Antifa Sacramento Facebook poster. (Photo: Facebook)
UPDATED: Antifa Rioters Again Leave Destruction in Downtown Sacramento
Protests expected to grow Friday and Saturday nights
By Katy Grimes, August 28, 2020 3:10 pm
Updated August 29, 2020
While California State Senators were being locked out of the State Capitol yesterday because one of their caucus members tested positive for COVID-19, Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters and protesters were gearing up for a protest Thursday evening.
“Mask Up. Wear Black. No Logos. Bring Friends. Don’t Snitch. No Good Cops. No Peace Police” an online protest poster said.
Antifa Sacramento posted an announcement on Facebook:
“Solidarity to the demonstrators in Kenosha, especially to the loved ones of those who were murdered. Your bravery and defiance in the face of both intrapersonal and institutional white supremacy is truly inspiring.
Sacramento! There will be a demonstration tomorrow, (8/27/20) at 8:00 PM at Cesar Chavez Park in solidarity with Kenosha.
Solidarity forever!”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, the former California State Senate President, issued a statement about the planned protests/riots:
“The police shooting of Jacob Blake has once again revealed the sickness in America that never goes away. Once again, Black Americans and all people of conscience have been traumatized by seeing someone who could be their child, their parent or their partner gunned down by police. And they have reacted with the same outrage any of us would feel had that been our loved one and when forced to endure systemic racism that never seems to go away, and which too many people who look like me pretend doesn’t even exist.”
“Tonight we expect two protests. The people of Sacramento do not need their Mayor or any city official to approve or sanctify the power of peaceful, principled protest. I am grateful to live in a city where people care enough to take to the streets after a hard day’s work to stand in solidarity with one another and other communities in pain. I support this and will always support this. It is the second after dark protest where I have an issue.”
We now are learning Jacob Blake had a knife inside his vehicle when he was shot seven times by a Wisconsin police officer as he opened the SUV’s door, Wisconsin DOJ revealed Wednesday. We also now are seeing evidence that George Floyd died from an overdose of Fentanyl. These are not excuses for police violence, but these details go a long way in explaining what led up to these men’s deaths.
Friday morning, it was evident that downtown Sacramento sustained more damage to local businesses and public buildings. Businesses boarded up what they could ahead of the protests, but smashed windows and spray painted and tagged buildings were prominent. The Sacramento District Attorney’s Office and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office were hard hit, with reports that rioters tried to light the District Attorney’s office on fire.
We are receiving reports of subjects attempting to light a fire at the DA’s office. The fire has been extinguished. There have also been reports of vandalism including spray paint and broken windows. pic.twitter.com/dKXeIj6fcn
— Sacramento Police (@SacPolice) August 28, 2020
No arrests were made. Why?
After pledging solidarity with Portland recently, Mayor Steinberg changed his tune and rightly warned in his blog post, “Vandalizing or destroying Sacramento’s businesses is not principled protest. These hard-working business owners, many from our diverse communities, are struggling to serve our community during the Covid pandemic. Targeting them is cruel and doesn’t recognize the humanity of those who have poured the lives and their savings into enlivening our downtown and our neighborhoods.”
The Sacramento Bee reported:
“About 15 California Highway Patrol officers stood on the west steps of the Capitol as dozens of protesters stood on 10th Street, using a bullhorn to amplify their message. A Sacramento Bee reporter saw two men working their way through the crowd wearing ski masks, gas masks, sunglasses and ballistic-style vests. One man pushed a handcart filled with gas masks.”
These same protesters are calling for the Sacramento City Council to defund Sacramento Police Department, as they wreak destruction throughout downtown.
Demonstrators headed down H. Just passed 9th. pic.twitter.com/YWD5wxZCKQ
— Stephanie Lin (@StephanieLinTV) August 28, 2020
A source sent the Globe a message as she arrived at work Friday morning in downtown Sacramento:
“I’m at the office right now and I saw more businesses boarding up this morning as I drove down J Street. I think last night was riot-lite to get a feel for security. Steinberg should request the National Guard ASAP. It stopped them last time.”
She warned that she is hearing there will be two more much larger riots/protests Friday and Saturday nights.
Antifa has threatened they will start targeting people in their homes as well as downtown businesses.
Protesters marched to the State Capitol where they were met with the Capitol’s California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear.
Many believe Thursday’s protests were light because most of the paid, professional protesters are still in Seattle and Portland. But concern that these professional rioters are making their way back to Sacramento is real.
Black Lives Matter yard signs were all over the city Friday morning, and in public parks.
UPDATE:
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones on Friday requested the National Guard be deployed to downtown Sacramento after Thursday’s protesters vandalized more businesses, broke windows at the downtown offices of the sheriff, district attorney and other government agencies the night before.
Yet the Bee reported: “A peaceful protest at Cesar E. Chavez Plaza downtown gave way to vandalism by separate groups after 8 p.m.”
Jones, showing photographs of protesters wearing body armor during Thursday’s protest, referred to the demonstrations as an “attempted insurrection,” the Bee reported. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert correctly described the actions as a planned attack, given all of the promoting done on social media ahead of the protests.
“It’s been one day and I’m already done with this,” Jones said in a Friday afternoon news conference.
”I’m confident that we can handle our own business here,” Mayor Steinberg said.
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Down here in SoCal I actually heard Steinberg in a radio news blurb talking tough about the protestors and warning them against vandalizing businesses and other property and was surprised. Was it only for show because he got the Dem memo that people are turning way off to mayors who allow this violence and mayhem and chaos? Hoping Steinberg will follow through and BE tough on these destroyers if things worsen tonight and tomorrow and if so that we will see a lot of arrests. Wishing the best to you and all who live and have businesses in the downtown Sacramento area. This has to STOP!
I was there through the entire thing. There was ZERO Sac PD presence. ZERO, within blocks of the gang. They were perfectly free to destroy anything they chose to and to threaten innocent motorists. I called 911 three times and nobody showed up. Steinberg is a total POS.
This is outrageous and cannot continue. First, I do not understand why these mayors (L.A.’s Garcetti is a twin of Steinberg as you probably know) think this inaction (and possibly collusion) works for them and the Dems politically. Why did Steinberg even bother to put out a tough-talking statement if he planned to leave the residents to fend for themselves? Why can there be no intervention from outside if our governor and mayors are calling for stand-downs by police? If we were the victims of a natural disaster instead of this politician-made disaster the Feds would come in and assist us, yes? What the heck are we supposed to do? If we try to defend ourselves we are arrested.
“If we try to defend ourselves we are arrested.” Yes you have gotten the point of the leftist tyrants. Sit back and hope they don’t come to your door. Then do whatever they ask of you in order to survive.
They wont ask for any assistance from the feds cause it admits they were wrong and would assist Trumps election
Was not Antifa declared a terrorist organization in this country like Al Qaeda? We used military power to fight Al Qaeda and kill Osama Binladen. Why can’t we do the same with Antifa? If Steinberg had a spine and a “pair” he would bring in the National Guard and take care of business and get rid of Antifa a WHITE supremacist terrorist organization. This needs to be done nation wide.
Absolutely. I’m so glad I don’t live in downtown Sac anymore. I don’t feel safe…
Thank you for the update. Glad to see Sheriff Scott Jones has the ability to call up the National Guard. AND that you have someone who seems to be a reasonable D.A. Steinberg remains a menace, though. Some mayors are useless. Others, like Steinberg and Garcetti (et al) are actually destructive to their cities. At the very least they should not be drawing a paycheck. For what?
Ahhhh ha ha ha! Out here in Orangevale, we love to hear about commie urban areas getting thrashed. This is also a boon for contractors. They get to repeatedly fix what the mob destroys. I feel sorry for any American business owners, but not for the Democrat ones. They have reliably voted for this situation for over 30 years. Did I mention this already?: ahhhh ha ha ha ha!
Its time to let downtown return to it’s previous glory as “Skid Row”, and forget trying to make something nice in a blue run city.
Amazing knowing this was coming that no preparations were made. Is this a Democratic Legacy. And still resisting help offered by the National Guard to protect Business Owners and all of Sacramento Civilians! Unbelievable! Yeah, keep voting the Dems in office. They’ll let you down every time!! And now they’ll stand by and watch the Capital Burn!
Time to terminate the mayor….
Thank you for exposing this. I too was there and there was no police presence amongst the protesters. This is all BS. He is going to let the roiters do what they want and the police have been ordered to stand down.
Steinberg is basing his political career on his support for a few hundred rioters, looters and arsonists. Apparently he has sided with the rioters against the 2 million people that live there.
You’d have to be a fool not to see the pattern here — left-wing mayors of left-wing cities in leftist states blame left-wing violence inspired by false narratives about police violence spread by left-wing media on president Trump, while leftist violent mobs continue to run rampant because they learned from the pattern of what happened in another left-wing city, where left-wing mayors…… never mind you know the rest.
I just watched the video of the “Mob” breaking into the office.
There was one guy who broke in, the “Fire” was a one hundredth of a second reflection of a light off of something reflective as the glass fell in.
This “antifa mob” is total BS, it was one jerk