DAs weigh charges for Gaza protesters
Gov. Gavin Newsom said that demonstrators who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge and a major Bay Area highway to oppose U.S. support for Israel need to face consequences for their actions, after bringing regional traffic to a standstill for hours on Monday.
His remarks came as district attorneys in San Francisco and Alameda County weigh charging decisions for dozens of participants, many of whom used a “sleeping dragon” tactic to chain themselves across roadways, making it difficult for police to remove them.
At this point, it is unclear whether the 38 people arrested on Monday will be prosecuted. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she has sent the 26 cases in her county back to the California Highway Patrol for further investigation.
“I respect freedom of speech, the right to protest,” Newsom said Tuesday during an appearance in the Bay Area, where he was meeting with Norwegian leaders about climate change.
“I certainly respect the cause around the ceasefire,” he told reporters. “But I think there’s a better way of expressing it than denying people the ability to get to work, someone in an emergency that can’t get to their destination.”
He argued that “people need to be held to account for their actions.”
The governor said he had received calls from Bay Area residents caught in traffic during the protest as they drove children to school, rushed to medical appointments or frantically tried to get to work on time. In addition to the arrests, law enforcement towed four cars during the protests, which were part of a coordinated nationwide day of disruption.
Jenkins said her office intends to prosecute those responsible for the Golden Gate Bridge blockade but that she is waiting for investigators to collect more evidence, including videos of the protest posted to social media by participants and bystanders. The delay meant that 26 suspected protesters would be released from San Francisco County Jail, where they were being held as of Tuesday.
“We have to wait for this investigation to be completed before we can make the necessary charging decisions,” Jenkins said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “We have to be able to attribute specific conduct to specific individuals.”
The protesters were booked Monday on misdemeanor charges that included unlawful assembly, illegally stopping on a bridge and false imprisonment, as well as conspiracy to commit those crimes, a felony, the CHP said in a statement.
The arrests come one month after 78 pro-Palestinian protesters were ordered to pay restitution and participate in community service to avoid going to trial for blocking the Bay Bridge in November.
Twenty-six people were arrested for halting traffic Monday on the Golden Gate Bridge, where protesters chained themselves to parked cars to block vehicles from traveling across the famous span and held a banner that read: “Stop the world for Gaza.” Those arrests were referred to Jenkins’ office.
Twelve people were arrested in the protests that shut down Interstate 880 in Oakland in both directions Monday, the CHP said. Traffic on the highway came to a halt for several hours as officers removed people who had formed a human chain attached to concrete-filled barrels, a tactic known among law enforcement as “the sleeping dragon.”
Those arrests were referred to Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s office.
Officers used jackhammers and heavy-duty saws to remove the carriage bolts and PVC pipe used in the tactic Monday, the CHP said.
Price’s office told the Chronicle on Monday that protesters could be charged if they had broken the law, but did not specify what the charges might be.