Berkeley Bike Lock Antifa, Eric Clanton, Gets No Jail Time
Eric Clanton, aka the Bike Lock Basher, received no jail time. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and will face 3 years of probation for his alleged attacks on several individuals with a bike lock. We need to look at how the media is framing the narrative, that its always violent right wingers. In reality the right rarely protests and it is the far left that engages in the bulk of political street conflict Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate)
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Eric Clanton is an anti-fascist activist who earned the moniker the Bike Lock Basher after taking a metal bike lock and bashing several people over the head with it at a rally in Berkeley last year.
4chan figured out who he was, he was tracked down and arrested, charged with four felony counts.
We're now learning that he has pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge, will face no jail time, and will receive three years of probation.
There is a media problem in this country.
It seems the narrative is always that the right is the violent side, and I don't really understand why, because in my experience, conservatives don't actually protest all that often.
But we keep seeing stories from people claiming that it is violent, fascistic white supremacists and right-wingers who are coming out to commit acts of violence.
Yet time and time again, the evidence we see is Antifa instigating the fights, harming people, sucker-punching individuals, and generally causing the problem.
I know I made a video about this a few days ago, where I was talking with some other independent journalists in Portland about what we saw at the Portland rally.
But today, I want to take a look at the evidence as to what actually happened in Portland.
And first, we're going to start with the story of Eric Clanton.
From Berkeley's side, Eric Clanton takes three-year probation deal in Berkeley rally bike lock assault case.
In this photo it says, a man police allege to be Eric Clanton holding a bike lock, April 15th, 2017.
A former East Bay College philosophy professor who was charged with four counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, causing great bodily injury, has taken a deal resulting in three years of probation for an attack at a Berkeley protest last year, court records reveal.
Eric Clanton had been linked by police to violent assaults with a metal bike lock during a free speech rally in Berkeley on April 15, 2017.
Before his arrest, Clanton had been outed online on the website 4chan as someone who used a bike lock to strike a man in the head.
The assault was captured in a video clip that drew widespread attention and anger after it was posted on YouTube.
Wednesday, Clanton was supposed to have had his preliminary hearing, where a judge decides whether there's enough evidence in a case for it to move ahead to trial.
Instead, there was no hearing, and information about Clanton's plea deal became available online.
According to Alameda County Superior Court records, Clanton entered a no-contest plea Wednesday to one misdemeanor battery charge.
A no-contest plea means that he's essentially not competing.
He's not going to fight against the court.
he had caused serious bodily injury was stricken.
A misdemeanor charge that Clanton wore a mask during the commission of a crime was also
dropped.
A no-contest plea means that he's essentially not competing.
He's not going to fight against the court.
It doesn't mean he's guilty, and it exists for a reason.
So it is safe to say that Eric Clanton is still allegedly the Biclock Basher, even though
it's reported that police have linked him to these crimes, he did not admit guilt.
But let's move beyond just who this man is and talk about what actually happened, whether or not it was Eric Clanton, and let's take a look at some instances of violence committed by Antifa.
And I want to compare and contrast the news reporting from Portland with what actually happened, and some of this might actually blow your mind, especially when you consider that Right-Wing Watch, a non-profit that tracks right-wing extremism, actually painted a fairly accurate picture, showing Antifa to be the primary aggressors.
First, I want you to take a look at this video, which many of you have probably seen, but some of you may not have.
In the video, you can see this man is on his knees with his hands up as people from the Antifa side take swings over him, swinging at people's cameras.
and after only a few seconds, a black-clad individual strikes him on the top of the head with a bike lock.
The rally in Berkeley was going to be a bunch of speakers standing in a park and talking to each other.
Antifa showed up, and we saw instances like that.
You can't really blame the right-wing side for the violence that took place there when they were just planning on holding a rally in defense of free speech, and then we see this man on his knees with his hands up get struck over the head with a bike lock.
That was just one of the incidents that resulted in Eric Clanton being arrested, but let's move on to Portland.
Because the narrative from many left-wing news sites was that proto-fascists, violent racists, were coming to cause harm to the community.
But the news reporting is actually really interesting.
And again, I did a video about this a few days ago, but we've got some more videos to go through.
The first thing I want to show you is this journalist who is bleeding from the head, apparently, while filming.
Someone threw something that struck him on the head.
He was actually live-streaming, and we have a clip of just when it happened.
You can see that when this is going on, he is on the Antifa side.
The police are engaging in conflict with the protesters, trying to clear them out, and it wasn't the right-wingers who threw something that hit this man.
unidentified
Organized by Patriot Prayer... Joey Gibson.
Holy shit!
Holy shit!
All right, folks, I've got to end the live broadcast.
They say that's what happens when you're a fascist, that's what happens when you come into our town, and you could hear the man in the beginning was saying, because I have a car to get to, and he was hit by a man that was wearing hardened plastic gloves, looks like some kind of motorcycle protection, I'm not entirely familiar.
Someone actually happened to get Here's a really good photo of what actually went down.
And we can see this man has got the hardened plastic knuckles.
And he punched this man in the face while he was talking to somebody.
Again, they said this is what happens when you're a fascist.
But I have footage from inside the rally, where the supposed fascists were actually gathering.
And what do you imagine that looked like?
Actually, it was a young man wearing an anti-Trump t-shirt with his hands up, shaking, trying to argue with some Patriot prayer members, some Proud Boys and Trump supporters, who assured him he would not be harmed in any way.
unidentified
Hey, hey, hey.
Let's have a nice, calm talk.
You're making us look like them by screaming.
No.
I'm using statistics.
I know.
I brought them in over the top.
There's a lot of people talking.
Do you know what happened to farmers because of Trump's tax cut?
He had to give them aid because they started losing money.
You don't have to hold your hands.
No one's going to eat you.
You don't have to hold your hands.
No one is going to harm you.
I know.
You don't have to hold your hands up.
No one's going to harm you.
I'd rather hold my hands up.
It's only the left that's harming.
It's just ridiculous.
It's only the left.
Dude!
Dude!
No one is going to harm you.
I know.
You don't have to hold your hands up.
I know it's getting tiring.
You're on the side that's not violent.
You're on the side that's not violent.
Who did the police officers have to throw flash bombs at today?
Just answer that one question.
Say it again.
Who did the police officers have to throw flash bombs at today?
Yeah, it's not us.
Who did the police officers have to throw flash bombs at today?
Why is it not us?
Just answer that one question. Say it again.
Who did the police officers have to throw flash bombs at today?
Umpteen times.
The counter protesters.
Not me.
Oh, okay, why?
No, no, it's not the counter protesters.
We're not protesting.
No, no, the counter protesters.
So you're inside, right?
You are the protesters.
And why was that?
Why did they have to do that?
Because we just wanted to show you that we are uncomfortable with the way in which you want to engage with,
no, not with hate speech.
Are you kidding me?
The difference between freedom of speech and hate speech.
But once again, we have another video to go through.
This is from Mike Bivens.
It says, And here are some photos from Mike Bivens.
He says, man down.
He's dripping blood from his head.
This is serious.
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So we can see the clear contrast in what happened.
Let me say this.
I don't know if just because this is what I experienced, that's all that happened.
It's entirely possible there were right-wing people who started fights with people on the left, but the right-wing side was rather small and had a pretty good view of the entire rally and what was going on, and many of these anti-Trump protesters had no problems whatsoever.
The anti-fascist side was over a thousand people, so it's not surprising that scuffles like this broke out.
But I want to take a look at the actual reporting from the left to give us a better idea of what happened, because when even right-wing watch portrays a violent left, then something must be wrong with the media narrative.
So in the Huffington Post article it says, violent proto-fascists came to Portland,
the police went after the anti-fascists.
And the one quote I want to highlight is from a demonstrator who said,
when people say there was no violence today between the right and the left,
there was absolutely violence and it was perpetrated by the police on the left.
And then we have the story from the Daily Beast.
Armed Trump supporters march on Portland, beating up opponents and calling for Hillary Clinton's arrest.
But what exactly did Right Wing Watch say about what happened?
At a Portland rally, far-right extremists mingle with mainstay MAGA.
And I gotta admit, this is a very well-done article.
Although there are some biased sections of it, I actually think Jared Holt did a substantially better job reporting on what happened than the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post, and many other mainstream news outlets.
He mentions that at 2 p.m., the Portland Police Bureau announced on a loudspeaker that anti-fascist protesters would need to move west away
from the Patriot Prayer rally, over a loudspeaker police announced they had reports of
weapons held by anti-fascism protesters.
The police never made a similar announcement regarding Patriot Prayer supporters,
although officers did confiscate some weapons from the group.
A lot of people are claiming that Patriot Prayer was armed, like the Daily Beast said,
and that the police never confiscated their weapons, but in fact they did, and there are photos of it.
People are sharing photos of shields and batons with Confederate flags on them, so we know the police did make an attempt to confiscate weapons from Patriot Prayer, and many of these people did in fact give up the weapons and shields they did have.
Antifa, however, was a much larger group, and they were blocking the street, so it's not surprising the police made a move on them.
He accurately mentions that the police told the group to move west, and says, the anti-fascists didn't budge.
Seemingly unprovoked, police fired flashbang grenades toward the crowd and charged toward protesters with a mix of batons, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and more flashbangs, to the cheers of Patriot prayer supporters.
There is now video footage circulating in which Portland police officers seem concerned about squad cars parked within the Antifa crowd.
One of the Antifa protesters was struck in the head by a police projectile breaking through their helmet.
Some people have said that if he wasn't wearing a helmet, he'd probably be dead.
And I think when you see the damage to his skull, and you see the damage to the helmet, that's a fair assessment.
Jared Holt correctly says, After the initial police charge, some counter-protesters
threw projectiles at riot cops, one of which struck an Oregonian reporter.
Police proceeded to use anti-riot rounds to force anti-fascist protesters through the city, further away from Patriot
prayer supporters.
Police declared a civil disturbance, and said protesters who did not vacate the area would be arrested.
And here is Right Wing Watch correctly stating, someone threw something from the anti-facade, hitting a reporter.
The police did warn the protesters, and did tell them to disperse, and then started firing riot control weapons at them.
For whatever reason, I don't know, a lot of people on the left are upset that the police took this action, and there are now protests because of it.
And we'll get to that, but let me look at some more of what Jared Holt said.
At separate points in the day, anti-fascist protesters reportedly attacked Patriot Prayer's
members exiting a transport bus.
Another video shows an anti-fascist protester striking a man with what appears to be a pole,
sending him to the ground, clutching him.
his head. Other reporters witnessed Proud Boys unloading bear mace at anti-fascist
protesters. And we can see this tweet from Brendan O'Connor.
Proud Boys in a truck just sprayed bear mace at Antifa blocking their way,
leaving a street full of coughing, tearing people behind. The media has
repeatedly played cover for Antifa, but it's really interesting that when the police
warn the protesters to clear the streets that they've seen weapons and they must
disperse and they don't do it, they're surprised then when the police move to
clear them out.
But I feel like the problems faced in our cultural civil war are fueled when you have these news reports from sites like the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast claiming it was the right that was violent, that was armed, when that's not really what happened.
When you can see from my video clips that protesters were guaranteed safety and had calm conversations with those on the right.
Why is it that people could go to the right-wing side without fear of harm?
Well, they probably feared harm, but were guaranteed safety, and no fights broke out among them.
But when people walk to the other side, they're sucker-punched.
They're pepper-sprayed.
Now, people on the right were in a truck, and they were blocked, and they pepper-sprayed people.
That I understand.
You know, you don't want people to start banging on your car and starting a fight, and maybe that's the best thing you can do.
I don't know what the solution is.
But I do know that we have seen numerous videos from people who were on the wrong side getting beaten by Antifa.
We saw a journalist get hit over the head with some kind of object who was left bleeding because of Antifa.
And there's a few more instances I want to highlight.
Ford Fisher went to Berkeley afterwards and he said, After I filmed the Antifa break the Marine Corps office window and throw a torch into a dumpster, one of them called a few over to confront me.
They basically told me to leave, implying attack if I didn't.
And then, from the Oregonian, yesterday, protesters stormed Portland City Hall, injuring guards arrests made.
In the story, they say one demonstrator, who was masked and wearing a baseball helmet, smashed a security guard over the head repeatedly with a megaphone.
The guard was seen afterward clutching a bag of ice, a bruise beginning to form on his cheek.
City Hall Security Chief Dorothy Elmore said she was also struck by a protester in the arm.
I'm not going to go through the entire story about what happened at Portland City Hall, but suffice it to say, even after the right has left, Antifa continues to show up attacking and injuring people, bashing a security guard over the head with a megaphone, And I don't see how any of this is acceptable.
We need to have a real conversation about political violence.
For whatever reason, we are not seeing these stories in the mainstream media.
Well, I think a lot of these journalists who work for websites like the Daily Beast and the Huffington Post are Antifa and are playing cover for their friends for their political ideology.
Obviously, many people within the DSA support Antifa, and this is not my opinion.
When I was in Boston last year, I asked the DSA spokesperson why Antifa was there with
clubs, and he refused to disavow.
That may have changed in the future, but that was my experience with them in the past.
You now have many people on the far left that do play cover for Antifa,
and I have to just point out one more time, it's so damn interesting to see right-wing watch,
though they are biased, give a more accurate representation
of what happened in Portland then the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast.
Right-Wing Watch is an activist organization.
They are not a media organization.
I mean, they are, but they're an activist media organization with the intent of highlighting right-wing extremism.
Yet in this instance, they wrote a pretty fair piece highlighting the fact that it was anti-fascists who were attacking Trump supporters for the most part.
So Eric Clanton is getting probation.
A lot of people are upset because they wanted him to get jail time.
But this is how the legal system works.
Have you ever seen the movie Law-Biting Citizen?
You know, you've got, um, Gerard Butler is the dad, his family is murdered, and he's upset that the prosecution offered a plea deal.
And they say sometimes some justice is better than no justice.
I'm not going to say that Eric Clanton definitively did this because he pled no contest, and because the police have only linked him, so as far as it goes right now, these are allegations, but you can believe what you want.
Suffice it to say, three years of probation is pretty serious, and it is unlikely we will see him out with his bike lock in the near future.
But let me know what you think in the comments below.
How do you feel about the ongoing violence that we're seeing on the streets?
Do you think the media is portraying it accurately?
I think I've presented a case that they're not.
Look, when Right Wing Watch is doing a better job than Huffington Post, Huffington Post needs to figure out what the hell they're doing because they're supposed to be the actual news organization.
So anyway, comment below.
We'll keep the conversation going.
Stay tuned.
New videos every day at 4 p.m.
And new videos on my second channel, youtube.com slash timcastnews, starting at 6 p.m.
