Some 100 anti-Israel protesters blocked an intersection in El Cerrito, in the San Francisco area, for more than an hour on Jan. 6, “while a small group of counter-protesters stood on the sidewalk holding Israeli flags,” the El Cerrito Police Department stated.
“Many callers reported pushing and shoving, and language they deemed threatening, but one incident in particular was clearly of a criminal nature,” the police department stated. “A male protester pushed a woman down to the ground from behind, causing a minor injury, and took her Israel flag from her hands by force. He then burned the flag in the street.”
The department, which shared three photos of the suspect, said it is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
The person depicted in the images wears a jean jacket, burgundy button-down shirt, black hat, black backpack and keffiyeh covering his face. He holds a camera in one photo and, apparently, a sign in two others.
“We are still pursuing some investigative leads,” Paul Keith, chief of the El Cerrito Police Department, told JNS on Tuesday. “We hope to have some additional information in the coming weeks.”
