Paul Makarushka

The Antifa direct action on Jan. 9, 2021 in Pacific Beach

San Diego’s groundbreaking Antifa criminal conspiracy case was reinforced on May 23 when a grand jury indicted eleven alleged Antifa militants with conspiracy to riot and various assault charges, for the attacks on pedestrians in Pacific Beach last year.

Invitation to shut down Patriot March

According to the indictment, defendants attacked 19 victims, a dog, and uncounted numbers of police officers in eleven separate incidents. “On or about January 2, 2021, Antifa supporters posted on social media calling for ‘counterprotesting’ and direct action in response to a scheduled political demonstration in Pacific Beach on January 9, 2021. Defendants and other uncharged coconspirators confirmed their support and participation by showing up in Pacific Beach on January 9, 2021, dressed in black clothing, and armed with weapons and protective gear, before participating in the violence...”

A prosecutor revealed in a court filing that defendant Jesse Cannon is an administrator for the Twitter account @SDAgainstFash. According to the Black Bloc Guide posted by @SDAgainstFash, Antifa’s use of masks and black attire is a tactic meant to conceal those who would commit violence.

The San Diego Union Tribune quoted @SDAgainstFash in a story about Trump supporters in January last year saying, “We believe there is significant public benefit to exposing racist, hateful, violent attitudes and actions…”

@SDAgainstFash had tweeted a picture of a can of Twisted Tea.

Perhaps the U-T reporters didn’t notice that on January 6 last year, @SDAgainstFash tweeted “Abolish the police and burn the Capitol” and retweeted “Storming the Capitol is good and valid.”

On January 2 of last year, @SDAgainstFash invited counterprotesters to “shut down” a Patriot March planned that January 9, calling it a “fascist rally.” The call to arms was echoed across many Antifa social media sites. The San Diego Antifascists Facebook page stated in its About section, “We will not let this scum assemble without a fight.”

Antifa militants were promised the opportunity to fight an army of fascists, but when they arrived in Pacific Beach, their “infernal twin” was not there. Instead, they attacked a dogwalker, a bicyclist, women, children, the elderly, people wearing American flags on their clothing, and a photojournalist who failed to salute them with support. The Patriot March they came to shut down did not even start until hours after they started attacking people.

On January 6 last year, @SDAgainstFash tweeted “Abolish the police and burn the Capitol.”

The U-T portrayed the unprovoked attacks on bystanders at the beach as if it was a mutual clash between “antifascists” and “pro-Trump protesters,” despite their own headline picture showing a large group of armed militants dressed in black attacking a lone woman.

Among other weapons, Antifa militants brought a stockpile of Twisted Tea cans to be used as projectiles. @SDAgainstFash had tweeted a picture of a can of Twisted Tea with the Patriot March flyer behind it and the words “F___ Nazis” above it.

At the most recent court hearing for Antifa defendants, on June 7, prosecutor Makenzie Harvey told a judge the alcoholic beverage Twisted Tea has special significance to the group, and members put its logo on their weapons.

Jesse Cannon at gun show

According to the grand jury indictment, Jesse Cannon and three others threw cans of Twisted Tea at victims. Another uncharged co-conspirator used a baseball bat with the Twisted Tea logo on it as a weapon.

The grand jury indicted Cannon with one count of conspiracy to commit a crime and seven counts of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury. Cannon was already facing a felony charge for an alleged offense against police officers on Halloween 2020.

According to the indictment, Cannon pointed out four victims to other coconspirators and “initiated an attack by yelling, ‘Proud boy killa!’” Video footage posted on three different Twitter accounts shows a large mob of Antifa dressed in black bloc attire move toward four people wearing American flag face coverings and attacking them without provocation, beating a woman to the ground. An Antifa militant wearing a safari hat with a neck flap and face covering, threw a chair at the back of the female victim.

Cannon in his Antifa regalia in a march at Balboa Park in 2017

Roger Ogden

The indictment continues, “Cannon threw a wooden lawn chair at victim’s head and shoulders, striking victim… Cannon threw a glass beer bottle… Cannon threw a can of Twisted Tea…” In the next incident, Cannon allegedly “initiated the attack by shoving victim from his bicycle to the ground.”

Cannon has had confrontations during political rallies over the years. When a crowd of 500 people chased blogger Roger Ogden out of Chicano Park in 2017, Cannon yelled at him, “Your time has come Roger… we’re going to break your camera and your face!”

Cannon once had a table set up at the San Diego County Fair gun show, where he displayed a firearm that looks like a firearm seized by law enforcement during recently executed search warrants from the Antifa criminal conspiracy case. In July 2017 he was a guest on the Redneck Revolt, the official podcast of the John Brown Gun Club, a left-wing group that believes in gun ownership and espouses a “working class liberation” ideology.

Roger Ogden posted a video that same month showing Cannon walking by a pro-Trump counterprotest downtown San Diego, getting chased away, then tracked down by a few Proud Boys looking for a fight. It turned out to be all talk.

Ogden says Cannon aspired to start Antifa in San Diego in August 2017 but didn’t have much of a following. “I saw him in his Antifa regalia in a march at Balboa Park. He only had a fat woman, an older man, and a young transgender kid with him.” Four years later, Cannon had dozens of black bloc militants at his side in Pacific Beach and called out targets for them to attack, it is alleged. Now he’s facing nearly a dozen felonies.

“Nazism and Communism imagine themselves as exact opposites,” Winston Churchill declared in 1937. “They are at each other’s throats wherever they exist all over the world. They actually breed each other…they are similar in all essentials." (“The Infernal Twins”, Collier’s Weekly, July 3, 1937.)