Antifa and other Left Wing protestors claimed victory on Saturday after a Patriots Prayer Rally that was scheduled was cancelled by the organizers citing threats of violence and social media harassment by Liberal anti-free speech activists.
Local officials also didn’t help matters after they walled off a city park denying them access to the venue – an act perceived by the event organizers and supporters as an intentional and provocative move to shut down free speech and silence the group’s message as a pretext of preventing violent clashes.
An Antifa rioter is arrested by Police. AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Joey Gibson, a member of the Patriots Prayer group also cited Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s fierce opposition to their holding a free-speech Prayer rally including threats of violence by the alt-left Antifa anarchists as another reason for the cancellation.
Speaking on Facebook Live during a conference, Gibson said cancelling the rally was “the best thing to do for the city.” He then pointed a finger on Democrats and their protesters for setting everything up saying, “the way it was set up, a lot of innocent people were going to get hurt. That’s a fact.
“A bunch of supporters, a bunch of Antifa communists, normal liberals would have all been mixed together. It would have been a huge riot, and it would have been a disaster.”
San Francisco, once a cradle for free speech movement and tolerance has turned out to be the most intolerant, anti-free speech enclave in the country since the election of Donald Trump as President. They have taken the mantel in stifling that which they once advocated for and shutting down any dissenting voices and views.
San Francisco City officials fenced off a park to shut down the Patriots Prayer. Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam
Mr. Gibson, a Japanese-American and leader of the Patriots Prayer had planned to hold a peacefully prayer rally with a diverse array of speakers from different racial backgrounds, and political beliefs. Him and his group have disavowed racism, saying during the interview that the initial purpose of the rally had been to promote dialogue with people of opposing views and whom you disagree with.
San Francisco Democrats together with local mayor Ed Lee were fiercely opposed to the Patriot Prayer holding their rally so much that by labelling the group as “White Supremacists”, they incited the most violent of Leftist protesters – Antifa and By Any Means – to literally stock the group on social media, threatening them with violence.
By also closing the park where Gibson had planned a news conference after cancelling the rally at Crissy Field, surrounding Alamo Square park with a fence and sending scores of Police, some in riot gear, the message by Democrats was clear, nobody wanted to hear their message or anything the Patriot Prayer Group had to say.
Gibson later spoke in suburban Pacifica with a handful of supporters that included a Samoan America, a Latino and African Americans. Several said they support President Donald Trump and want to join with moderates to promote understanding and free speech.
The San Francisco Bay Area has nurtured freedom of speech, and police in San Francisco have traditionally given demonstrators a wide berth.
Student activism was born during the 1960s free-speech movement at Berkeley, when thousands of students at the university mobilized to demand that the school drop its ban on political activism.
After violent clashes in Charlottesville on August 12 when a White Nationalists clashed with Antifa rioters, San Francisco Police and their leaders decided to rethink their response to protests.
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