Protesters who blocked Bay Bridge announce agreement with court, avoid jail time
SAN FRANCISCO – Dozens of protesters who blocked the Bay Bridge late last year as they called for a cease fire in Gaza announced that they have reached an agreement with the court that would allow all of them to avoid jail time.
The group, which have become known as the "Bay Bridge 78", walked out of a courtroom Thursday to a cheering crowd that had packed the hallway to support them. In the words of organizers, the outcome was a complete victory.
"Essentially the judge dismissed our case as of May 15," said organizer Woods Ervin. "With a diversion offer of five hours, community service and a little under $4,500 in restitution."
On Nov. 16, 2023, the protesters blocked the westbound lanes of the eastern span, calling for a cease fire as President Joe Biden and other world leaders were in the Bay Area for the APEC Summit. The protest, which began at the height of the morning commute, disrupted traffic on the heavily traveled span for several hours.
As for a precedent here, we have seen an incident like this before. In 2016, protestors with Black Lives Matter took over the bridge and the California Highway Patrol arrested 25 people.
George Gascon, who was District Attorney as the time, reduced the charges to simple traffic citations, saying it was in the interest of free speech. Then, a judge threw those charges out wholesale.
So while blocking the bridge is illegal, there is plenty of room for discretion.
"The government does have a certain amount of prosecutorial discretion in terms of whether it's going to arrest people, whether it's going to say go home or allow people to leave. There's all sorts of latitude of discretion that is presented at various parts of the process," said Christina Koningsor, professor of constitutional law at UC Law San Francisco. "But certainly, terms of First Amendment question, they are permitted to say, either move to the sidewalk, or you have to stop your protest."
The protestors initially asked for the charges to be dropped completely, and there was a great deal of anger directed toward District Attorney Brooke Jenkins for pursuing the charges in the first place.
One of the 78 defended the protest, saying the movement is being misrepresented.
"I still stand behind what we have done, and that we needed to make the statement that we needed to do in order to make our voices loud and clear," Mesa, one of the protesters, said. "This movement is much larger than what is being perceived in the media, and I hope that you as a reporter can reflect that in your own reporting."
