Feint left, go right. Update to this story.
Via SF Gate:
The leader of a right-wing group that had planned a Saturday rally at Crissy Field in San Francisco said Friday he had decided to call off the event, just as local and federal officials put the finishing touches on a slate of security measures designed to head off the kind of violence seen earlier this month in Charlottesville, Va.
But it wasn’t immediately clear whether the rally, which had been granted a permit by the National Park Service, was effectively being canceled or simply moved.
On Facebook Live, Joey Gibson of Patriot Prayer said the group would instead hold a “press conference” at 2 p.m. Saturday at Alamo Square Park in the Western Addition. He said the same speakers and bands who were going to appear at Crissy Field would be there, forcing city leaders to scramble to respond. They fear clashes between the rally group and counterprotesters.
Gibson and other supporters appearing with him on the Facebook feed said they’d changed their plans because of fears that violent protesters using “black bloc” tactics would attend their Crissy Field rally. They also said the speakers and bands scheduled to perform at the rally had been “harassed.”
“I am calling on (city officials) to denounce antifa publicly,” said Will Johnson, an event organizer, referring to antifascist protesters who have clashed with right-wing activists in recent months at events in Berkeley and around the country. “We could have had this rally (Saturday), and it would have been peaceful. Not a single person wants to fight. They are bringing the violence.”
The organizers also blamed statements by Mayor Ed Lee and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, for creating a hostile climate against them. Both politicians had called on the National Park Service to deny the group a permit for what Pelosi called a “white supremacist rally.”