Protesters, police tangle in downtown Stockton in latest clash

STOCKTON — A brief and relatively calm City Council meeting disintegrated into a nearly two-hour faceoff between riot-helmeted police officers and about 30 protesters Tuesday night, at times forcing the closure of major downtown streets and the northbound entrance ramp to Interstate 5.

Officer Joe Silva, a police spokesman, said late in the evening that 12 protesters, including two juveniles, were arrested during the latest in a series of chaotic scenes to accompany City Hall meetings in the past month.

According to Silva, three men were arrested for assaulting a homeless individual outside City Hall in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park after the council meeting. Silva identified them as Gabriel Mendez, 18; Joseph Pino, 18; and Christian Lorena, 22.

Police said two other suspects fled on foot. The assault victim was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.

Nine other protesters later were arrested in what police termed an “unlawful march in the streets.” Seven were from Stockton, one from Oakland and one from Modesto. Stockton girls, 17 and 14 years old, were among those arrested in the march, police said. Police said the protesters were from Black Lives Matter.

Two protesters were taken to a hospital for treatment for what police said were “minor injuries.”

The council meeting itself lasted only about 40 minutes — long enough for speedy approval of a very light consent agenda plus comments from members of the public.

The council chamber was packed, and many in the audience would later be participants in the commotion outside, which moved from City Hall south down El Dorado and Center streets and eventually onto the doorstep of police headquarters on Market Street.

At the previous council meeting two weeks earlier, police herded protesters out of City Hall after it broke down into disorder.

Tuesday night, for the first time, audience members were handed a four-paragraph note by a city staff member as they entered City Hall to attend the meeting.

The first three paragraphs encouraged community participation and asked for decorum to be maintained. The fourth paragraph explained California Penal Code 403, which deals with disturbances at public meetings.

“Every person who, without authority of law, willfully disturbs or breaks up any assembly or meeting ... is guilty of a misdemeanor which is punishable by fines and/or incarceration,” the note said, in part.

Though a couple of protesters blew whistles several times during the meeting, Penal Code 403 never was called into play Tuesday night in the council chamber or the second-floor lobby, which for the first time was cleared of chairs for overflow audience members.

About 10 speakers addressed the council during the public comment session, most of them to discuss shootings by law enforcement officers.

Several criticized Mayor Michael Tubbs, blaming him for the disorder at recent council meetings.

One of those speakers, Diana Buettner, asked 67-yearold Vice Mayor Elbert Holman to provide guidance to Tubbs, 26.

“You’re the vice mayor,” Buettner said. “Help the boy.”

Holman and Tubbs are black. Buettner is an elderly white woman. After the meeting, Tubbs said he was offended.

“I’m a 26-year-old grown man,” Tubbs said. “Throughout history, ‘boy’ has been used as a racial epithet against black men in particular.”