About 100 Trump supporters and dozens of counter-protesters, some of whom called themselves anti-fascists, clashed for hours in the heart of Pacific Beach in San Diego on Saturday, with officials trying to keep opposing groups apart after several skirmishes.
Dueling demonstrations closed Mission Boulevard near Crystal Pier. The police declared the meeting illegal and ordered the crowd to disperse around 2:30 pm.
Police said on Twitter that police officers were hit by a glass bottle. Stones and eggs were also being thrown at the police, and pepper spray was being spread towards them by the crowd, the police said. They did not say who was responsible.
During a confrontation, officers fired what appeared to be pepper balls at the anti-fascist crowd.
At around 4:30 pm, supporters of President Trump met again on the boardwalk and the police allowed them to march. Protesters shouted profanity and sometimes clashed with passersby.
“We will continue to monitor both groups to help facilitate peaceful protests. However, we will not tolerate acts of violence, “the police tweeted at around 5 pm” When stones, bottles, pepper spray and other objects are thrown or used on our policemen, actions will be taken against those who commit violent acts ” .
The unrest started around 1 pm, when a crowd of Black Lives Matter supporters and anti-fascists, many of them dressed in black and wearing “antifa” T-shirts and hats, gathered on the pier to fight a planned “Patriot March” to 14h. The march had been scheduled long before the violent riot on U.S. Capitol Hill by a pro-Trump crowd on Wednesday.
Counter-demonstrators held signs that denounced Trump, as well as one that said “There are no Nazis in the BP.”
San Diego police set up a security line on Mission Boulevard in Pacific Beach on Saturday to keep the pro and anti-Trump groups separate.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Before the Trump event, some counter-protesters had sporadic clashes with Trump supporters along the boardwalk. At one point, someone tapped the phone from the hand of an unidentified man on the boardwalk and pushed him forward, knocking him down with a little boy.
Moods exploded at that moment and some non-Protestants on the boardwalk moved towards the group, including a man with a dog on a leash barking at the protesters.
A video posted on Twitter showed a man walking to the anti-fascist side and pushing a counter-protester who was writing in the street with chalk. When other counter-demonstrators confronted the man, the police pulled him behind the police line.
Both sides wielded pepper spray, and it was used at different times during clashes.
By mid-afternoon, about 100 Trump supporters gathered at the corner of Mission and Hornblend.
Rows of officers separated the groups, with some of the anti-fascist protesters insulting the police with profanity.
The police declared an assembly illegal around 2:30 pm and started asking people to disperse.
“Those who remain or return against this legal order can be summoned / imprisoned and at risk of exposure to less lethal chemical agents and force applications,” according to a tweet from the San Diego Police Department.
The crowd evacuated the area around 6 pm. It was not clear whether there was any arrest.
Robbins and Diehl write for the San Diego Union-Tribune