RUTHFULLY YOURS

Two rallies planned in San Francisco and Berkeley this weekend were cancelled after Antifa and other groups threatened rally participants.

In San Francisco, a free speech demonstration planned by the group Patriot Prayer was cancelled by organizer Joey Gibson because of threats demonstrators had received online and the attitude of the city’s Democratic politicians who, although allowing the demonstration to take place, walled off the park where it was to be held, thus preventing anyone from hearing what the group had to say.

Another rally in Berkeley never got a permit but was going to be held anyway until more threats from Antifa forced its cancellation too.

The hysteria ginned up about white supremacists and Nazis resulted in Patriot Prayer being branded a “hate group” and Democratic politicians pretending that they were. This despite the Southern Poverty Law Center – not known for their tolerance of conservative and religious groups – stating on their website:

“At his most recent rally, in Seattle on Aug. 13, Gibson openly denounced white supremacism and neo-Nazis. In subsequent interviews, he has taken lengths to explain that he now works to actively exclude them. There were no visible signs of white-nationalist members at the Seattle rally.”

Earlier rallies organized by Gibson featured some uninvited guests – white supremacists and Nazis who started melees with counterprotesters. The inexperienced activist did not know how to exclude the extremists. He appears to be getting better at it, but that hardly mattered to the far left Democratic authorities in San Francisco.

ABC News:

“They’re definitely doing a great job of trying to make sure my message doesn’t come out,” Gibson said.

San Francisco officials closed the park where Gibson had planned a news conference after cancelling the rally at Crissy Field. City officials surrounded Alamo Square park with a fence and sent scores of police officers — some in riot gear — to keep people out. Mayor Ed Lee defended the city’s response.

“If people want to have the stage in San Francisco, they better have a message that contributes to people’s lives rather than find ways to hurt them,” Lee said. “That’s why certain voices found it very difficult to have their voices heard today.”

Gibson later spoke in suburban Pacifica with a handful of supporters that included African Americans, a Latino and a Samoan American. Several said they support President Donald Trump and want to join with moderates to promote understanding and free speech.

More than a thousand demonstrators against Patriot Prayer still turned out around Alamo Square park waving signs condemning white supremacists and chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” Hundreds of others took to the streets in the Castro neighborhood.

“San Francisco as a whole, we are a liberal city and this is not a place for hate or any sort of bigotry of any kind,” Bianca Harris said. “I think it’s a really powerful message that we’re sending to people who come here to try to spew messages of hate that it’s just not welcome in this city.”

Benjamin Sierra, who organized counter protesters, said the demonstration had become a “victory rally.”

This is a tipping point for not only freedom of speech, but also freedom of thought, of assembly and yes, of religion. There were religious overtones to this planned demonstration that liberal Democrats in San Francsico refused to recognize and tolerate.

See how easily liberals equate political opposition to white supremacy? It was effortless. And if anyone believes that this isn’t a portent of the near future, they haven’t been paying attention.

It won’t just be conservative rallies that are shut down by threats of violence. Attacking Republicans is the logical extension of this kind of oppression and intimidation of people who hold opposing viewpoints is going to be worth millions of votes to liberal Democrats in the 2018 and 2020 election.

Is there a danger that conservatives may consider relying on white supremacists and Nazis to fight back on their behalf? No bigger mistake could be made. But when physical harm is threatened and the police stand down, what’s to be done?

When a conservative group is prevented from making its voice heard in the most liberal city in America, the country is in huge trouble.