SAN FRANCISCO _ Organizers of right-wing rallies planned in San Francisco and Berkeley this weekend have canceled the events, expressing concerns about the safety of participants.
Joey Gibson, founder of the Patriot Prayer group, said in a Facebook Live post that his group had been working with police and "decided that Saturday's rally seems like a set-up." The group had planned to hold a "Freedom Rally" at Crissy Field Beach in San Francisco.
"It doesn't seem safe. A lot of people's lives are going to be in danger tomorrow," he said during an interview with Unite America First. "The rhetoric from Nancy Pelosi, Mayor (Ed) Lee, the media _ all these people are saying we are white supremacists and it's bringing in tons of extremists. It just seems like a huge set-up, so we just decided that we are going to take the opportunity and not fall into that trap and we are not going to go down there. We are not going to have a rally at Crissy Field."
Meanwhile, the Facebook invite for Sunday's "No to Marxism in America" event in Berkeley remained active early Friday evening; but sponsor Amber Cummings wrote in a lengthy email to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter that she was "asking that no one come to my event."
Cummings cited a fear of violence as giving her "grave concerns for the safety of the people attending my event."
She said, however, that she would attend, "alone," and anyone who showed up "will be turned away."
In his Facebook post, Gibson said that his group wouldl hold a news conference at 2 p.m. PDT Saturday at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco to talk about "some of the rhetoric" in the city.
"We have a lot of respect for the citizens in San Francisco and at the end of the day, we want people to be safe," he said.
The park was supposed to be closed off, Gibson said, so organizers could control the event and search people who were entering and turn others away. But he said that it appeared that wasn't going to happen.
"Anyone could have come in, and it would have been mingling (anti-fascist groups). Also white supremacists could have shown up," Gibson said.
"Honest, in our opinion, it seem like it would have been a huge riot," he said.
Gibson did not immediately respond to a text message from a Los Angeles Times reporter about the cancellation of Saturday's event in San Francisco.
Law enforcement has spent weeks planning for events in San Francisco and Berkeley. At the center of the campaign will be a huge police presence, perhaps more than a thousand officers who intend to crack down at the first sign of trouble.
A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department said she had not heard any word that the protest was canceled.
The department had planned to have its entire roster on duty for Saturday afternoon's rally. Officials said they could not immediately comment Friday on whether their plans would change in light of Gibson's announcement.
In preparation for Sunday's event in Berkeley, city officials had expressly banned weapons, sticks, projectiles and even soda cans from gatherings of more than 100 people within the city limits. The National Park Service, which operates the land where Saturday's protest was to take place, has established similar rules.
Organizers for both rallies this weekend said earlier that the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who surfaced in Charlottesville, Va., were not welcome at their events. Gibson had demanded that white nationalist figures such as Richard Spencer and Nathan Damigo stay away.
Last week, Gibson told the Times he was concerned that some extreme or racist figures might try to co-opt his rally, a fear shared by experts who track hate groups. He has repeatedly denied the assertion that his event is a "white supremacist" demonstration and criticized politicians who branded it as such.
"You've got two different people in this world right now. You have people that are trying to change hearts and minds of people, and you have people who are trying to divide the country," he said.
The need for stronger crowd control became clear in the wake of the violent clashes this month between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, where demonstrators on each side complained of lax law enforcement.
But hands-off policing can also allow events to spiral out of control. Anaheim police drew criticism last year after a violent Ku Klux Klan rally. Uniformed officers were nowhere to be found when Klansmen arrived in Pearson Park, and several people were stabbed during a series of brawls between Klan members and anti-racist protesters.
"One of the most difficult things we do in our profession is policing First Amendment activity," said LAPD Deputy Chief Bob Green, who has served as a commander at dozens of protest scenes during his 30-year career.
Sunday's rally in Berkeley, branded by organizers as an anti-Marxism demonstration, has drawn additional concern. Berkeley has been home to a number of violent clashes between political opponents this year. Violent protests on the University of California, Berkeley campus shut down an appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos in February, and subsequent demonstrations in support of Trump collapsed into roving street fights.
Those opposed to the rallies, including Lee, the San Francisco mayor, have called on counterdemonstrators to stage their events several blocks from the proposed far-right events. Some activists have also said they were hoping to avoid the violent exchanges that have marred Berkeley in recent months.
Counterprotesters continued with their own plans to gather in the Bay Area, but took Friday's news as a partial victory.
"Wow, it sounds like we're having success ahead of time," said Shanta Driver, the Chicago-based counsel for By Any Means Necessary, as she waited to board a plane for San Francisco.
Driver said the cancellation showed that "white nationalists know they are a tiny minority in America, and there was absolutely no way they could rally in the city of San Francisco."
That was not the case, she said, for those expected to be drawn to Sunday's rally in Berkeley, the site of repeated clashes involving white nationalists and anti-fascists.
"I think the people who are coming to Berkeley, they come armed and ready and they come to do physical harm," Driver said.
