Pro-Palestinian protesters block the Golden Gate Bridge. April 15, 2024.
SAN FRANCISCO – More than 150 people gathered outside the San Francisco jail on Monday morning for a rally in support of those charged with a protest on the Golden Gate Bridge in April.
The protesters face a variety of charges, ranging from criminal conspiracy to trespassing to false imprisonment.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced the charges and arrest warrants over the weekend. And on Monday, the protesters turned themselves in.
The rally featured drumming, singing, and lots of signs and flags in front of the San Francisco County Jail.
Jeff Wozniak, the protesters’ lawyer from the National Lawyers Guild, said his clients did not want to spend up to 12 hours in jail, so they were summoned and released.
“These are all people who had no criminal record,” he said. “There was no rule that it had to be this way.”
The summons stem from a protest rally on April 15 on the Golden Gate Bridge against the war in Gaza and US military support for Israel. The demonstrators chained themselves to cars and to each other.
The California Highway Patrol estimates that 20,000 drivers were stranded for about five hours.
In charging documents, prosecutors list these drivers as victims – at least one driver missed surgery to remove a brain tumor and another driver ran out of water for her baby’s formula.
“They were held against their will and at the mercy of the 26 people involved in this incident,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement.
Rally organizers, including Wassim Hage of the Arab Resource Organizing Center, called the prosecutor’s charges exaggerated and called for them to be dropped. He said the road blockades were a “noble cause.”
Eight of the 26 protesters face criminal conspiracy charges and must post $75,000 bail.
Wozniak said it was unusual to issue arrest warrants for nonviolent actions such as protests. He said the prosecutor had not done so for people involved in previous demonstrations.
“This is dramatically more than in any other case,” Wozniak said. “What’s the difference? Why are they being treated differently than in the Bay Bridge case?”
