Sacramento City Council members denounce protest planned for city manager’s home
The Sacramento City Council unanimously signed an open letter addressing protesters who plan to appear at the city manager’s North Natomas home Sunday night.
The letter came in response to a flyer circulating on social media announcing the protest. The flyer adopts the style of a wanted poster, with City Manager Howard Chan’s face printed in the center. Below, in red font resembling dripping blood, is Chan’s name.
Protesters are targeting Chan over his handling of police officers accused of misconduct on the job. The city manager has previously come under fire for not firing either of the two officers who shot 22-year-old Stephon Clark, who in 2018 was killed in his grandmother’s Meadowview backyard with a cellphone in his hand. No charges were filed against either officer after several investigations.
Activists have previously called for Chan’s removal over his handling of this and other fatal shootings in the city. The flyer says that Chan is wanted “by the sovereign people of Sacramento for gross negligence resulting in severe loss of life.”
However, all sitting Sacramento City Council members and Mayor Darrell Steinberg characterized the planned protest as a “campaign of intimidation.”
Steinberg’s home was similarly targeted in February by demonstrators who criticized the city’s efforts to provide services to homeless people. During the demonstration, in which rocks were hurled at the mayor’s house, thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to the property.
“Too often in the past year, we have seen an altogether different kind of protest that traffics in violence, hate and intimidation,” the City Council’s letter reads. “No more. A small group of people willing to embrace violence to advance their ill-defined agenda cannot be allowed to put our City leaders and their families at risk in their homes. Protest at City Hall, not outside someone’s bedroom.”
The letter referenced Saturday’s caravan in south Sacramento — a demonstration against anti-Asian hate amid escalating acts of racist violence in the country — as an exemplary form of peaceful protest. Prior to the release of the joint statement, councilwoman Mai Vang wrote a thread on Twitter, warning that the planned protest at Chan’s home comes at a time of heightened anti-Asian sentiment.
“The graphic image used to intimidate and promote a protest at City Manager Howard Chan’s home is absolutely reckless & harmful and particularly dangerous during a time of increased hate and violence against Asian American communities,” Vang wrote.
The City Council’s open letter was co-signed by several Asian American advocacy groups.
“These protesters cannot be allowed to appropriate righteous causes like helping those experiencing homelessness or protecting and valuing Black lives,” council members said. “They cannot be allowed to make so much noise that they drown out the voices of love and unity that were crying in the streets of south Sacramento today. We will not be intimidated. We are Sacramento.”
Protesters arrive
The protest was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Elderberry Park, per the announcement flyer. Protesters began to arrive a bit after 8 p.m., and marched from the park to Chan’s house, near Alpena Street and Dalhart Way.
Police presence was heavy in the neighborhood. A group of bicycle officers were seen lining the front of Chan’s house, blocking access to the small cluster of protesters, who were gathered in the street and mostly dressed in black.
This story was originally published March 28, 2021 at 10:48 AM.