Watch: Gov. Gavin Newsom holds press conference after weekend of protests and vandalism

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Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press conference Monday in Sacramento after a weekend of protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that have devastated cities across California, from Sacramento to Los Angeles.

The governor discussed the demonstrations and the coronavirus pandemic that continues to plague the state. In Los Angeles and other cities, residents were subject to overlapping orders to stay inside for both COVID-19 prevention efforts and curfews imposed to control protests and looting.

Sacramento residents were not subject to a curfew Sunday, when a day of largely peaceful protest descended into anarchy after nightfall. Police attempted to control crowds who swarmed the freeway and streets near the Capitol with batons, rounds of rubber bullets and pepper spray. Groups separate from the massive Black Lives Matter demonstration during the day roamed downtown and midtown into the night, vandalizing cars, smashing shopfronts and robbing stores.

Newsom held no public events over the weekend. Late Saturday night he proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles County and deployed the National Guard to assist police there.

On Friday afternoon, before the protests flared, Newsom said he sympathized deeply with the protesters but acknowledged that as a white man he could only do so “intellectually.”

“I sit here deeply humbled, a bit emotional about this moment, and deeply resolved to meet it head on,” he said. “There’s deep anger, there’s deep frustration, there’s deep fear.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 11:43 AM.