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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Protesters shut down L Street
by Brandon Darnell, published on August 18, 2010 at 4:59 PM
Storyline: Local events
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About 20 protesters – many of whom were in wheelchairs – were arrested Wednesday afternoon after blocking L Street in front of the Capitol to protest cuts to in-home care services in the state budget.
“Those services provide the means for people to live independently and stay out of nursing homes,” said Peni Hall, who came from Berkeley to participate in the protest but who left the street before officers started making arrests.
About 40 police and CHP officers arrived at the protest, said Sgt. Norm Leong, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department.
“We were notified of an improvised protest in the middle of L Street,” Leong said, adding that he believed the group had a permit to protest at the Capitol.
Leong said officers asked the protestors to move, and when they didn’t, they were arrested.
At press time, the 20 protesters were being processed, which Leong said would result in their being cited and released or jailed.
The fact that many were in wheelchairs hindered the process, he said.
Leong did not know exactly how long the protest went on, but he said it had been at least a couple of hours.
Officers reopened L Street at 4:15 p.m.
Hall, who sat in her motorized wheelchair with a sign reading, “Cuts Kill,” said the services currently on the chopping block include in-home care providers.
In-home care providers are instrumental in helping disabled – many of whom are elderly – live in their homes by assisting them with getting out of bed and into their wheelchairs and doing household chores throughout the day, Hall said.
“An institution costs three to five times as much as in-home care,” she said, adding that many disabled people can’t afford that, and must live with family.
Connie Barker is an in-home care provider in San Rafael, and she said it is not just her livelihood at stake, but in many cases, “the very lives of the people I care for.”
Barker said she cares for three people, and they have become friends to her.
“The whole argument behind (the cuts) is really just a travesty,” Barker said. “They say it will save money, but it’s just not true...It’s penny-wise and pound-stupid.”
Barker said the short-term cuts will lead to long-term problems.
“A lot of these people can live on their own for a week, a month, maybe a year,” Barker said, “but after that, they’ll be worse off, and possibly very sick.”
Both Leong and Hall said the protesters intended to be arrested.
“It’s the only way to get the message out,” Hall said.
Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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In this protest situation, what you don't see in Brandon's photos (because the pics are near the end of the situation) is that the intersection at one point was filled with protesters. They had tents in the middle of the intersection as well as people on hospital and ambulance gurneys. Incidents like this require a large law enforcement response as they have a great potential to escalate very quickly. Law enforcement must show a large presence rapidly in an attempt to preempt any violent situations.
I hope that sheds some light. Again...that is based on our experience and what we see and hear every single day and night.
There are many ways to contribute to society besides economic ones. Commuters and tourists by definition are not citizens of a city so their contribution is transitory and largely limited to revenue in-flow. That’s not unimportant, in fact it’s vital, however, the cost to the city by a commuter or tourist using emergency services might cancel out their individual contribution.
Unless billing commuters and tourists for emergency services was considered astoundingly immoral and/or unprecedented (neither of which they are) that the city might get such a poor reputation that people stopped commuting or visiting the city for fear that they might overcharged for using publicly-supported services. This is highly unlikely.
Also some of these ‘contributing’ commuters and tourists themselves will break the law or do stupid things which require assistant. Most likely the protestors themselves are commuters and ‘tourists’ and will contributed to the local economy by buying food, goods and services while in town to protest.
I’m not saying that the protestors should not have been forcibly moved, but your statement -“consequential damages suffered by the public” is either hyperbole and/or shows your ignorance of the fundamental rights and responsibilities of citizens living in the democratic state. Sometimes streets need to be blocked. Sometimes state-regulated protest is not good enough. It seems to me that the offense for blocking the street is pretty minor. It's just a street.
A protest situation involving large numbers of people surrounding a group of protesters prepared to get arrested can escalate quickly. Through many civil disobedience experiences both locally and throughout the nation, police have learned that if you don't have adequate numbers during civil disobedience things can become violent quickly. In the end our response resulted in the protesters being escorted off the street and processed for citations (except for the organizer who was taken to jail) without issues. I would rather have a large presence to keep the peace than to have fewer officers and lose control of a situation.
In fact you are quoted as saying Second Saturday is "a great thing." Where are you and your force when reality hits? Facts are that PD chooses a safe route of arresting the elderly and disabled while letting the violent drunks and other Second Saturday night scofflaws spiral out of control, like the damage done to a number of cars on 24th last Saturday.