Patriot Prayer “Cancels” Planned San Francisco Rally
Organizers claim city leaders encouraged white supremacist attendance and plan illegal press conference gathering at Alamo Square.

Patriot Prayer, the group behind Saturday’s planned “Freedom Rally San Francisco,” has cancelled its rally tomorrow at Crissy Field. In an announcement on Facebook Live, organizer Joey Gibson blamed city leaders for the planned attendance of white supremacists, saying that “rhetoric” from city and state leaders encouraged supremacist attendance. Gibson, whose previous statements about the rally allegedly denounced white supremacists, said organizers previously believed attendees would be searched “at the park line” by National Park Police. The cancellation, he claimed, came in response to fears that attendees would show up at Crissy Field with weapons and the capability to incite violence.
The group claims it will instead hold a “press conference” at Alamo Square tomorrow afternoon. Gibson claimed in his Facebook Live presentation that attendees would include all planned speakers and bands. The press conference, he said, would “call out” state and local officials for supporting “violent leftists” and encouraging white supremacist attendance. In response, State Senator Scott Wiener tweeted that the planned press conference is “illegal as they have no permit.”
Though Gibson claims the event explicitly denounced the attendance of white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups, planned events at the rally and prior Patriot Prayer events put that in question. Gibson specifically pointed to the planned attendance of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group allied with known white supremacist leader Richard Spencer. However, Identity Evropa openly attended a Patriot Prayer event in Portland, under Gibson’s supervision. In addition, invited speakers at Freedom Rally San Francisco included violent white supremacist Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, who was jailed today by an Alameda judge for committing acts of violence in Berkeley on March 4th. Chapman, a Daly City resident, was also ordered to stay at least 300 feet away from Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, where a planned “anti-Marxist” rally is taking place on Sunday.
While the Patriot Prayer rally has been cancelled, officials still expect attendees to show up at Crissy Field tomorrow. BART has expanded service in reaction to counter-rallies planned throughout the weekend, and the city held an official Unite Against Hate rally earlier this afternoon.
TL;DR: Gibson’s rationale is clearly bullshit. Patriot Prayer has invited white supremacists before and will do so again. Stay safe this weekend, y’all.
