There were a few disturbing incidents in the lead-up to the rally in Martinez on the 11th.

In late June, white supremacist fliers calling Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization and saying “We (whites) our[sic] the chisen[sic] people” (probably meaning to say “We are the chosen people”) were found near downtown. The fliers may be associated with the infamous neo-Nazi forum Stormfront.

On July 4th, David Nelson and Nicole Anderson vandalized a permitted Black Lives Matter mural in front of the Contra County Courthouse.

“I’ve never in my life seen the cops get so scared that they turned away from protesters and were facing Nazis with their batons out,” Jen said. “Never seen that shit. That never happens. At least not down here.”

On Monday, protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally in Norco, a city in Riverside County, California was overwhelmed by violent racists. Some of the fascist mob beat BLM protesters and brandished weapons at them.

LCRW spoke to “Sam” and “Jen,” two attendees of the rally. Both gave their accounts of the ordeal using aliases out of fear of being targeted by local neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists.

On the streets this week, they held signs calling for businesses to opened back up–public health be damned. But behind closed virtual doors, they’re talking about getting armed.

Nearly 100 protestors, mostly small business-owners and church-goers, gathered in Courthouse Park in Sonora Wednesday to protest the stay-at-home order to slow the spread of COVID-19.

If you’ve only ever been to Stanford’s campus in the dark, it’s a hell of a maze to try to navigate. Luckily, I found the auditorium quickly because of the chanting.

This is an updated version of a story that ran yesterday. It includes an interview with the activist at the center of the incident and information from police documents.

“The pride festival was over, and initially we were just trying to walk from it to other local festivities. We hear the religious protesters,” Marcello recounts, “So Angie asks me if I’m uncomfortable hearing them and if we should leave or do something.”

In Angie’s video, her friend Marcello, a queer activist in a tie-dye shirt, holds a trans pride flag and dances around in front of a bearded street preacher with a red tie and a suit vest. Angie said that she and Marcello and went to confront them outside of the Capitol Building and that other activists joined in to counter-protest.

“Repent! God will judge you if you do not repent and you will end up in hell! We love you but God is just!” the preacher booms through a PA system.

“How many people do we have on the livestream so far?” Laura Loomer asks, standing on the sidewalk by the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento. It’s Wednesday January 30th.

On January 19th the “Alpha March” is set to counter what its organizers call the “Anti-American haters” of the nation-wide Womens’ March.

“They might be a women’s organization that is paid & funded by leftist foundations but we have the man power to march along side our real women’s National Community of Alpha’s who know how to respect our American Constitution & do not need to indoctrinate our youth to get our point across!” the description of the event reads.

Ollie Cline’s band, White Lighter, is having some bad luck lately. Last month, they were booted from historic Berkeley venue 924 Gilman. Two other Bay Area venues cancelled their shows shortly after.