Summary
Authorities in San Francisco and Berkeley are planning a large show of force this weekend at two right-wing rallies, enlisting hundreds of officers each day in a bid to prevent violence from erupting in the wake of the killing of an antiracism protester in Charlottesville, Va.
While urging people to stay home, officials on both sides of the bay said Tuesday that they were boosting staffing and bringing in outside help to ensure order among what could be dueling crowds at Saturday’s Patriot Prayer rally at Crissy Field and Sunday’s No Marxism in America event at Berkeley’s Civic Center Park.
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“There obviously needs to be a strong police presence,” said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford criminal justice professor and a co-director of the university’s Criminal Justice Center. “With good motives or bad, a member of one group can mix in with the other and cause trouble. You can’t stop that. That means police have to be right there on the spot to detect that and neutralize it.”
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