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Tuesday, police arrested Yvette Felarca, a Berkeley middle-school teacher who is one of the leaders of the Antifa group By Any Means Necessary. Felarca is charged with inciting a riot last June in Sacramento, CA. From Berkeleyside: “Felarca was captured on video hitting a member of the Traditional Worker’s Party, a white supremacist group that had taken out permits for a rally on the west steps of the state capitol. Felarca, a member of the group By Any Means Necessary, and other counter-protesters blocked the rally by chasing and hitting and even stabbing members of the Traditional Worker’s Party.” This video appears to show Felarca punching a protester in the stomach before other members of her group jump him.
This was just a small portion of the violence that took place that day. From the Associated Press: “Fourteen people had stab wounds, cuts and bruises after more than 300 counter-protesters, many of them wearing masks, confronted about 30 members of the Traditionalist Worker Party in June 2016. Two of the injured people survived critical stabbings.” -- “A KCRA-TV reporter and his cameraman were confronted by protesters who shouted “no cameras” as they grabbed at their equipment.” -- “The stabbings and the assault on the TV crew were clearly felonies, but no charges can be filed because investigators never learned who was responsible, Grippi said.”
After eight months of investigation, the California Highway Patrol released a 2,000-page report on the melee. From Berkleyside: “The report lists 514 misdemeanor and 68 felony violations involving 106 people relating to everything from unlawful assembly to assault with a deadly weapon, according to a prepared statement.” -- “The CHP said its investigators “faced several challenges” as they did their work. Authorities said, in particular, many people involved with the rally tried “to disguise their identities and did not cooperate with investigators.”
In the end, just four people were arrested in connection with the riot. William Planer, who was with the Traditional Worker’s Party. Porfirio Paz, Michael Williams and Felarca were all counter-protesters, i.e. Antifa. Felarca has also been involved in several other protests which turned violent including the protests against a speaking appearance by Milo Yiannopoulis at Berkeley earlier this year. Here she is giving a local media interview after the Berkeley riot.