Fil-Am teacher arraigned for punching neo-Nazi in 2016

A Filipino-American middle school teacher has been arraigned in court for punching a neo-Nazi, among other actions, The Daily Californian reported Monday.

Yvette Felarca, founding member of activist group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), was formally arraigned in Sacramento on one count of assault, one count of participating in an illegal riot, and one count of causing a riot.

In 2016, the group held a counter-protest against the Traditionalist Worker Party, which  California TV station ABC10 describes as "a front for neo-Nazi sympathizers."

The protests led to a full-fledged riot that the Los Angeles Times reported had lasted for 20 minutes and ended with seven protesters stabbed. Felarca sustained a bloody blow to the head during the riot.

According to CBS San Francisco, Felarca's arraignment caused a protest outside the court in support of the teacher, who insists the charges should be dropped as she believes standing up to fascism is not a crime.

Felarca told The Guardian that one of the reasons behind her arrest was to try to "demoralize and scare" her from opposing "[US President Donald] Trump and his neo-Nazi supporters."

Felarca, a teacher at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, said, "I’m certainly not going to stop organizing and speaking out.”

Her lawyer Shanta Driver argued that police stepped in too late and failed to keep the peace, driving Felarca to punch the man in self-defense.

Driver added that a video of the incident was "partial and incomplete."

Far right and white supremacist groups in the US have gained international attention after holding a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last week. One of the attendees of the "Unite The Right" rally drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one. — Rie Takumi/BM, GMA News