Two downtown Sacramento rallies seem an ocean apart, but call for justice unites protesters
Roughly 200 people called for the liberation of Palestine this week outside the Robert Matsui U.S. Courthouse, while a few blocks down I Street at the Sacramento County Main Jail, a few dozen people rallied to mark the seventh anniversary of Stephon Clark’s death.
Two protests and two causes met on the streets of Sacramento Tuesday and found they have goals in common.
As drummers kept a beat, Davis resident Lysandra daSilva led protesters in a call and response chants that took Israel and the U.S. government to task:
“Free, free Palestine!
Free, free, free Palestine!
Who’s the real terrorist?
The U.S. imperialists!”
They rallied round a cause that seemed an ocean away from the one that Clark’s brother Stevante addressed through his bullhorn that evening, but a common purpose ended up uniting them.
On March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark became one of dozens of unarmed Black Americans who have been killed by police. The Sacramento Police Department said officers had pursued a suspect breaking car windows and a chase led them to Clark, who was in his grandparents’ back yard. When officers apprehended him, police reports stated, they mistook Clark’s cell phone for a gun and fired 20 shots at him.
Clark told protesters that his brother’s death was a murder, and he railed at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office for not holding officers accountable.
“What do we want?” Stevante Clark shouted through his bullhorn.
“Justice!” protesters replied.
“When do we want it?” he asked them.
“Now!” they shouted.
“If we don’t get it?” he called out.
“Shut it down!” they said.
“If we don’t get it?” he called out.
“Shut it down!” they said.
Protests unite
Just after 6:30 pm, Clark’s crowd was swelling with a few dozen protesters from the Free Palestine rally. Raymond Lee, one of the protesters at the federal courthouse, had urged the crowd to walk down the street and unite with Clark and other protesters whose struggles were similar to those of the Palestinian people.
Dozens did just what Lee had suggested, and once there, they were greeted with a message of solidarity from Clark who condemned Israel’s new airstrikes in Gaza and attacks by Rwanda-backed rebels in the Congo that have led to thousands of deaths.
He invoked the words of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Although he was urging the crowd to shout the name of his brother, he said, the name “Stephon Clark” stands as a symbol for all people who die as a result of “evil, injustice, hatred, bigotry and racism.” He led his supporters in a chant calling for the liberation of Palestine.
Sacramento resident Leyna Reynolds, 26, said she had majored in Middle East studies in college and had been supporting Palestine for about 10 years. She attended Tuesday evening’s rally to draw attention to the plight of Gaza residents whom she said are dying in astounding numbers. US leaders should be advocating for peace, she said.
‘Passion with direction is purpose’
The latest hostilities began in Israel and Gaza after Hamas led a coordinated assault against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as citizens there were celebrating a Jewish holiday, breaching the country’s defenses, slaying roughly 1,200 people and abducting 250.
The Israelis declared war and have killed more than 48,000 Gazans, according to officials there, but a tenuous ceasefire agreement was reached in January 2025. The conflict resumed earlier this month.
Hailee Snyder, 22, and Chris Carter, 21, started their evening at the Free Palestine rally with Snyder carrying a sign urging the US government to free Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., who has said that U.S. immigration officials have detained him because of his pro-Palestine beliefs.
When the Free Palestine demonstration ended, Snyder and Carter walked up the street to help Clark commemorate his brother’s life. Both grew up in Sacramento, and they vividly recalled news coverage of Stephon Clark’s death and the protests that the killing spawned.
Clark said he was filled with righteous anger, and he urged those in the crowd who felt that same fire to channel that passion into organizing, plotting, planning and mobilizing.
“Passion with direction is purpose,” he said. “Passion without direction is chaos. Make sense? If we are just being chaotic with no actionable items, we are not in solidarity, We are not organizing. We are wasting our time.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
