killed at that “Unite the Right” rally when a man thought to have neo-Nazi sympathies drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters. Nineteen other people were injured.
Last weekend, 33 people were arrested in Boston as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest a “free speech” rally featuring far-right speakers.
Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson has vehemently denied that his group is extremist or white nationalist, saying that he is not even white and does not align himself with any party or cause.
Gibson said he would hold a press conference in San Francisco on Saturday afternoon to further explain his decision.
San Francisco city officials including Mayor Ed Lee had lobbied the National Park Service to deny a permit for Patriot Prayer to hold its event at Crissy Field, which is under federal control as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
When that permit was granted on Wednesday, Lee told residents of San Francisco to essentially boycott the rally.
The mayor urged locals to instead attend city-hosted events on Friday and Saturday that he said would focus on “inclusion, compassion and love rather than hate.”
Meantime, US House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, in a written statement, slammed the Patriot Prayer gathering as a dangerous “white supremacist rally.”
Left-wing counter-protesters, meanwhile, were planning a march to Crissy Field, where police were concerned a confrontation could erupt. San Francisco-based artist and designer Terrence Ryan, known professionally as Tuffy Tuffington, put out a call on Facebook for canine owners to litter the field beginning on Friday with dog poop ahead of the Patriot Prayer event.
On Sunday, conservative activists planned a so-called "No to Marxism" rally in nearby Berkeley, an event that left-wing groups were also expected to protest. However, city of Berkeley officials on Thursday denied that group's request for a rally permit.