San Francisco police arrest nearly 150 during anti-ICE demonstrations

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco police said they arrested nearly 150 people on Sunday night during protests in support of anti-ICE demonstrations down south in Los Angeles that were marred by vandalized buildings, damaged cars and Muni buses, and officers suffering injuries. 

Of that number, 147 have been cited and released. That number includes six minors, police said. About half the people arrested live in San Francisco. 

"As mayor, my first priority every single day is the safety of everyone in San Francisco, whether you live here, work here, or are visiting here," San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said at a Monday news conference. "The tactics being used across the country to target immigrant communities are meant to instill fear."

Lurie said that everyone has a right to express their opinions peacefully and that the police will protect that right.

However, Lurie said sternly: "But let me also be clear. We will not tolerate violent and destructive behavior, and we will never tolerate violence directed at law enforcement or city workers." 
 

San Francisco arrests

The arrests follow an active scene on Sansome and Jackson streets near the ICE building in San Francisco's financial district. Police said three officers were hurt and one was taken to the hospital. Police also recovered one gun at the scene. 

The protest started peacefully, but at 7 p.m., police said some protesters got aggressive and shattered office building windows and vandalized Muni buses. 

A Waymo and San Francisco police car parked near Union Square were damaged as well. Grafitti marred the ICE building. Glass was shattered at Chase bank. 

At one point, BART service at the Embarcadero was closed, as a small group of remaining demonstrators marched through downtown.

Lurie said it appeared as though 400 protesters had gathered at one point. 

As a result, police declared an unlawful assembly to break up the crowd. Police said they began to arrest people after some protesters refused to leave.

At a Monday news conference, interim Police Chief Paul Yep said he wants the city's immigrant communities to know that police in San Francisco want to build trust and that immigration enforcement is the job of the federal government, not SFPD. 

"However, violence and property destruction are a separate matter," Yep said. 

Protesters who spoke to KTVU said they wanted this to be a peaceful demonstration.

"I was just so outraged to see the scenes from the last couple of days in Los Angeles," Nick Weininger of San Francisco said. "I feel like we have to do something. That is not OK, not OK to  treat immigrants like that."

Jesse MacKinnon said he came out from Pleasant Hill to protect people's Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights. 

"These rights are getting trampled on," he said, referring to undocumented people who are getting deported without getting their due process in court. 

 

Los Angeles protests

People in San Francisco were reacting to what was been happening in Los Angeles. 

On Sunday, thousands took to the streets to President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard – against Gov. Gavin Newsom's wishes and advice – where they  blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving Waymo cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.

Sunday marked the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region. 

The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.

Several dozen people in Los Angeles were arrested throughout the weekend, including one person for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. 

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.

Governor responds 

Newsom asked that Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a "serious breach of state sovereignty." He was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials.

The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Trump’s decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to inflame tensions. 

"What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration," Bass said in an afternoon press conference. "This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety."

He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids. 

Newsom maintained that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called Trump a "stone cold liar."

The admonishments did not deter the administration.

"It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

More Bay Area protests 

More protests are expected Monday across the Bay Area, according to Bay Resistance,  calling for the immigration raids by the Trump administration to stop.

In San Francisco, activists will gather at noon at the California state building on Golden Gate Avenue, and then again at 6 p.m., a protest will be held at the 24th and Mission BART plaza.

In Oakland, a protest is planned for 6 p.m. at the Fruitvale plaza.

And in San Jose, a protest is called for 4:30 p.m. on Santa Clara Street.

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