White supremacists spreading racism, hatred in US: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Richard Becker, with the ANSWER Coalition from San Francisco, to discuss violence and stabbing during a neo-Nazi protest in Sacramento, California, which left at least 10 people injured.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: There are a number of political and activist groups very concerned about the direction which the US is headed in with the rise in racism and hate. Your thoughts?

Becker: Well, hundreds of people and mostly young people, although I was one of the older people who was there today, came to denounce and condemn these fascists and who are really white supremacist, extreme racist. They call themselves now the Traditionalist Workers Party. That’s a new name, but it’s the same old group that’s the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis.

And they come spreading a message of hate, a message of violence against people of color, against anybody who doesn’t agree with them. And hundreds of hundreds of people came out today probably 15 or 20 times as many counter protestors were there and they were overwhelmingly, as I said, young people – a very diverse group of young people – and who were very, very determined to stop the fascists from spreading their message.

Press TV: You were there, there’s a bunch of people hurt and some seven people ended up in the hospital, a couple are in critical condition, I was going to say that, you were there, why weren’t the police there in advance? Usually when there’s hate groups on the streets, there’s a lot of police around, how was there no arrest made today?

Becker: Well, I don’t know, but there was a huge number of police there. There were police on horses, police on bicycles, police in vehicles and in armored cars and a huge number of police on foot. And what we saw a few months ago, about four months ago, in Anaheim, California, was a Ku Klux Klan demonstration and the people in that neighborhood, a Latino neighborhood, overwhelming the Latino, came out and rejected them, protested against them and several people were stabbed.

And after that happened, and this is very important to today, all of the people who did the stabbing who were the Klan members, the charges were dropped against them and only the counter protestors were charged. And I think that that sent a message to these fascist groups that ‘bring your knives’ at the next time and today was the next time. And I didn’t actually witness the moment of people being stabbed but I was there right after two African-American men were stabbed, another one who was a member of our organization was severely beaten by a group of fascist and pepper-sprayed by them. And we don’t know exactly the number of people who have been injured.

Press TV: How much has Western media contributed to this rise of hate groups, hate crimes, the spread of Islamophobia and this hostility toward refugees especially when you hear figures like Ted Cruz and more importantly Donald Trump encourage these people to come out of the woodworks throughout the country?

Becker: There is no question about that. Trump’s anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, his bigotry, his racism has given great, great encouragement to these kind of organizations, spurred them forward. They say so themselves where every time they talk to a reporter that whether Trump wins or not the Trump’s message of mainstreaming this message of hatred and racism and violence has given them a big boost and we’re seeing the consequences, but people are going to fight back against that, guaranteed.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk