Is Sacramento facing repeat of last Friday’s Capitol protest over stay-at-home order?
Days after 32 people were arrested while protesting at the state Capitol over California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order, another group has asked for a permit to stage a 500-person prayer meeting there Thursday that organizers say “will be a safe, peaceful event” that will include social distancing.
Organizers have requested a permit from the California Highway Patrol for the “National Day of Prayer - Building Bridges” event, despite the CHP’s current ban on allowing permits for events at the Capitol or other state-owned properties during the coronavirus crisis.
The permit application specifically refers to the arrests at last Friday’s event and says Newsom – not the CHP – “will be held accountable.”
“The Thin Blue Line was blurred on May 1st, 2020, when the Governor gave an order for CHP officers to hold the line, push law abiding citizens off of Capitol grounds and forcefully arrest women, children, disabled men and pastors who were peacefully protesting the Governor’s unconstitutional executive order,” the application states. “Even when facing heavy handed tactics from California Highway Patrol Officers, the people remained peaceful.”
The Thursday event is billed as featuring a sermon from Pastor Tim Thompson, a conservative Riverside County church leader who was one of the individuals detained at last Friday’s protest for creating a public health hazard.
Thompson said the event “is a response to what took place last Friday.”
“I’ve been a law enforcement chaplain for over a decade for the Riverside County sheriff’s department and I have a high regard for law enforcement, and we really believe that Gavin Newsom put the CHP in that position,” he said, adding that the event will take place whether there is a permit or not.
“This will be a safe, peaceful event and families are encouraged to attend and bring picnic lunches to enjoy in the grass on the West Side,” the application states. “We will encourage appropriate social distancing unless part of the same family.”
Thompson said attendees will attempt to follow those guidelines, but “people are people, you can’t force people to do something.”
Permit request showed as ‘pending’
Last Friday’s event took place despite the CHP’s refusal to grant a permit for use of the Capitol grounds, and officers initially made no effort to halt it. Instead, they meandered through the crowd waving and wishing people “Good morning” for most of the event.
The crowd was mostly a pro-President Donald Trump group, with many people wearing Trump hats and shirts and waving Trump flags. Vendors hawked Trump gear even up to the point where a line of CHP officers forced the group back off the Capitol grounds and onto the outer sidewalks, which fall under the jurisdiction of Sacramento police.
The crowd also included a number of demonstrators who oppose vaccinations, as well as others who say the ban infringes on their First Amendment rights.
CHP officials at the scene said the event was being halted because the group was not practicing social distancing and was violating the governor’s order, which sparked angry responses from the crowd and a standoff with helmeted, riot-gear wearing officers that last more than an hour.
The CHP website showed the permit application status as “pending” earlier Monday, but a spokeswoman said later in an email to The Bee that the ban remains in effect and the item was removed from the Capitol permit calendar.
“Consistent with public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and the California Department of Public Health, in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the California Highway Patrol currently is unable to approve permits for in-person mass gatherings on state property,” the CHP said.
The CHP and Newsom currently are being sued in federal court over the ban on issuing permits for the Capitol and other areas, and the agency itself sent mixed messages about enforcing the governor’s edict against large gatherings during the fight against COVID-19.
The ban was initiated after an April 20 protest at the Capitol where hundreds gathered together without social distancing or protective masks.
Permit bans spark lawsuit
The CHP ban on such events has been denounced as legally questionable by some constitutional scholars, and a federal judge in Sacramento has scheduled a hearing for the same day as the protest on a request for a temporary restraining order against the CHP.
The suit was filed by two Sacramento residents – Ron Givens, a gun rights advocate, and Christine Bish, a Republican candidate for Congress – who both say they were denied permits for events at the Capitol under the ban. A telephone hearing is set for Thursday on their request for a temporary restraining order that would force the CHP to begin issuing permits again.
“The United States and California Constitutions do not contain blanket exceptions for pandemics, and neither may California’s lawmakers ignore fundamental Constitutional norms on the basis of a health crisis,” their request for a court order states. “In an overreaching response to the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when people of conscience around the world have a greater need than ever to oversee, comment on, and speak out against governing bodies, Defendants have criminalized public demonstrations, rallies, and protests across California.”
But state officials argue they are violating no one’s rights and that the state is enveloped in a crisis.
“Although Plaintiffs would be entitled to hold such rallies in normal times, these are not normal times,” lawyers for the state write in a court filing. “California is currently engulfed by COVID-19, a highly infectious and frequently deadly virus that already has infected over one million Americans and killed over 60,000.
“Because this virus has a long incubation period and may be spread unknowingly by individuals with no symptoms, many mass gatherings have been transformed into ‘super-spreader’ events, in which individuals with the virus inadvertently infect other individuals at the event, those individuals subsequently infect still others not present at the event, and so on.”
The CHP official in charge of issuing such permits, Capt. Douglas Lyons, also argued in a court filing that his agency was acting consistent with the finding by the California Department of Public Health that “all gatherings should be postponed.”
“CHP applies this temporary policy to all permit applications for gatherings regardless of the sponsor of the gathering, that sponsor’s viewpoint or anything else connected to the content of the gathering,” he wrote.
He added that the CHP’s decision to issue a permit for the April 20 event was made only after being assured by organizers that most attendees would remain in their vehicles as they circled the Capitol in a convoy and that those who made it to the Capitol grounds would wear protective masks and stand at least 6 feet apart.
That did not happen. Hundreds bunched together to listen to speeches and music. Few wore masks and some attendees accused media members wearing masks of “fear mongering.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 2:26 PM.