Prosecutors have in the past vehemently denied that the investigation was biased and have said in filings that stabbing victims have not been cooperative.
The Guardian previously interviewed two victims who were injured, then pursued by police – Cedric O'Bannon, a
black journalist and stabbing victim who ultimately was not charged, and
Yvette Felarca, a well-known Berkeley activist whose case is moving forward on Thursday. Previous records also revealed that
police had worked with the neo-Nazi groups to target the anti-racist activists.
The records disclosed this week provided new details about six other stabbing and beating victims who were treated as suspects by police after the rally in Sacramento, which was organized by a neo-Nazi group called the Traditionalist Worker party (TWP) and an affiliated California group, the Golden State Skinheads.
Lawyers analyzed more than a hundred police reports, finding that the California highway patrol (CHP) investigated 22 men affiliated with TWP and recommended no charges for 17 of them, including some who police said were holding knives.
For every anti-fascist protester police could identify, however, law enforcement pursued charges, including against people who were not accused of any violence and were simply attending the counter-demonstration alongside other activists, defense attorneys wrote. Those activists were accused of "unlawful assembly".
One anti-fascist was stabbed in the abdomen by an "unknown TWP affiliate", according to a CHP report, which included graphic images of the protester's bloody injuries. But because this individual had a "wooden skateboard" that could be used as a "deadly weapon" as well as a "black bandana" to conceal their face, police recommended more than a dozen criminal charges, including conspiracy, assault, rioting, and disturbing the peace. This person was questioned by police at a hospital.
