On Saturday afternoon, anti-Trump protesters gathered in Santa Monica, California. As some background, the march was planned by a group called Refuse Fascism, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, is staunchly anti-Trump. The group worked with the Revolutionary Communist Party and similarly left, nonviolent organizations. Among other things, Refuse Fascism wants to boot the Trump administration. It even launched the “Out Now” pro-impeachment campaign. Nice.
A handful of Trump supporters showed up to this protest as well, and things got ugly. How ugly? A man in a MAGA hat released bear repellent into the crowd. Yes: Bear spray.
According to Santa Monica police Sgt. D. Hicks, after about ten minutes of the two groups going back and forth with chants and rants, “everything went to crap.”
On Sunday, police confirmed they arrested the MAGA-hat-wearing man on felony charges for violating parole, using a prohibited tear gas weapon, and assaulting the crowd using a chemical. The 32-year-old man’s name is David Nicholas Dempsey, as reported by the Washington Post.
Videos of the attack (which are embedded at the bottom of this post) have gone viral. It’s admittedly hard to tell who started what—there’s a lot of pushing and chaos at the scene. But regardless, releasing bear spray into a crowd is not only clearly illegal but legitimately dangerous.
Dempsey, as seen on video, approached an anti-Trump protester, who was being held on the ground by Trump supporters, and sprayed him with the repellent. He also called anti-Trump protesters “f—king libtards” and “commies.”
According to Rolling Stone, police believe another man may have also sprayed the crowd. According to NBC Los Angeles, five people were treated on-site, but no people had serious injuries.
Here’s a clip that’s been going viral on Twitter:
Here’s the longer video that’s been going viral on YouTube: