"Anti-Fa" Fascists Strike This Weekend

       Earlier this weekend, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch made a call for more protests and more street violence. She is quoted as saying, in a video which she released: “It has been people, individuals who have banded together, ordinary people who simply saw what needed to be done and came together and supported those ideals who have made the difference. They’ve marched, they’ve bled and yes, some of them died. This is hard. Every good thing is. We have done this before. We can do this again.” We face a long, hot summer.

        Certainly, that is what happened. In response to the March 4 Trump rallies on Saturday, there were reports of violence from all across the nation as "Anti-Fa" fascists attacked Trump supporters. Fox News reported:

       Police in Berkeley, Calif. said 10 people were arrested after Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed during a rally that turned violent and left seven injured. None of the injured was hospitalized. 

       Meanwhile, six people protesting the rally in St. Paul, Minn. were arrested on felony riot charges after they lit fireworks inside the Minnesota State Capitol and fled, police said. About 400 people attended the event, and about 50 people showed up to protest it. 

     In Nashville, two people were arrested as protesters clashed with Trump supporters at the Tennessee Capitol. In Olympia, Wash., state police said four demonstrators were arrested at a support of Trump rally, KOMO-TV reported. The station reported that the demonstrators are accused of assaulting a police officer.

However, the Berkley attacks were apparently the most vicious. The Independent Journal Review provides quite a bit of detail concerning the events there, including that Anti-Fa attacked several men, spraying them with pepper spray and then knocking them to the ground and beating them. The Anti-Fa group also burned an American flag and sign reading "Free Speech."

       This is only the beginning, of course. CBS News reported on an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showing that 7 out of 10 Americans believe the country is losing its identity. What is the nation's identity, however, is split. According to the poll:

       ... Republicans are far more likely to cite a culture grounded in Christian beliefs and the traditions of early European immigrants as essential to U.S. identity. 

       Democrats are more apt to point to the country’s history of mixing of people from around the globe and a tradition of offering refuge to the persecuted.

 Further reading: "Days of Rage"--Status 451.