Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced Friday that no charges will be filed against the 84 protesters arrested Monday during a gathering in East Sacramento over Schubert's decision to not charge the two officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark last March.
Among those arrested were clergy members and two reporters. A reporter with The Sacramento Bee was also detained.
Sacramento Police Sgt. Vance Chandler said the protesters were arrested after officers asked them to disperse several times following reports of cars being keyed.
Schubert said that her office received and reviewed the Sacramento Police Department reports related to the arrests of 84 protesters and found that, in the interest of justice, no charges will be filed in any of the cases submitted.
Rev. Kevin Kitrell Ross, one of the 84 people who was arrested that night, issued the following statement about the DA dropping the charges:
“With cameras, clergy, college students, and citizens present, a militarized police force aggressively violated the constitutional rights of and arrested innocent people.
I am grateful that the charges have been dropped against the peaceful protesters who should have not been arrested in the first place.
Our city, however, is a long way away from being healed, when the two officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark are free to police our community and the law that permitted them to kill him without consequence has not been changed in over 100 years.
We are no safer than we were before the charges were dropped. In fact, we are more vulnerable. The same militarized police force that was not charged for Stephon Clarke’s death is still at large in our city —
And so I am calling on people of goodwill to demand that the two officers not be allowed to police our community and to contact your legislators and demand that they support AB 392 that will save lives and make Sacramento a safer, more just place to live.”
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?
Do protesters have rights? Yes, but a lot of those rights rely on the judgment of the police officers.
"It has to be a reasonable exercise of discretion," stated civil rights attorney Mark Merin. "When someone crosses the street other than a street corner, theoretically you could be violating the law."
RELATED:
Part of the reason why so many people were arrested on Monday night was due to the officers trying to disband the protest, the Sacramento Police Department said. The protesters were legally allowed to be there, but, once the officers deemed it to be an unlawful assembly, actions were taken.
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