“A crowd of White Lives Matter protesters and antiracism counterprotesters filled the streets near the Huntington Beach pier on Sunday but quickly dispersed after police declared an unlawful assembly amid increasingly hostile clashes among Donald Trump supporters, those displaying allegiance to white supremacist groups and their opponents.” - LA Times

I heard about this “White Lives Matter” rally the week before when TV news reported the KKK had allegedly spread fliers around part of Huntington Beach announcing the event.  When I saw this, I was immediately suspicious, the timing for the rally made no sense and you just never hear of the KKK taking credit for anything anywhere now.  “HB” is a blue color surf town that was known in part for their Skin Heads back in the day, many of whom I know you could classify as White Supremacists.  Those guys are in their 50’s and 60’s now, less likely to be out trying to start something, but I have no doubt most would be willing to finish something for anyone stupid enough to mess with them or their town.

I expected this event to be a hoax so when the protest, and BLM counter protests were scheduled to start so I stayed at home and monitored the on-line the surf and traffic cameras by the pier for anything starting.  It took a couple hours but eventually crowds gathered so I left the house to go over and see if there was anything to photograph.  I had to park West of the pier and when I was walking towards Main Street, I ran in to the mounted unit by the HBPD downtown substation.  A crowd was gathering so I stayed there and didn’t try to make it over to the area where the few arrests were apparently made.  The location was also good because I had a great escape route back to my truck if things got ugly.

What I witnessed was something completely different than the four LA Times writers wrote about.  As you can see in my photographs I did not see anyone who was an obvious Donald Trump supporter. At my location I saw a collection of BLM activists from out of town who were there to provoke an incident.  I eavesdropped as the most antagonistic protester gave her name to some poser “press photographer” who photographed her.  She was proud of herself for flipping off the horses and wanted her name spelled correctly.  I looked her up on-line later and saw she was a BLM activist from Los Angeles with just over a thousand followers who mostly retweeted other people’s stuff.  After seeing the interaction of everyone I believe she and or her friends created the “White Lives Matter” rally to draw a crowd and give them an excuse to counter protest for some attention.  Some people who support White Pride showed up thinking it was a real rally and those were the one’s who got caught up in any conflict. There was no obvious organizer taking credit or leading the even on the White Lives Matter side. Most of what I saw was very uneventful.  A couple locals tried to debate the counter protestors, but they just got profane responses without substance.  I focused on photographing the fake press corps and others who came looking to be part of something that wasn’t.  Eventually HBPD gave the “Unlawful Assembly” announcement and I left. 

The photograph of the skateboarder in front of the Police Mounted Unit made the trip more than worth it.  It has become one of my favorite images this year.  It was also good to witness an event like this in person and contrast what I saw with how the media reported on it.  The LA Times headline about the event is a joke and it is sad they sent four reporters and two of their best photographers to cover something like this.  It convinces me that someone else, not White Supremacists, was responsible for trying to create this incident.  HBPD was professional, they always are, and most HB locals just wanted the tourists to leave, like they always do.