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Police Will Not Investigate Brawl At Pro-Trump Rally In Huntington Beach
California State Parks police have announced Tuesday that they will not investigate attacks on an OC Weekly reporter and two photographers at a pro-Trump rally that turned violent on Saturday morning at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach. According to the Parks police, no calls for arrests have been made.
The pro-Trump supporters clashed with counter-protesters after a pro-Trump supporter shoved an OC Weekly reporter. In the clash the ensued, Jennifer Sterling, one of the pro-Trump march's organizers, was pepper-sprayed by an alleged anarchist, and the clash grew more violent for there.
“I grabbed [the American flag] and threw it to the ground and then [Jennifer Sterling] grabs my arm,” photographer Brian Feinzimer told the LA Times of the altercation that led to the larger clash. “It just got so chaotic. There was so much rage and anger in the air.”
“It didn’t look like the cops were interested in doing anything at all,” Angie LaPorte-Domkus, one of the OC Weekly staff attacked on Saturday, told the Orange County Register. “They were just standing there watching.”
On Monday, California State Parks Police Capt. Kevin Pearsall said that during the 30-minute tussle officers witnessed “a lot of people punching."
“When you have that many people going at the same time, it’s difficult,” Pearsall continued. “We went into this with the thinking that if a situation became life-threatening, we would act.”
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The Parks police arrested four people on Saturday, including one person on suspected illegal use of pepper-spray, but it seems all four have since been released.
Jennifer Marlatt, a spokeswoman for the Huntington Beach Police Department has noted that the department did not seek to make any further arrests or open an investigation either. “Everything was handled by State Parks."
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