30 August, 2017
The masked anarchists, described by some media as antifascists, attacked Gibson with pepper spray.
Mr. Gibson, who was ultimately rescued by Berkeley police, had cancelled Patriot Prayer's Freedom Rally, which had been scheduled for Saturday in San Francisco, saying he feared leftist protest groups like the antifa and By Any Means Necessary would turn it into a "huge riot". Confronting them would have risked escalating the violence and jeopardising the safety of the peaceful protesters, Mr Greenwood said.
There was "no need for a confrontation over a grass patch", Greenwood said.
Thousands gathered Sunday in response to a planned anti-Marxism protest that was canceled amid concerns demonstrators might be attacked.
Berkeley police also made 13 arrests, including one for assault with a deadly weapon. The assaults were witnessed by an Associated Press reporter.
Police in the San Francisco area have been braced for violence and trying to prevent protests that draw left-wing and right-wing opponents since the deadly confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12 that occurred during a rally of white supremacists.
One officer was injured during an arrest, police said, and others were hit with paint.
Even though the right-wing gathering was canceled, thousands of protesters from both the left and the right showed up, CNN affiliate KGO reported.
At one point, an anti-rally protester denounced a Latino man holding a "God Bless Donald Trump" sign. "You should be ashamed of yourself". The violence was swift but brief, and among those targeted was Joey Gibson, leader of the right-wing organization Patriot Prayer that had called off a demonstration a day earlier in San Francisco.
Alt-right figure Johnny Benitez, who flew in from Southern California, was escorted out by Berkeley police to a vehicle, along with Irma Hinojosa, a member of the Southern California group Latinos for Trump.
"I applaud the more than 7,000 people who came out today to peacefully oppose bigotry, hatred and racism that we saw on display in Charlottesville", Berkely Mayor Jesse Arreguin said on his Facebook page. "No KKK. No fascist USA" and carried signs that said: "Berkeley Stands United Against Hate".
Mr Heal, who helped the University of California, Berkeley, prepare for unrest ahead of an appearance by the politically conservative author Ann Coulter in April, said he believe it was the right decision.
Newly appointed University of California, Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ said the campus would be prepared.
"Black Bloc was trying to provoke the police", said Arreguin.
Berkeley is a hotbed of political protest and UC Berkeley is where the free-speech movement started in the 1960s.