A meeting of opposing groups at the University of California, Berkeley, resulted in four arrests after violence erupted in an “empathy tent” on Tuesday, Sept. 27.
Byron White, a public information officer with the Berkeley Police Department, said he could not disclose the details of the arrests that took place, but did confirm that prominent Antifa extremist and national organizer for By Any Means Necessary, Yvette Felarca, was arrested for attacking right-wing demonstrator Kyle Chapman.
Other media reports say Felarca was in the tent when a fight broke out.
Felarca, 47, spurred headlines during protests in Sacramento last year after she and other members of the far-left extremist group swarmed and began beating an anti-communist demonstrator in front of police.
Felarca, who is often described as a teacher at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School—though her name does not appear on its list of teachers—was charged with battery and resisting arrest.
The incident took place at a free speech demonstration that was organized after an earlier “Free Speech Week” event was canceled. That event was supposed to feature right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, a former editor with Breitbart News.
Berkeley Police say Eddy Robinson, 47, of Oakland, was also arrested on charges of participating in a riot and resisting arrest, and Ricky Joseph Monzon, 20, of Las Vegas, was arrested for carrying a banned weapon.
Berkeley has seen many similar arrests in recent days as the college campus and surrounding areas have become a battleground between right-wing free speech advocates and left-wing groups such as Antifa looking to snuff out any connected events.
Felarca has argued on Fox News that such events and those that support them are members of a wider movement intent on genocide and therefore require preemptive and forceful suppression.
Supporters of the free speech events, including organizer Joey Gibson, have pledged to continue holding such events until free speech is honored at Berkeley.
Gibson had enthusiastically promoted the event in advance, describing it as potentially historic and asking attendees to bring a positive attitude.
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