I Saw His Humanity: 'Reveal' Host On Protecting Right-Wing Protester 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 On Sunday a planned rally of right-wing activists in Berkeley, Calif., mostly fizzled out, but thousands of peaceful left-wing protesters turned out, singing songs and chanting. The clip of his intervention has been shared widely across social media by critics of the antifa movement. Antifa beat down apparent alt-righter. pic.twitter.com/WVdDJqLKmA — Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) August 27, 2017 
 
 I interviewed Letson about the incident, and what it's like to cover antifa and the alt-right more broadly, Monday afternoon. Interview highlights 
 
 
 
 On why he protected this man 
 
 What came to me was that he was a human being, and I didn't want to see anybody die. “I wanted to reach out to Al because it was a direct, coordinated attack,” he added. “So the only thing I could think was I wanted to get on top of him to protect him.” 
 
 The altercation was caught on video by Mother Jones journalist Shane Bauer, who identified the aggressors as anti-fascist protesters, sometimes called antifa. “Someone pointed me out and called me by name and started running toward me,” he said. It looked like he was, but I’m not sure. Earlier this month, a woman was killed during a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. 
 
 "When I glanced to my left I saw, you know, a mass of people just coming off the lawn towards this guy, and I don't know — I just, I thought they were going to kill him. And I just didn't want anybody to die," Letson says. He said, "I want to live like the truth is true, and go where love has not been found." “Someone knocked my camera out of my hand and I was going to grab it and someone hit me over the head and I went down. There’s a brief pause in the confrontation, then another fight breaks out between two protesters who had been watching nearby. I think that the problem that happens when we have the antifa or people on the left engaging in violence is that it shifts the narrative. Letson recounted what happened next, a scene he also caught on video: Right-wing organizer Joey Gibson arrived at the park shortly after 1:30 p.m. Then a couple of people from the right-wing did show up. So when I get into this situation where the decision is, do you be a journalist or do you be a human, I'm going to put the journalism to the side and do the thing that feels right for me. Suddenly, we are equating people that are fighting Nazis with Nazis — and the two things don't equate, right? You know, I mean this sounds really high-minded and maybe a little nutty, but I am a huge NPR nerd, and many years ago I was listening to Terry Gross and father Greg Boyle was on there, and he gave this quote that has just stuck with me ever since. You’re not going to get people to peacefully line up and walk out of the country. It's a false equivalency to say that the people fighting back against that are the exact same. Letson was at the Civic Center Park as the surrounding streets filled with left-wing groups, including members of the antifa, also known as the black bloc for their trademark black attire and face-covering masks and bandanas.
– When journalist Al Letson saw a suspected alt-right protester being beaten by "antifa" supporters in Berkeley, Calif., on Sunday, he didn't stop to consider what the fallen man might think of him. Letson, who is black, simply wanted to save him. Running into the crowd, Letson jumped on top of the man in order to protect him. A series of videos posted to Twitter show Letson, in a red shirt, shielding the man's body and attempting to push the assailants away. "What came to me was that he was a human being, and I didn't want to see anybody die," Letson, host of podcast Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, tells NPR. "In retrospect, it doesn't matter if he doesn't see my humanity, what matters to me is that I see his." Letson tells Slate that the unidentified protester had been with Joey Gibson of right-wing group Patriot Prayer during the mostly peaceful rally. But after Gibson began "antagonizing the black bloc," 20 to 30 others began chasing them. Gibson fled but his apparent companion "stumbled—or someone tripped him—and then four or five people surrounded him and began to kick and hit him," Letson says. When he noticed "a whole mass of people coming," Letson says he intervened in fear for the man's life. Though he was struck a few times, he'd do it all again, per Reveal. "I remember seeing the pictures of a young man being brutally beaten by these guys with poles [in Charlottesville], and when I saw that I thought, "Why didn't anybody step in?" he says.