Protesters call for city manager to leave his job over fatal police shootings
Protesters descended Wednesday night near the Sacramento home of City Manager Howard Chan for a planned “sit-in/die-in” to demand his removal from his post over their claims that he has allowed rogue police officers to remain on the job.
More than 100 protesters were on hand near Alpena Street and Dalhart Way in North Natomas for an event that was organized on the Black Lives Matter Sacramento Facebook page and wrapped up around 8 p.m.
About 15 black “body bags” with inflatable figures inside that had labels carrying the names of people killed by police and sheriff’s deputies were placed in the driveway of one home, while a handful of protesters sat on the curb with their backs to the house. Hand-painted signs with the names of Black Sacramentans killed by police and deputies were planted in the lawn.
Black Lives Matter founder Tanya Faison said the home was Chan’s and that “we want Howard Chan to know the impact that he’s having.”
“We’re here today to let him know what this really looks like, this is what it really looks like,” she said as protesters continued to arrive. “We’re just hoping to be here and take up space and lift the names of people who have been killed in Sacramento.”
While Faison was livestreaming the event on Facebook, a DHL delivery driver arrived to deliver a package, but no one answered the door.
Similar protests have taken place near Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s home and throughout Sacramento in recent months. Unlike past protests that have been held with loudspeakers and marches, Wednesday night’s started off with the demonstrators sitting silently in the street in front of the home as participants filtered in.
One man wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask, Jeffery Taylor, said he walked over from his home a few blocks away to take part and encourage the firing of officers who fatally shoot unarmed men.
“Chan needs to fire the officers,” Taylor said.
Another man sitting near the body bags said they sent “a big message.”
“It’s a message that should be put out there because there’s nothing being done,” said Andy Morato, 19. “What are we supposed to do? Sit here and watch them get paid for killing people?
“The blood is on their hands.”
By about 6:30 p.m. the crowd — most of them wearing masks — and began to chant “Black Lives Matter,” “Stephon Clark,” “Joseph Mann” and the names of others shot by police.
Then, they reclined on their backs on the pavement and remained there silently in their “die-in.”
After a few minutes, they sat back up and resumed chanting as curious neighbors watched from the sidewalk and children on scooters and bicycles cruised by. The chants continued, alternating between names of people killed by police and the taunt, “Howard the Coward” as some rang the doorbell and banged on the garage door.
One protester, Phachel Ketchum Lark II, 21, of Meadowview, said the demonstration was necessary to hold people in power accountable, and said the body bags on the driveway served as a reminder of lives lost.
“These are people, fathers that will never come back, and there are daughters and sons that will have to be raised without them,” said Ketchum Lark, who said she is a youth ambassador for BLM Sacramento. “If we continue to allow people in power to neglect their authority then we’re going to have more lost souls, and that’s unfortunate.”
There was no obvious sign of activity inside the home at first, and the crowd broke into laughter when one of the demonstrators yelled, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
That was followed by one demonstrator walking up to the front of the house and planting a “Black Trans Lives Matter” flag in a hedge, while another leaned a sign against a window box that read, “This blood is on your hands Howard.”
At one point a man who appeared to be a neighbor walked over and asked protesters to leave Chan’s lawn, then left as the protest continued.
Wednesday’s protest was organized to place pressure on the City Council to oust Chan for failing to fire police officers involved in fatal encounters with several Black men, including the 2018 shootings of Stephon Clark and Darell Richards, as well as other officers protesters say have terrorized the Black community.
“We call for an immediate change to the city charter so that the city manager, an unelected official, is no longer in charge of termination of police officers and that responsibility be aligned with the Sacramento Mayor and Council,” Black Lives Matter Sacramento posted on its Facebook page announcing the protest.
“HOWARD CHAN IS THE ONLY PERSON THAT CAN FIRE A SAC PD OFFICER!” the post also read. “The charter is set up so that City Manager is the only one that can fire a pig.”
Chan has defended his tenure, saying he has fired six police officers and disciplined more than three dozen others since 2016.
He also has noted that the police department has adopted dozens of reforms in recent years, including the requirement to release body camera video within 30 days of a fatal incident. And, he said this week that he supports the right of the protesters to make their voices heard.
But the city and police have been under constant pressure since the 2018 shooting death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old Black man who was killed in the backyard of his grandparents’ home after officers said they thought he was carrying a handgun.
Clark was unarmed and was found to be holding a cell phone in his hand, and the release of body camera and helicopter video of the incident sparked nationwide demonstrations, including marches that continued in Sacramento for more than a year.
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, which occurred after a police officer there pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, triggered another series of protests worldwide, including many led in Sacramento another fatal shooting, Stevante Clark.
Sacramento police now find themselves under scrutiny for another fatal shooting of a young Black man who was killed after police said he pointed a loaded handgun at them during a confrontation at a student apartment complex near Sacramento State University on Tuesday afternoon.
The coroner’s office has not yet released the man’s identity, but a friend who lived at The Crossings apartment complex confirmed to The Bee that he is Jeremy Michael Southern, 22, and often stayed at the complex.
Black Lives Matter has posted his name and photos of him on its Facebook page and scheduled a vigil for 7 p.m. Thursday at the scene of the shooting.
“SacPD Murdered someone tonight,” the group posted on Facebook. “We are just tired. Tired of seeing us laying there unresponsive. Please come and show this family and man some love.”
Faison told the crowd Wednesday she did not believe police needed to kill Southern.
“Yesterday they killed him they didn’t have to kill him,” Faison said. “They shot him the first time and he was subdued. All he did was look up and they made sure they got him again.
“We don’t get due process in this country. We get killed. We don’t have the same rights as others.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 5:34 PM.