"This is a textbook case of a political witch-hunt and selective prosecution," said one attorney whose client was injured during a white supremacist rally that turned violent
by Julia Conley
Defense lawyers for anti-racism activists who staged a counter-protest at a white supremacist rally in California in 2016 say that state police demonstrated sympathy for the neo-Nazis who organized the event and worked with them to arrest the counter-demonstrators.
Documents related to the court case of three anti-fascist activists, who were charged with felonies for attempting to disrupt the Traditionalist Workers Party's (TWP) rally, show that a California Highway Patrol (CHP) investigator assured a white supremacist that he would protect his anonymity and told another he was being seen as a victim in the violence that ensued at the rally.
"It is shocking and really angering to see the level of collusion and the amount to which the police covered up for the Nazis. The people who were victimized by the Nazis were then victimized by the police and the district attorneys," Yvette Felarca, one of the activists, told the Guardian.
The Guardian's report on the documents comes after rising concerns about police bias against African-Americans throughout the country, and the emboldening of white supremacists amid President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and his administration.
The TWP is "intimately allied with neo-Nazi and other hardline racist organizations" and reportedly brought more than 100 white nationalists to the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last summer.
At the Sacramento rally the group organized in June 2016, dozens of TWP members gathered outside the state capitol building, while counter-protesters lead by Antifa organizers staged a "shut down Nazi rally." Ensuing clashes ended with ten people sustaining injuries including stab wounds and head traumas; nine of the ten were anti-racism activists.
A CHP report in the case filings showed that an investigator recommended one of the injured protesters, an African-American male who was stabbed in the chest, abdomen, and hand, be charged with 11 offenses. As evidence, the officer submitted information about the man's "support for anti-racist activism."
Felarca was also one of those injured. She was charged with assault and inciting a riot, with information about her activism on behalf of women and people of color submitted as evidence of her wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, one stabbing victim identified TWP organizer Derik Punneo as the person who had injured him. Punneo was armed with a knife at the rally, CHP noted, but police did not pursue charges for him regarding the violence.
According to audio recordings, police told Punneo "We're pretty much going after them. We're looking at you as a victim."
"This is a textbook case of a political witch-hunt and selective prosecution," Shanta Driver, one of Felarca's attorneys, told the Guardian.
The three activists who were charged are seeking a dismissal of the case, citing the biased investigation into the violence.
Originally appeared in Common Dreams | Photo: Kevin Cortopassi/Flickr/cc
