A dramatic day of protest Thursday over the shooting of a young unarmed black man began at Sacramento City Hall, shut down Interstate 5 during rush hour and culminated with hundreds of protesters blocking most ticket holders from entering the downtown arena for a Sacramento Kings game. In the end, there were no arrests and, aside from a few scuffles, little violence, the Sacramento Bee reports. “This is an epic day for black Sacramento,” said Brrazey Liberty, a musician and activist with Black Lives Matter. “We feel like we had a victory today. Today was ours.”
The demonstrators were protesting Sunday’s fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark, 22, who was holding only a cellphone when two Sacramento police officers fired 20 rounds at him in the backyard of his grandparents’ home. The officers believed Clark was a burglary suspect who was armed. The demonstration began near City Hall around 3 p.m. Protesters entered the building chanting “Face the people!” On the freeway, they stood in front of a big rig and other vehicles chanting, “Don’t shoot. It’s a cellphone!” They also started yelling, “We don’t want you,” as a California Highway Patrol helicopter flew overhead. The protest snarled traffic around central city freeways, with cars backed up nearly a mile south. At the basketball game, security personnel locked entrances to the stadium and abandoned equipment outside. Fans lined up waiting to get into the game while protesters chanted, “Shut it down!” and held Black Lives Matter banners. They formed a human chain across the arena’s doors. Kings delayed the start of the game against the Atlanta Hawks but didn’t cancel it. The result was that the teams tipped off in a largely empty Golden 1 Center. Only about 2,000 people out of more than 17,000 ticket holders took their seats.