More than 1,000 rally to protect Chicano Park from white supremacists

A group of about 60 alt-right and white supremacists rallied at Chicano Park on Super Bowl Saturday, urinating on murals and shouting anti-Latino taunts. They were met by about 1,000 supporters of the park who gathered to defend its iconic murals listed in the National Historical Registry
Border Patriots, an alt-right white supremacist organization, teamed up with Patriot Fire leader Roger Ogden to march on Chicano Park with the stated purpose of “removing” the murals and “reclaiming the park for real Americans.” Ogden alleges “Chicano Park is racist against whites and excludes Americans.”
It was the second time in five months that white supremacists summoned demonstrators to Chicano Park with the intent to deface and damage its collection of murals.
Dozens of San Diego Police officers formed a human barrier down Logan Avenue to separate the white nationalists from members of the rally. Ogden and his followers shouted insults and taunts at members of the rally across the street. Some Chicano members of the rally returned the taunts, but there was no physical violence. About 60 volunteers from Chicano organizations in brown, red or yellow t-shirts urged members of the rally to be peaceful, dignified and not engage the white supremacists.
“Keep it classy, brothers,” urged a man wearing the t-shirt and headgear of the Brown Berets, a Chicano organization that supports and protects Chicano Park. “Let those guys be the bad guys. Stay peaceful, stay cool.”
Chicano Park Steering Committee organized with Union del Barrio and the Brown Berets to ensure the park’s safety throughout the weekend, according to steering committee officer Olympia Beltran. Organizers promoted a message of peace and encouraged Chicano Park supporters to not fall for the patriots’ antagonism. Most participants in the rally enjoyed live music, food, Aztec dancers and a history lesson on the cultural significance of the park. Clergy from an array of faiths blessed the crowd with burning sage and incense.
Beltran, a nurse, was consulted by the Chicano Park Steering Committee because of the crowd control methods she learned at the Standing Rock demonstrations in North Dakota. When Beltran was not singing the “Women’s Warrior Song” throughout the park, she was leading the medical tent inside the rally. She said people were paired off, one traditional healer and one person specializing in modern medicine. While they came prepared for the potential of violence, Beltran said part of the day’s beauty was watching healers give out massages since there were no injuries to tend to.
“We used the medicine to keep that energy focused, grounded,” Beltran said. “Those songs, bringing in that ancestral knowledge, the ancestors’ medicine, that is the most powerful medicine we could bring into that moment. Anyone who wanted to focus on negativity and anger and conflict, that medicine overpowered any of that energy. That was the tool we used to keep our community members focused on why we were there. And it worked.”
Patriot Picnickers on the east side of Logan Avenue blasted hardcore metal music and country with right wing, anti-immigrant themes. They frolicked and danced in outfits made from American flags, gas masks and bulletproof vests.
After about an hour and a half of flag waving, name calling and obscene gestures, the white supremacists packed up to leave the park. SDPD escorted them out behind basketball courts and across Cesar Chavez Parkway, which was still closed to traffic and pedestrians. A Native American singer and three drummers serenaded the supremacists with a song of peace and well wishes as others applauded the departure.
Local activist Ryan Stray, 27, said it was a beautiful day of resistance and thanked the Chicano Park Steering Committee for its organizational efforts. He also said those who wanted to protect the park all followed orders from the co-sponsoring organizations, which included the Brown Berets, Union del Barrio, Party of Socialism and Liberation, and Workers World Party. Stray said the defenders wore bandanas across their faces to prevent being doxxed, a form of attack where extremists will film protests and post videos online with the intention of finding activists’ private information to intimidate or harm them.
“People should take the social media precautions they feel necessary,” he said. “Some of us are going to be taking the bandanas off if we can. It’s easy for an enemy to put one on and smash a window, and say it was us.”
Fernanda, a member of Union del Barrio, said she was there to defend the park and community. She said people at the park were ready for whatever the day threw at them.
“We came here to have a good time,” she said. “We don’t want to feed hate with hate.”
SDPD arrested three white supremacists for illegal possession of weapons and public disturbance. A supremacist protester who said he was a minister was detained, but not arrested, for publicly urinating on a Chicano Park mural. Police confiscated knives, stun guns, steel-tipped flagpoles and mace from supremacists.
An unarmed teen was pepper-sprayed by a white nationalist and treated at a medical tent within the park. Beltran and other medical volunteers provided care for the boy.
No member of the Chicano Park support rally was arrested.
Arantxa Calles, 21, said getting involved politically is essential to oppose the fascist regime America is now under.
“It can be scary to organize, but it’s incredibly important to be more involved,” she said. “The people who are affecting your life and making the choices that affect you are organized and involved.”