Battle for Berkeley: Will Ann Coulter spark another clash?

Both favor hoods to conceal their identities and a variety of weapons, including Molotov cocktails, brass knuckles and soda cans filled with concrete.

[...] in February, protesters smashed campus windows, set fires and hurled firebombs at police, forcing the cancellation of a speech by right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos, who was also invited by the College Republicans.

Police and the city have been criticized for not doing more to prevent the violence of the past few months but say that stepping in with full-scale riot forces could have led to more bloodshed.

Professor Lawrence Rosenthal, director of UC Berkeley's Center for Right-Wing Studies, said right-wing extremists see Berkeley as an easy target for attention-grabbing combat.

Berkeley police and university officials scrambled this week to cancel or delay Coulter's speech next Thursday, with Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks warning that law enforcement authorities have "very specific intelligence" of threats "that could pose a grave danger" to Coulter and others.

[...] she tweeted, "THERE ARE NO CLASSES AT BERKELEY THE WEEK OF MAY 2."