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Veteran Berkeley protester to antifa: "try to be braver"

VICE News spoke to a veteran Berkeley protester who claims that antifa is doing it all wrong

Billy McDonald thinks antifa needs to dig deeper for courage. An activist who has openly demonstrated in Berkeley, Calif., for five decades, McDonald says he doesn’t understand the masked protesters infiltrating his city.

“You don’t need a mask,” he said. “And if you’re that afraid that someone is going to hurt you if they see your face, you’ve got to dig deep for courage.”

McDonald grew up protesting the Vietnam War and demonstrating for civil rights in Los Angeles, where people told him and his Marxist mom to “go back to Russia.” She was arrested more than 100 times and his dad was blacklisted. People threw objects and sometimes spit at them, but he says they never responded with violence. They moved to Berkeley in 1967.

VICE News spoke to McDonald at a protest against white supremacy Monday, where other demonstrators asked participants and the media not to take photos, and some protesters tried to block news cameras.