Correction: A change was made to the title of this article to better reflect the groups involved with the two rallies.
The Bluff Park neighborhood in Long Beach, known for being a quiet neighborhood with little crime, is expected to be the site of a far-right rally, but that has not gone unnoticed by citizens who have already mobilized a counter protest and plan to meet the far right protesters head on in an effort to push them back out of Long Beach.
The initial rally is scheduled to take place at Bluff Park and was originally announced by the United Patriot Nationalist Front, or UPNF.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has dubbed the UPNF a hate group, and points out its ties with Antonio Foreman, a white nationalist activist who marched in Charlottesville at the Unite the Right rally.
When the event for the rally went public on Facebook, many citizens in the city were quick to condemn it, and some formed a coalition of sorts, the Long Beach United Anti-Racist Neighborhood Front, and along with the Long Beach chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America have formed a counter rally called “No White Nationalism in Long Beach.”
One of the original commenters on the event announcement page on Facebook, Brian Addison was very clear on who he thought the group represented, and how he felt about them in Long Beach.
“This, Long Beach should not be dismissed. White supremacists and ultra-nationalists are using our city as a stage,” Addison said.
After the counter rally was announced, UPNF have appeared to change their tactics by first changing their name to Everything Patriot and Tactical.
Which may be temporary because their Facebook page banner and profile picture still contain UPNF insignia.
After the name change, EPAT have also erased, or made private, the event on social media, which has lead members of the counter rally to speculate that the far right group has decided not to hold their rally in Long Beach after all.
According to their Facebook page, The Long Beach United Anti-Racist Neighborhood Front have decide to hold their counter rally anyway, and if the far right rally doesn’t show up, then the Neighborhood Front will consider it a victory.
Many of the business owners in Retro Row, Downtown, or the Bluff Park area of Long Beach either hadn’t heard of the rally, or had only heard of it through passing conversation.
But most of them maintained that far right rhetoric regarding immigration and sanctuary cities would not play well in Long Beach.
Sidney Cramer, owner of Spa Sidney in Bluff Park summed up the common sentiment in a brief phrase, “Those groups don’t really have any business here,” said Cramer referring to the far right groups holding the initial rally.
The Long Beach Police Department has been made aware of the rally and counter rally, but for now have no plans on increasing patrols in the area.
“We are aware of the rally but at this time, we are not increasing patrols in the area. We encourage all members of our community to express their first amendment rights peacefully,” said Officer Jennifer De Prez while giving a prepared statement to the media.
The office of the third district of Long Beach Councilwoman, Suzie Price, who’s district contains most of Bluff Park, have also been made aware of the rallies.
Price holds a similar view as the LBPD, that peaceful expressions of first amendment rights are preferred for all who attend the rallies.
The rally in Long Beach follows a day after another planned rally in Huntington Beach by another far right group, “March to END Sanctuary State”, and that rally too is to be met with resistance in the form of counter rally called, “All Out to Oppose Hatred & White Supremacy”.
According to the rally’s social media page, it is being hosted by Occupy ICE LA, a group that fights against what they consider to be negative policy from ICE and the Trump administration, and Indivisible OC, a group dedicated to holding their values during the years of Trump’s presidency.
Arthur Schaper, a local far right activist is a planned speaker at the far right event in Huntington Beach.
Schaper is well known in Southern California for showing up to town hall or city council meetings and disrupting them with either anti-immigration or anti-sanctuary city rhetoric, which has seen him arrested on a few occasions.
Both rallies are expected to occur on the last weekend in the month of April, with the Huntington Beach rally happening on April 27, and the Long Beach rally happening on the following day on April 28.