20 curfew arrests follow Tuesday night’s peaceful protests in downtown Sacramento
As nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice continue following the death of George Floyd last week in Minneapolis, demonstrations in Sacramento proceeded mostly peacefully Tuesday.
Sacramento’s unprecedented citywide curfew continued for a second straight night. Several hundred protesters marched and rallied at Cesar E. Chavez Plaza and near the state Capitol grounds for about four hours, at times chanting the names of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Stephon Clark and other black Americans who have been killed by police in recent years.
After the clock struck 8 p.m. and curfew went into effect, a group gathered outside the east side of the state Capitol knelt before sitting quietly for nine minutes, roughly the same amount of time that a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of Floyd, who died on Memorial Day. That officer, one of four who detained the 46-year-old as he died, has been charged in Floyd’s death.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the city council on Monday imposed a curfew, which appears to be the first such order impacting the entire city in its history, in response to property damage and theft over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday night ended with shattered storefront windows and stolen merchandise, after largely peaceful daytime protest demonstrations each day. The Downtown Sacramento Partnership estimated local businesses suffered a total of around $10 million in damage over the weekend.
About 500 troops were deployed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to California’s capital starting Monday, and have guarded places like Golden 1 Center and the city’s courthouse buildings. Guardsmen gathered in front of City Hall on Tuesday issuing repeated reminders of the city curfew over a loudspeaker, but did not confront the group gathered in Chavez park after 8 p.m. All freeway on- and off-ramps remained open, in contrast to the end of protests over the weekend.
How long the city’s 8 p.m. curfew will remain in place and how long National Guard troops will need to be stationed in the capital city remain unanswered questions as of early Wednesday, with Steinberg saying Tuesday the curfew would need to be a “day-by-day” decision.
24 arrests downtown, 20 for curfew violations
Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Karl Chan reported a calm night Tuesday, even calmer than Monday.
“Ultimately we had a good night. There were no reports of vandalism or looting, and no police were injured,” he said.
Nevertheless, city police made 24 arrests downtown at the end of the peaceful protests. Twenty of those were for curfew violations, compared with 48 curfew arrests Monday night, according to Chan. Sacramento Bee reporters at the scene saw police detain at least seven people at 14th and I streets who appeared to be leaving the protest.
“Call my mom!” one shouted to the group he was with.
In one case, officers approached two people after curfew. The pair ran, were caught, and one was found to have a handgun, according to Chan.
The three remaining arrests involved one for intoxication, one for an active arrest warrant and one for resisting arrest, Chan said.
Michael Ault, head of the downtown partnership, said after a tour early Wednesday of the downtown business district that there didn’t appear to be any damage from last night; only “a couple of minor tagging and graffiti issues, but nothing significant.”
Local activists have attributed violence and destruction to “outside agitators,” with City Councilman Jeff Harris saying officials had “intel” suggesting the more chaotic actions were the work of an “organized criminal element,” mostly separate from the main protest group but with some possible overlap.
Sacramento County under state of emergency
The 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and National Guard presence have been limited to the city of Sacramento so far.
But the county on Tuesday declared a state of emergency, which it said in a statement is “primarily an administrative tool” to allow for deployment of National Guard troops to assist with local law enforcement agencies, if needed, and to tap federal funding for law enforcement efforts related to protests.
Protests in the county, outside Sacramento city limits, have been limited so far, but included a group of about 200 gathering outside the Folsom Public Library around midday Tuesday. That assembly remained peaceful.
National Guard troops also guarded the El Dorado Hills Town Center on Monday night in El Dorado County, one freeway exit along Highway 50 from Folsom.
The Sacramento County proclamation goes into effect retroactively to May 30. The Board of Supervisors will hold a meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday to confirm and ratify the proclamation.
County officials said they will review the need on an ongoing basis for a local emergency at least every 60 days.
Stevante Clark leads protest groups, helps keep the peace
Local activist and brother of Stephon Clark, Stevante Clark, again took on a leadership role in Tuesday’s protest efforts.
Clark led chants, and shortly before curfew struck, called for greater organization and strategy toward the effort of police reform, and less damage from locals to their own community.
“I want to be plotting, planning, strategizing, organizing. That right there is not plotting, planning, strategizing and organizing, and sometimes when you’re doing that you get hurt,” Clark said, gesturing to the broken windows around the plaza. “Passion with no direction is chaos.”
After hours of marching, chanting and kneeling, Stevante Clark gave one more speech and a woman led the protesters in prayers. Then the group dispersed.
A night earlier, as protesters marched to the office of District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, Clark announced recall efforts of Schubert and of Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 8:22 AM.
