Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Balboa Park for a "march against hate" in a show of solidarity with anti-racist and anti-fascist activists in Charlottesville, San Francisco and Berkeley.
Sunday’s rally coincides with two alt-right rallies that were planned in San Francisco and Berkeley this weekend but were canceled at the last minute. Organizers said hostility from local politicians and leftist activists made the situation too dangerous. Counterprotesters, who had shown out in large numbers, rallied and rejoiced.
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The rallies come two weeks after a white nationalist and white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia left one counter protester and two police officers dead.
Melanie Redden, an organizer of Sunday’s rally in San Diego, said the goal of the march was to build community and strengthen San Diegans' ability to organize against "overt white supremacy and the covert structural systemic white supremacy" in the United States.
"Ten KKK members, alt-right, white supremacists — whatever they want to call themselves — want to gather publicly in the streets and dare do so without masks," she said. "Thousands of us are going to stand up and say no that’s not OK. That's not right."
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Nicole D’Angelo, San Diego resident, said she attended the demonstration because she believes hate does not make America great again.
“We want Americans to know that Neo-Nazis — who are against racial, sexual or religious groups — that’s not what America is about," she said. "We are a nation of diverse people from all over the world, nationalities, sexual orientations, and that’s what makes America great.”
The rally kicked off at 1 p.m. in front of the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. Demonstrators marched from the Museum of Man to Horton Plaza downtown.
There were no arrests related to the protest, according to Officer John Buttle of the San Diego Police Department.
Buttle also said he was unaware of any counter-protesters.
