The Washington Post is currently a social justice blog dedicated to virtue signaling social justice memes and bringing down the President. So it takes a lot for a headline like this to run.
But here it is.
"Black-clad antifa attack peaceful right wing demonstrators in Berkeley."
Their faces hidden behind black bandannas and hoodies, about a 100 anarchists and antifa — “anti-fascist” — barreled into a protest Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.
Jumping over plastic and concrete barriers, the group melted into a larger crowd of around 2,000 that had marched peacefully throughout the sunny afternoon for a “Rally Against Hate” gathering...A pepper-spray wielding Trump supporter was smacked to the ground with homemade shields. Another was attacked by five black-clad antifas, each windmilling kicks and punches into a man desperately trying to protect himself. A conservative group leader retreated for safety behind a line of riot police as marchers chucked water bottles, shot off pepper spray and screamed “fascist go home!”
New York Magazine, which is very consistently part of the #Resistance, is also none too happy with Antifa, not so much because of the violence, but because the violence "plays" into the hands of the right. Which is the left's usual, tactical response to its own extremism. The left doesn't disagree with its own extremism. It just finds it tactically inconvenient. Sometimes.
Antifa Beats Up Trump Supporters, Fuels Right-Wingers
On Sunday afternoon, members of the black-clad, left-wing group Antifa violently attacked some pro-Trump demonstrators in the liberal redoubt of Berkeley, California. Thirteen people were arrested and two were hospitalized.
The violence ended quickly, and the vast majority of the day’s events were peaceful. Nevertheless, images of defenseless Trump supporters being mobbed by their ideological nemeses lent stark visual support to the conservative narrative that Antifa is a menace equivalent to white nationalism.
In short, the mainstream left now would like Antifa to go away, because it's convenient. But unless cities like Berkeley start enforcing the law, that won't happen. And no amount of weak protestations will change that.