BERKELEY, Calif. — Hundreds of people waving American flags and chanting “USA” gathered peacefully Thursday for a rally at a park in Berkeley — home of the free speech movement — to protest a canceled appearance by conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
Police in riot gear had prepared for possible violence between supporters and opponents of Coulter, but there were no major confrontations as the raucous rally wrapped up in the late afternoon.
Still, Berkeley student Joseph Pagadara, 19, said he had been worried about violence and added that the university is caught in the middle of the country’s political divide. “Both sides are so intolerant of each other. We are a divided country. We need to listen to each other but we’re each caught in our own bubbles,” he said.
As for Coulter, Pagadara said the university should have let her speak. “Now she’s making herself look like the victim and Berkeley like the bad guys,” he said.
University police erected barricades and refused to let any protesters enter the campus. Six people were arrested — one for obstructing an officer and wearing a mask to evade police, and another for possessing a knife.
Coulter previously said she was forced to cancel a speaking event at the University of California, Berkeley, although she added that she might still “swing by to say hello” to her supporters, prompting police and university officials to brace for possible trouble. She was not spotted at the rally.
The tension illustrates how Berkeley has emerged as a flashpoint for extreme left and right forces amid the debate over free speech in a place where the 1960s U.S. free speech movement began before it spread to college campuses across the nation.
While the afternoon rally ended without serious conflict, police at one point formed a human wall in the street separating anti-Trump protesters from the park where pro-Trump groups were gathered.
Anti-Coulter protesters at the park held a banner that read: “It’s not about ‘free speech,’ it’s about bigots trying to normalize hate.”
Earlier in the day, dozens of police wearing flak jackets and carrying 40 mm launchers that shoot “foam batons” flanked Sproul Plaza while a small group of protesters condemning Coulter staged a small rally outside campus.
Officers took selfies with students in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice Media and founder of the pro-Trump “Proud Boys,” spoke at the park gathering later in the day. He said America doesn’t have an obligation to take people from other countries.