'March On Google' Postponed, Police Confirm

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- Mountain View police said they have confirmed that the "March On Google" planned to occur outside Google's Silicon Valley headquarters Saturday, Aug. 19 has been postponed. The event organized by right-wing free speech advocates, including Trump supporter and self-described "New Right conservative" Jack Posobiec, will not take place this weekend as planned "due to credible Alt Left terrorist threats for the safety of our citizen participants," the group's website states.

As Mountain View Patch previously reported, the March On Google was to begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time/1 p.m. Eastern Time Saturday at Charleston Park in Mountain View, and near other major Google offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh -- the message of organizers being: "Google is a monopoly, and its abusing its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results." The group said it invited ex-Google engineer James Damore to speak. (Damore was terminated from Google last week after an internal 10-page memo he wrote about gender diversity was leaked.)

March On Google organizers sought to distance the event from last weekend's white supremacists-organized rally in Charlottlesville, Virginia that turned violent and deadly. The March On Google group said it was calling for "peaceful rallies" and claimed it was not an "Alt-Right" event; rather, it was for "First Amendment supporters from across the country, from all backgrounds, ethnicity, and walks of life," organizers said.

The "code of conduct" for the March On Google:

The March on Google condemns and disavows violence, hatred, and bigotry and all groups that espouse it such as White Nationalists, KKK, Antifa, and NeoNazis.

We will not use messages that are designed to incite anger, hate, or violence.

We will respect the law and the police and cooperate in all matters.

Any violation of these tenets will not be tolerated.

Many on the local and national levels were not convinced of the group's intentions.

Counter-demonstrators are still planning to meet Saturday in Mountain View.

Mountain View police, in an "abundance of caution," will continue to maintain a heightened presence both at Charleston Park and at City Hall.

"Our priority, first and foremost, is continuing to keep everything peaceful and safe," Mountain View police said in a statement.

Here is Mountain View Police Department's statement from earlier in the week, prior to postponement of the event:

There is a planned protest scheduled for two hours Saturday afternoon at Charleston Park known as the March on Google. The organizers of this protest are not connected to the participants or to the events that led to the tragedy in Virginia last weekend.
The Police Department has a responsibility to uphold everyone’s Constitutional right to free speech, and we want you to know that we are working with both Google and with the event planners to ensure the protest is a peaceful one. Our top priority is for the safety for all those involved. While we are not publicizing specific security efforts or plans out of interest of public safety, we want you to know that we are taking all necessary steps to ensure that Saturday and its event remains a peaceful demonstration. We will continue to actively plan to provide an effective and appropriate police presence at the event and throughout the city, and we will be prepared to ensure a peaceful expression of everyone’s First Amendment rights.
Please know, we are fully aware of the concerns that have been sent to us over the past few days, and we absolutely take them into consideration. We care greatly about the safety and security of our residents in Mountain View, and again, we will do everything we can to ensure that everyone not only is able to peaceably protest, but that everyone is also safe.

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press