SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
As Sacramento Police Department prepared for the third round of protests in the state's capital city, police chief Daniel Hahn reflected on how protests unfolded on Saturday night.
The following interview with Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn has been edited for clarity.
ABC10: What happened from the police perspective?
I would say it's the tale of two different protests. What we saw on Friday were protests winded through the streets, there were definitely some tense moments, but we saw some community leaders diffusing those tense moments. We saw a lot of officers, our officers performing very professionally and then they walked back.
ABC10: How did the night progress Friday?
At the end of the night, it became a little violent. A small group of protesters threw cement bricks and chunks at officers; several of our officers were hit in the head with bricks. Luckily, no injuries that our officers had to be hospitalized for, but that could've gone very differently. There were some protesters that would try to pull officers in the crowd, so that was a challenge, but we didn't see any businesses looted, the widespread organization utilized.
ABC10: What happened on Saturday night?
Then yesterday, on Saturday, during the day from about 9 o'clock until dark, we saw about a thousand protesters arrive at the Capitol, and eventually, a bunch of different groups split up. A large group was walking downtown, eventually getting to West Sac and getting on Interstate 5.
ABC10: Was there violence and vandalism?
At times, some people in that group would throw water bottles at officers, but for the most part, that group was fairly calm. At times, we would even hear protesters telling other protesters not to damage cars or break windows, in fact. I don't know of any cars or businesses damaged during that time. That went on for hours and obviously volatile at times in terms of commotion but nothing of what we saw at night.
ABC10: When did the looting start?
Then the evening came, and we saw a group of a thousand dwindle to about 350-400, and then it changed. The group started breaking windows as they walked around downtown, broke out windows in front of the jail, eventually lit fires in the middle of the street. Then we saw things like changing of shifts, new protesters rotating in an organized fashion. Then we saw boxes of rocks delivered to protesters, very organized; then, they would throw it all night long. There was some sort of round object lit on fire thrown at officers. When we tried to arrest someone, people would surround him so he could disappear back into the crowd.
ABC10: What made this protest different than others?
A segment seemed very coordinated, very violent. It's not a normal burglary where we can dispatch officers and detail it; we can't just send three officers. We have to send a contingent in this situation.
I know we had people local to our city; some were from out of state; we live and work here, and we recognize people.
ABC10: How much will this cost the city?
Talk to a business association, but I can tell you there was a lot of damage.
There is a lot of damage to our businesses. You can see from outside there's a lot of damage.
ABC10: Will imposing a curfew help?
A curfew is not going to mean anything to them. Will it give us a better opportunity to prevent them from accomplishing that.
There's a lot of protesters, especially during the day, and that's not what they're doing. That's why we saw the crowd dwindle. My guess is there's people who don't believe what happened last night is not good for their city.
ABC10: What makes this different from the protests following Stephon Clark and now?
When we talk about Stephon Clark, we saw two years of protests. Some got volatile and with a lot of emotion.
The biggest difference I would say is those were our community protesting over something emotional the shooting happened in our city.
The difference between last night and those is they were people in our community. At the end of the day, they are from and care about our community. Last night, those were not our community. When you don't care about our community, that's what you saw last night.
Extremely grateful for folks like that. I think that's another example of who loves our city and who doesn't. I fully believe that the people doing that damage don't care about our city.
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