“All of this moves in a strategy to further chill dissent, and to clamp down on resistance to the dangerous and aggressive growth of the exact kind of white supremacist violence that we saw this last weekend” in Charlottesville, Virginia, he wrote.Ĭlanton added that his predicament is “just one example of the police doing everything in their power to facilitate and to legitimize the violence and the rhetoric of the so-called alt-right.”

“My case threatens to set a new standard in which right wing extremists can select targets for repression and have police enthusiastically and forcefully pursue them,” wrote. “As a normal person viewing the video, it’s kind of shocking in my opinion,” he said. Ed Spiller told Berkeleyside the videos of the bike lock attack were staggering. Police have not said what role the online sleuthing played in their investigation, but in May, Capt. “Our officers conducted a complete and thorough investigation, which was presented to the District Attorney’s Office for charging,” Coats wrote in an email. In his statement, Clanton alleged that he was told by a Berkeley officer, during an interview at the police station, that “the internet did the work for us.” The 4chan users also congratulated themselves for leading the police to Clanton and cheered his arrest.īPD spokeswoman Officer Jenn Coats said the department would not comment on Clanton’s statement because the case is still going through the court process. Police did search Clanton’s home back in May, and a department official said Clanton had been “under investigation for some time” and that investigators “obtained information from various sources” prior to his arrest. “However, five weeks later the Berkeley police smashed into two houses, held guns to peoples’ heads, handcuffed, verbally abused, and stole the belongings of over a dozen people including books and zines.” Eric Clanton took to the streets with anti-fascists during a season of violence in Berkeley and may spend the next. In an online statement, Clanton wrote “Dealing with an unintelligible internet force smearing and threatening me online was not easy, and created stress to say the least, but I had every expectation that very few people would take them seriously, especially considering the character and credibility of their sources. Antifa on Trial: How a College Professor Joined the Left’s Radical Ranks. According to their Facebook page, BAMN has already declared their intention to be at Berkeley on April 27, the day right-wing pundit Ann Coulter is scheduled to give a speech on immigration.The College Fix on Facebook The College Fix on Twitter The College Fix on Reddit The College Fix on Parler Share on EmailĪ former professor at a California college is claiming the Berkeley Police Department “targeted” him after social media fingered him as the person who bashed a Trump supporter in the head with a bike lock back in April.Įric Clanton, formerly of Diablo Valley College, alleges the Berkeley PD charged him with assault with a deadly weapon based on “far right forum posts” and “unverified youtube videos.” Specifically, Arreguin belongs to an organization named By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), which is a subgroup of Antifa. The anonymous tipster claimed that Clanton has mentioned Arreguin to his family to convince them that he won't get in any real trouble because 'the mayor of Berkeley is 100 percent on our side.' Short for 'anti-fascism' or 'anti-fascist,' Antifa is a radical left-wing organization that thrives on violence and the shutting down of opposing viewpoints to get their message across. One other development in relation to this incident has to do with the aforementioned allegation that Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin is a member of Antifa. This person said that Clanton has gone ahead and, with the help of his family, hired a costly attorney in anticipation of being found and arrested. It's been reported by citizen journalists that Eric now has a lawyer to represent him in the event he's caught.Īn alleged self-described 'anonymous tipster' posted to the Eric Clanton thread of 4chan on April 22.

Diablo valley college eric clanton