Sacramento mayor tours vandalism with Stevante Clark, then gets berated at Chavez plaza

Mayor Darrell Steinberg came to Cesar E. Chavez Plaza to pay his respects at a shrine to victims of police brutality. He wound up getting an earful.

Steinberg, accompanied by activist Stevante Clark, was scolded by a succession of speakers at an event attended by about 200 people. In particular, they were incensed about protesters badly injured by rubber bullets fired by police.

“Why do you let police shoot children in the head and not say s---?” said Adam Jordan of Anti Police-Terror Sacramento, the organizer of the event. “When you’re out here with the people, you’ve got to expect chastisement.”

Another man shouted from the crowd: “Why did you bring the Army?” in a reference to the introduction of National Guard troops on the street. The mayor stood silently and listened without responding, before leaving several minutes later.

Just 15 minutes earlier he and Clark, at times joking and at times serious, were touring stores that were vandalized in two nights of violence. Ducking into Sharif Fine Jewelers on K Street, Clark shook hands with one of the owners, gestured to the wreckage inside the store and said, “I’m sorry about that. I can’t control that.”

The half-hour tour was unplanned, Steinberg said. They were accompanied by Clark’s young sister Cailyn and his grandmother Sequitta Thompson, who wore a Stephon Clark T-shirt.

Stephon Clark’s shooting death by two city police officers in 2018 turned Stevante into a focal point of protests. Stevante Clark spoke to Steinberg at length about his dreams for a community resource center.

“There’s a stigma about mental health,” Clark said. “Nobody talks about it in the black community.”

Later, the two walked into Iverson’s Barber Shop and asked for quick haircuts. A barber, Kevin Hancock, told them haircuts were by appointment only.

After the tour, Steinberg said he wanted to meet with protesters up close.

“I came to listen, to be present, and to show respect for peaceful protest,” he said.

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 4:32 PM.