Hundreds protest in Sacramento
At least two dozen were arrested a few hours into the event. A similar rally in San Francisco drew a smaller crowd.
SACRAMENTO — Hundreds of protesters gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on Friday, in defiance of a statewide stayathome order and a recent ban on protests on Capitol property, to demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom reopen California. A confrontation with law enforcement ultimately led to at least two dozen arrests by the end of the rally.
Though people began arriving hours earlier, dozens of California Highway Patrol officers surrounded the Capitol shortly after the official start of the protest at noon, ordering it to disperse. Decked out in American flag paraphernalia and Trump 2020 campaign gear, attendees chanted, “USA! USA!” and “Whose house? Our house!” Some waved signs and cameras in officers’ faces, urging them to defy Newsom’s order.
As the crowd began to thin, CHP officers started slowly pushing protesters back off the steps of the building around 2 p.m. and arrested some who refused to move. CHP did not provide an official number of arrests.
As she was being detained, Jeannie Favela of Durham (Butte County) said she was taking a stand for her friends who owned their own businesses.
“They can’t provide for their families when the economy is shut down, when their small businesses are shut down and they can’t work,” she said. “I have a sign saying ‘all jobs matter,’ and they do, because everybody is essential.”
Many protesters expressed skepticism about what public health experts have said about how widespread the coronavirus is and the
severity of COVID19, the illness it causes. Few wore masks as they crowded onto the lawn outside the Capitol. Cars circled the block, honking their support and a plane flew overhead with a banner that said “End his tyranny” next to an image of Newsom with a Hitler mustache.
Newsom is facing increasing pressure to begin loosening restrictions on public life. Hundreds of people protested at the Capitol last week as well. After that gathering, the CHP banned large public events, saying the prohibition would remain in place until health officials decide it’s safe for large groups to assemble.
Conservative activists are suing to overturn some of his orders on nonessential businesses, church services and beach closures.
But the protesters still appear to represent a minority in the state. A poll released Friday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that 70% of California voters are concerned about lockdown measures ending too soon, leading to a resurgence of the coronavirus, compared with 30% who are more worried the orders will extend too long, further damaging the economy. Newsom received 70% approval for his response to the crisis.
The governor this week unveiled a plan for how he would phase in the reopening of businesses and schools and he said Friday that he could be days away from making significant modifications to the stayathome order. But he has warned that those changes depend on ongoing social distancing and other behavior that would not cause a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, which have stabilized in California in recent weeks.
At the Capitol rally, Tara Ramos, 44, of Winters (Yolo County), said the numbers reported by the government — 52,170 coronavirus cases in California and 2,132 deaths — did not justify a complete shutdown of the state. She said she was protesting on behalf of her family, including her daughter who had lost a job as a groomer at PetSmart and her 15yearold son, who has special needs and is not able to attend school.
“Having my son home all the time is hard,” Ramos said. “He’s nonverbal, in diapers. He needed that mental stimulation and I needed that break.”
Bob Waugh, 60, a retired law enforcement officer from Lodi (San Joaquin County), said California’s response to the crisis followed no logic. While people are stuck home from work, he said, Newsom called last week for a corps of volunteers to help nonprofits that are serving a surge of needy Californians. Waugh said the government was using the situation to exert more control over people’s rights.
“It’s political posturing,” he said. “Closing down a country for this long, there’s no justification for this.”
A similar protest in San Francisco drew about 40 people across the back entrance to City Hall, waving American flags and holding signs, saying things like “Scamdemic!” and “Newsom is a Dictator!”
About a dozen cars circled Civic Center, honking their horns, with drivers yelling that they want the stayathome order lifted.
Emily Hindsman, 34, stood in her scrubs and in a mask and said the city should reopen because the numbers aren’t nearly as bad as they were projected to be. A registered nurse who cares for patients who are acutely ill, Hindsman said she realized that lifting the stayathome order could lead to an uptick in cases. But, she said, the hospitals have enough room to handle it.
“At this point, isolation is worse for the majority of people,” she said. “The disease hasn’t been as bad as they thought it would be.”
Daniel Kotzin, who lives in San Francisco, said that shelter in place has been frustrating for his family with two little kids — 5yearold Oscar and 3yearold Ruth.
“There is literally nowhere for me to go with them,” he said, as his two children climbed over a statue outside of City Hall. “This is my activity with them today.”
Kotzin was skeptical that the shutdown had any impact on slowing the spread of the virus, despite the fact that medical experts widely agree that the Bay Area’s early and decisive action on a shutdown helped stave off a major surge.
“They keep saying the surge is coming, the surge is coming,” he said. “But it never comes.”
Alexei Koseff and Trisha Thadani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: alexei.koseff@ sfchronicle.com, tthadani@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff, @TrishaThadani