Miscellaneous
Jesse Arreguin was a progressive activist in Berkeley California, before serving on the City Council. In 2015, he defeated seven other candidates, to become at the age of 32, the youngest mayor in Berkeley’s history. He was mayor in 2017, the year seven violent extremist events occurred in Berkeley, featuring extreme clashes between the far right and far left. The events shone a national spotlight in a city so famous for the Free Speech Movement of the 1960’s on the problem of extremism and the challenges of balancing freedom of speech with public safety. In this interview, Arreguin talks about how the city learned to handle these events and his own controversial proposals to deem anti-fascist “Antifa” activists as a gang.