Mayor Daniel Lurie has not exactly been warmly embraced by everyone in the city's LGBTQ+ community in the last week, as Pride Month celebrations begin.

Things began awkwardly last week with the official raising of the Rainbow Flag at City Hall. As KTVU reported, Mayor Lurie was heckled by by protesters who were angry about proposed budget cuts affecting grants to LGBTQ-serving organizations in the city — though it appears most of that funding was restored in the mayor's last submitted budget draft.

As the Bay Area Reporter reported last week, "most" of the proposed cuts to the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, which provides many grants to LGBTQ organizations, were averted, though it remains unclear what is still planned to be cut. Other grants to community organizations, including a grant to the Castro Merchants Association, have been restored, though some healthcare related funding may remain on the chopping block.

While Lurie was booed and shouted down at the flag-raising event, he said, "You want me to wait? Let them have their voice? Hey, this is San Francisco. We expect this."

According to KTVU, Lurie then said, "I understand deeply that there is anxiety about the budget. That is why this year we made significant investments in health care, and we will continue to support the organizations doing critical work for the LGBTQ+ community."

At a second event on Saturday, June 6, celebrating the 90th birthday of Cliff's Variety in the Castro, Lurie was similarly shouted down by a protester when he took the stage. The exchange is documented in the video below, which was posted to TikTok and Instagram, with text over the video saying that $40 million was being cut from the budget in funding for "public health funding," though it's not clear where that number comes from.

The protester yelled, "These are live-saving programs. What are you going to do to stand up and protect us? We need you to stand up and protect our community! Not cut funding for our community!"

Lurie asks the heckler, "Can we talk after?" and he shouts "No!"

In his June 1 budget proposal announcement, Lurie said, "In this budget, we’re standing up for San Francisco’s communities and our values. As the federal government targets trans and LGBTQ+ communities, we’re stepping up with investments to protect the organizations that San Franciscans rely on. Our trans and LGBTQ+ communities have shaped who we are as a city, and we will have their backs – in this budget and every day."

Per the BAR, funding levels are being maintained in the budget for the following organizations: LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ+ Youth, the San Francisco Community Health Center, the Asian Women's Shelter, El/La Para TransLatinas, Miss Major Alexander L. Lee Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project the Black Trans Cultural Center, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, and the Transgender Advocates for Justice & Accountability Coalition.

In March, the city's Health Commission approved $17 million in cuts to funding for community organizations, including those serving the LGBTQ+ population. Those funding cuts reportedly have already impacted the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the San Francisco Community Health Center, and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, and it's not clear if any of that funding has been restored.

Previously: Mayor Lurie Says Most Layoffs Have Now Been Avoided In New Proposed Budget

Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram held a meet-and-greet in Bodega Bay Wednesday, which was met with a group of local protesters and community members denouncing the sheriff for handing over 70 people to ICE in 2025, urging him to support a proposed non-compliance ordinance.

As KTVU reports, a standard meet-and-greet that Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram held for west county residents in Bodega Bay Wednesday evening ended up serving as a platform for the larger Sonoma County community to air their grievances to the sheriff for cooperating with ICE, including protestors from the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition.

The protesters, many of them with the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition, pointed out that 70 people were released to ICE officials last year, explaining that state law enables the sheriff to refuse participating with ICE altogether, per KTVU.

"People are going straight from the jail, after they've served their sentences, to ICE detention and eventually deportation," said Renee Saucedo of the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition.

Sheriff Engram argued that his office only acts on warrants from a judge and strictly notifies ICE about immigrants with serious or violent convictions. As Hoodline reports, the sheriff’s office provided the community with details on its policies in a May 11, 2025 letter.

“We only have contact with ICE for serious and violent felonies and only those who have been convicted. My decisions are based on what I think is overall better for community safety,” said Engram, per KTVU.

As KTVU reports, the sanctuary coalition is urging the sheriff and other county officials to support their non-compliance ordinance, which would “legally prohibit the use of County resources to aid federal immigration enforcement, except when absolutely required by state or federal law,” per the group’s website.

According to the coalition’s website, the ordinance “builds upon past actions by the Board of Supervisors, including protections for DACA recipients, support for immigrant legal defense, and public opposition to ICE collaboration, by finally codifying these protections into law.”

Hoodline notes that Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey recently changed his position on the county’s relationship with ICE and has begun pushing the county to cut ties, as reported by the outlet KRCB.

The sanctuary coalition says it will continue to put pressure on the sheriff and board of supervisors to support the ordinance.

Image: Sheriff Eddie Engram/Facebook

You may have seen this coming, but Monday's small dustup in Berkeley that appears to have left one t-shirt seller bloodied, and that Fox News characterized as sheer bedlam — which it was not — is now going to be investigated by the Trump Justice Department.

Earlier we discussed the Monday protest on the UC Berkeley campus that led to one fistfight and exactly four arrests, but was otherwise a fairly garden-variety campus protest over a politically conservative event — the Turning Point USA roadshow that has lately been memorializing Charlie Kirk, following his September assassination.

Footage from a dustup, in which student protesters were chanting "Nazis go home!" and "Fuck you, fascists!" at one guy selling Jesus-y t-shirts — which was f0llowed by someone tossing some t-shirts to the ground and then getting in a scuffle with the t-shirt guy that left his face bloodied — made the rounds of conservative social media, with the mostly unmasked student protesters being disingenuously labeled "Antifa."

The actual Turning Point event inside Zellerbach Hall went off without incident, and there was not a lot of hay to make of all this. But that has not stopped the NY Post from referring to the "Bloody chaos" on the campus, and Fox News covering the "bloody brawl," both of which are clear exaggerations.

Presciently, in this video posted to Xitter by Turning Point, you can hear someone in the crowd saying, "This is what they want!" as the scuffle broke out, referring to Trump and his allies' use of video footage like this as evidence that all anti-conservative protest is utter, lawless anarchy.

Tweeting about the incident Tuesday, longtime California Republican firebrand Harmeet Dhillon, who is now Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice, writes, "The @CivilRights will investigate what happened here, and I see several issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa’s ability to operate with impunity in CA."

It's all fairly ridiculous, but this could still come back to haunt UC Berkeley, which remains a target of Trump's wrath.

As the New York Times reports, the Justice Department wrote a letter to the university Tuesday, notifying them of the investigation.

Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for the university, tells the Times that there was "a single violent incident" and it involved two people on a sidewalk that was not even on campus property. The t-shirt seller was arrested along with the other guy involved in the scuffle, but we know the t-shirt guy was released without charges.

Two other people were arrested in separate, non-violent incidents, and we know there is video showing some fireworks getting set off, and there was a report of bottles thrown as police were holding a line outside the sold-out event.

Per the Times, the Justice Department has said that as it is investigating UC Berkeley over claims of antisemitism and DEI hiring practices, Monday's incident may get "folded in to those investigations."

Previously: Fistfight Kicks Off Charlie Kirk Tribute Event In Berkeley, Four People End Up Getting Arrested

A woman who was protesting the November 2023 APEC summit in San Francisco was left with devastating injuries from being sucker-punched by a man who had just shown up to volunteer at the event. She's now suing the organizers and the man himself.

The incident happened on November 15, 2023, amid a series of scattered protests focused on a range of issues, as international delegates and President Biden came to town for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit. This was just a month after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, and Israel's subsequent mass bombing campaign in Gaza, and protest energy was high all over the Bay Area.

Protester Sarah White, now 41, was seen in a video (see below) shouting "Shame!" and "People over profits!" at a man identified later as Michael Davies, 42, who had just shown up at the APEC summit to work as a volunteer. Davies found himself outside the gates of the heavily guarded Moscone Center event and unable to easily get back inside after he'd been told he needed to dress more appropriately to volunteer — Davies's wife reportedly dropped off a sport jacket and change of clothes for him nearby.

Just prior to the assault on White, Davies, who was wearing a conference lanyard, was seen being hassled by a large group of protesters, and he then went to a Secret Service agent who was standing behind a fence, apparently to ask advice about how to get back into the event.

The video above, posted to Xitter, did not include the punch being thrown. But a different video shot from another angle, obtained by the Chronicle, appears to show Davies throwing the punch at White without warning, and then walking away up the sidewalk, where he was pulled aside and detained by SFPD officers.

White was knocked to the ground, hitting her head on a metal plate there, and can be seen lying on the ground reeling. A Chronicle photographer later captured an image of her friend and a police officer helping her walk away from the incident, with paper towel or gauze in her mouth, while Davies sits on a curb, handcuffed.

As White tells the Chronicle, her injuries were not minor. She sustained a broken jaw — broken in two places on opposite sides of her face — a skull fracture, a brain bleed, teeth knocked in, and fractures to the part of her skull that connects to the spine. She spent four nights in the ICU at Zuckerberg SF General, and had her jaw wired shut for two months as her jaw healed.

As she puts it, "He completely rearranged my bones in my body forever," and she tells the paper that doctors told her if she sustains another concussion, it could be fatal. She also continues to suffer from the effects of a traumatic brain injury, including short-term memory loss.

White now has a lawsuit, filed Monday, that alleges assault, battery, and other charges, seeking unspecified damages for her injuries — naming Davies, the National Center for APEC and the APEC Secretariat as defendants. While APEC was supposed to be doing background checks on volunteers, the suit alleges that Davies obtained a volunteer lanyard without any such check — he has a criminal history that includes a vandalism incident in San Francisco, and a Florida conviction for being drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest.

The suit contends that the summit organizers hired Davies, even though "unlike other volunteers available for hire, had not received security credentials from the US Secret Service."

As one of White's attorneys, Adam Shearer, tells SFist, "Michael Davies clearly assaulted Sarah White — that's not in dispute.  But others share responsibility.  The entities that hired and placed him at APEC's CEO Summit failed to screen and train him for protests they knew were coming.  Their negligence contributed directly to what happened."

Separately, Davies faces a criminal proceeding in San Francisco, where he's charged with felony assault. In that case, Davies and attorney Tony Brass are seeking mental health diversion in lieu of jail time — something that Davies received for the earlier vandalism case.

White tells the Chronicle that she sees bad faith in the effort to avoid punishment for the assault, saying, "From my perspective, it’s really hard not to feel like the system is being used in a deeply inappropriate way to benefit people that it was not meant to be there for."

A judge is expected to rule on the diversion request in the coming weeks.

Previously: Man Identified as APEC Volunteer Allegedly Punches Protester as Demonstrations Get More Hostile

Photos via Sarah White

A 26-year-old man is now facing federal charges for a bizarre act that capped off a mostly peaceful day of protests outside the Coast Guard facility where federal agents were being staged for a local operation that called off by President Trump.

The events of Wednesday, October 22, and Thursday, October 23, rattled the Bay Area as President Trump's monthslong threat to send National Guard troops to quell non-existent unrest in the Bay Area appeared to be coming to a head. The news broke on the 22nd that around 100 federal agents, possibly from US Customs and Border Patrol, had been deployed to Coast Guard Base Alameda for an upcoming operation likely involving immigrants and/or federal properties — an obvious provocation by the Trump administration that would likely have spawned angry protests, which Trump would then use as a pretext for sending in the Guard and creating a new, entirely manufactured televised event for his own political gain.

By the morning of October 23, we were learning that Trump had had phone calls with Mayor Daniel Lurie and billionaires Marc Benioff and Jensen Huang who had convinced him not to pull this insanity in the Bay Area. But the early morning and remainder of the day on the 23rd nonetheless showed us a small piece of what could have unfolded, with a small but lively protest in Oakland, at the entrance bridge to the Coast Guard base, that resulted in high tension and a few injuries.

The most serious injuries came at the end of that day, when a U-Haul truck that had not previously been involved in any protest appeared to aggressively back up toward federal agents at the gate, and its driver refused to comply with commands to stop. After allegedly coming within about 15 feet of those agents, at least one of them opened fire toward the driver, striking and injuring him.

A bystander was also shot in the stomach, but survived.

The U-Haul truck then left the scene, only to park a few hundred yards away on a nearby street. And surveillance video showed that a car soon pulled up to fetch the injured driver, who was arrested after seeking treatment at a hospital.

That driver has now been identified as 26-year-old Brendan Munro Thompson, who also goes by the name Bella Castillo. As KTVU reports, Thompson has now been formally indicted in federal court, and he faces charges of assaulting federal officers.

"As alleged, Thompson drove a U-Haul truck directly into a line of Coast Guard personnel who were protecting the Coast Guard base, as they bravely do day in and day out," said U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian in a statement. "Let this be clear: there is zero tolerance for assault on federal officers or property, and those who do so will face federal criminal charges."

Thompson's motives, and what he thought he was accomplishing with this brazen act, remain unclear.

Protesters that had been there all day say that Thompson arrived very late, around 9:30 pm, and acted entirely alone.

"In fact, we tried to stop them," says Kris Ness, speaking to KTVU. "It’s a really terrible picture for the rest of us... Aside from the fact that he was a completely independent actor, he refused to talk to us as well. It was all around just a really weird, dangerous, and unfortunate situation."

Thompson is scheduled to appear in federal court next week, November 10, to answer to these charges.

Top image: Police officers investigate a U-Haul truck that was involved in an incident outside of Coast Guard Island Alameda on October 23, 2025 in Oakland, California. U.S. Coast Guard police opened fire on a U-Haul truck after it backed up a ramp at the entrance to Coast Guard Island Alameda, where US Customs and Border Patrol agents are staying. Earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump told San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie that he was suspending planned immigration raids in San Francisco. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Thursday could bring chaos to the Bay Area, and local leaders are hoping against hope that any protesters can temper their passions long enough to avoid what Trump and his team surely want, which are television images of violence and protest chaos that they can use to make their case for fascism.

SF Mayor Daniel Lurie rushed to put out a video statement, which had clearly been prepared in advance of Wednesday's news that at least 100 US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents were assembling at Coast Guard Base Alameda in preparation for some sort of operation.

Lurie made his statement flanked by law enforcement and city leaders, including supervisors Connie Chan and Rafael Mandelman, City Attorney David Chiu, and Interim SFPD Chief Paul Yep.

Lurie's main message, much like the messages put out by Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and Governor Gavin Newsom today, is for everyone who is disgusted, angered, and appalled by the Trump administration's actions to try to temper that anger and not play into Trump's hand.

"If federal officials come to incite chaos on the streets of San Francisco, the way to support our communities, and keep everyone in our city safe, is to make our voices heard peacefully," Lurie said. "Violence and destruction will only open the door to a more aggressive response, and that puts our communities at greater risk."

Lurie was careful yet again not mention Trump by name — that wasn't the case for Newsom, who tweeted today, "President Trump and Stephen Miller’s authoritarian playbook is coming for another of our cities, and violence and vandalism are exactly what they’re looking for to invoke chaos.  Help keep yourself and your communities safe. Remain peaceful."

Newsom also said that the administration's "self-created chaos" will then be used by them as an "excuse for militarization."

Lurie's message is similarly aimed at pushing for a calm and collected response.

"In cities across the country, masked immigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instill fear so people don’t feel safe going about their daily life," Lurie said. "These tactics are designed to incite backlash, chaos and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel. They are intentionally creating a dangerous situation in the name of public safety."

While Trump has spoken in recent days in terms of crime, and implied that San Francisco — like other liberal cities he has targeted with similar rhetoric — needs federal help to fight crime, the operation planned for Thursday appears focused on immigration.

Lurie acknowledged that he does not know what is planned, or where the operation will take place, but he said that City Attorney David Chiu was "ready to take necessary legal action" to push back on any illegal deployment of the National Guard, or similar action.

"Sending the military to San Francisco will not help our city or our country... Having the military posted in front of our schools, restaurants and office buildings will hinder our progress and let chaos get in the way of our recovery," Lurie said.

He added, "This doesn’t make our city safer, it terrorizes our communities. San Francisco will never stand by as our neighbors are targeted and neither will I."

Newsom subsequently put up his own video on Xitter, saying of the situation, in which Trump might use protester actions as a pretext for calling in the National Guard, "This is no different than the arsonist putting out the fire. We can not play his game."

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee has a press conference planned for Thursday morning at 10:30 am, and she issued a statement as well.

"I am seeing the media reports and headlines about federal agents being deployed to Coast Guard Base Alameda," Lee said. "Oakland remains a proud sanctuary city committed to standing with our immigrant families, and we are actively monitoring this situation and are in touch with our state and federal delegation. We will notify our community with as much information as possible about any federal deployment. Real public safety comes from Oakland-based solutions, not federal military occupation."

The City of Alameda also put out a statement, given that their city will be federal agents' base of operations. "Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but we urge people to avoid direct interaction with federal law enforcement," the city said.

The course of action of CBP agents could mirror what they have done in Los Angeles, harassing immigrant communities, or it could be different. But the image of heavily armed federal agents doing anything in San Francisco is more than likely to provoke some protest.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security emphasized that agents would target criminals who are undocumented — however CBP and ICE have clearly not been targeting immigrant communities more broadly.

"As the Secretary said on Monday, DHS is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists — in cities such as Portland, Chicago, Memphis and San Francisco. As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation," the spokesperson said.

Update: Mayor Lurie says he received assurances on Wednesday night and Thursday morning that President Trump had "called off" any federal deployment in San Francisco, however this leaves open the possibility that the deployment will be confined to the East Bay.

Previously: Trump's Federal Invasion of San Francisco to Begin on Thursday

The so-called Stanford 11, the group of protesters accused of breaking into the office of the university president amid pro-Palestinian protests in June 2024, were scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

The group of current and former students, along with one Peninsula resident, were seen on social media videos storming the office of Stanford University President Richard Saller early on the morning of June 5, 2024, during the nationwide wave of college campus protests over the war in Gaza. They stand accused of felony vandalism and conspiracy to trespass, as KTVU reports, they were all due in court on Monday to face those charges, following a September 29 grand jury indictment.

That indictment, which defense attorneys say is political, supercedes an earlier, identical one issued in the spring, and it allows the district attorney to avoid a public preliminary hearing in which the validity of evidence may be questioned.

There were originally 13 people arrested in the occupation of the president's office. The current group of 12 consists of three former Stanford students, eight current students, and one Peninsula resident — and now that non-student will be testifying against the other 11, as KQED explains. The group ranges in age from 19 to 32.

One of those arrested, Dilan Gohill, a reporter for the campus newspaper, The Stanford Daily, was cleared of criminal charges, and the university cleared him of disciplinary charges as well.

Criticizing the DA's office, defense attorney Jeff Wozniak told KQED, "They made this a very public case. They decided to charge felonies, they decided to hold a press conference, they decided to seek national media coverage of this charging decision. And now to hold a secret non-public hearing to secure an indictment is just outrageous to me."

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said during the initial indictment process in April, that he believed this case goes beyond the boundaries of free speech.

"Our speech must be protected, true," Rosen said, per KTVU. "But so must our schools, our workplaces and our homes. We’re here today because I will not allow people hiding behind masks to commit crimes."

As Rosen summarized it, "Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal."

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has taken a similar stance with Gaza protesters who blocked a critical artery into and out of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge, on April 15, 2024. Last November, a judge threw out the majority of the charges against that group, known as the GG26, and last month, the group was continuing to try to get their charges reduced.

The Stanford 11 are not likely to face jail time, but if they plead guilty, which Rosen is encouraging them to do, they will likely face sentences that include community service and restitution to the university.

John Richardson, the Peninsula resident who took part in the June 2024, has pleded no contest to his charges in exchange for probation and a diversion program, and he has been testifying for the prosecution.

Wozniak tells KQED that the university and the DA's office are "trying to chill the students' speech and trying to scare other students from demanding divestment from genocide, divestment from apartheid," and, he adds, "they’re not going to accomplish those goals of chilling these students’ political actions."

Related: Stanford Drops Disciplinary Case Against Student Journalist Covering Gaza Protest

Photo by Robert Gareth

• ICE arrested two protestors who are US citizens outside its 630 Sansome Street field office Friday afternoon before releasing them later that night. Agents reportedly mocked the group of ten protesters while pointing pepper ball rifles and batons at them. [Mission Local]
• Rodney Williams, 55, of San Francisco was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Friday on charges including two counts of possession of child pornography. In July 2024, police found hundreds of images and videos of child sexual abuse at Williams’s Potrero Hill home, along with around 3.8 kilograms of methamphetamine; a kilogram of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl; 11 firearms; and 116 pounds of ammunition. [Bay City News]
• A suspected shoplifter at the Colma Target bit a police officer's arm while trying to avoid arrest after first ignoring police and attempting to walk around them. [KRON4]
• Newsom appointed seven new judges to Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara county courts on Thursday. [KPIX]
• Noah Alhayek, an 11-year-old San Jose boy, has been missing since August 4 and was last known to be taking public transit to San Francisco. [KRON4]
• Jennifer Bryant, 25, is scheduled to appear in court Monday on charges of animal cruelty in the 2024 death of a horse named Honey, who died from malnutrition and heat stroke when Bryant was manager of Chaparral Ranch’s Bear Creek Stables in Los Gatos [KTVU]
• A team of scientists at California Academy of Sciences is part of a collective of agencies working to save 26 species of starfish impacted by a “wasting disease” that’s caused by rising ocean temperatures. [KPIX]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

San Franciscans came out to protest the actions of both President Donald Trump and Elon Musk at a protest event Monday dubbed 'No Kings on Presidents Day.'

Similar events happened outside civic buildings across the country Monday, as the group the 50501 Movement organized protests to give voice to many Americans' frustrations with the current administration — which has been acting as if Trump does not have to answer to courts or Congress to take any action he pleases.

Organizers said they were organizing rallies and marches to protest the "anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies.”

As the Associated Press reports, an affiliated march in Boston included nearly 1,000 people, and featured some dressed in Revolutionary War garb.

The group in front of San Francisco City Hall was at least a few hundred strong, with some carrying signs like "Name One Thing Trump Has Done Lately That Isn't Illegal or Immoral," and "Are You In My Nightmare Too?"

Also, someone had a "Deport Elon" sign.

Separately, a protest was occurring outside a Tesla dealership on Van Ness Avenue. There, as KRON4 reports, protesters carried signs saying "Don't Buy Nazi Cars," "Our Democracy is Not a Startup," and "No One Voted for Elon Musk."

Scenes from the Civic Center rally below.

A big courtroom win for the protesters known as “the GG26” who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge with a Gaza ceasefire protest on April 15, as an SF judge has thrown out 32 of the 44 charges that DA Brooke Jenkins had brought against them.

Now more than seven months after the April 15 protests blocked the Golden Gate Bridge to urge a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, the protesters are still in the news as their case winds its way through the courts.

Back in August, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged 26 people with a slew of felonies including false imprisonment, saying that “hundreds of motorists were trapped on the Golden Gate Bridge and US 101, who had no choice but to remain imprisoned on the freeway for several hours.” But the felony counts brought backlash after previous bridge protesters had not faced such serious charges.

In a Friday ruling, SF Superior Court Judge Judge Brendan P. Conroy seemed to agree. KTVU reports that Judge Conroy dismissed 32 of the 44 charges against the 26 protesters, tossing out nearly 75% of all charges. According to a release from defense attorneys, “The judge also expressed an openness to reducing the charges for eight individuals from felonies to misdemeanors, and reducing restitution to a reasonable amount when the case proceeds in December.”

“Today’s decision is a huge win for our clients and the community at large,” defense attorney Jeff Wozniak said in that release. “DA Jenkins overcharged this case and that was why Judge Conroy dismissed 75 percent of the charges. The clients know their actions were just, taken to speak up for the thousands of Palestinians murdered in the past year and that the initial, overly-harsh charges were merely an effort to silence their activism.”

Though the Chronicle points out that many of the felony charges remain in place. One of the defendants facing felony charges had their case dismissed outright, leaving seven of the 26 defendants still facing felony charges of false imprisonment and conspiracy.

An arraignment for those remaining charges is scheduled for Friday, December 6 at SF Superior Court.

Related: Protests Block Golden Gate Bridge, All Northbound Lanes of 880 In Oakland [SFist]

Image: @JerseyNoahx via Twitter

Some of the 26 individuals who are facing criminal charges stemming from a Tax Day protest in April that shut down the Golden Gate Bridge for several hours made court appearances on Monday, and were joined by activists protesting their prosecution.

D0zens of protesters gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom Monday at SF's Hall of Justice chanting "Drop the charges!" as a group of the April 15 protest participants faced a preliminary hearing. NBC Bay Area has footage from outside the courtroom, and they report that members of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) were part of the protest.

An NBC reporter described the demonstration Monday as "quick" but "rowdy."

A public defender representing one of the charged protesters told the station that all of the protesters' actions were "protected speech."

Wassim Hage with AROC tells NBC, "The charges are exemplary and ridiculous... It’s clear that there is an attempt here to discourage or intimidate people from trying acts of public civil disobedience. I don't think it's going to be effective."

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the charges against the 26 protesters in early August, saying that the April 15 protest put lives and safety at risk.

"The demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge caused a level of safety risk, including extreme threats to the health and welfare of those trapped, that we as a society cannot ignore or allow," Jenkins said in a statement. She included several examples of those who were stuck in hours of traffic which included a surgeon who had cancel all their operations that day, and an infant who missed a pre-surgery appointment.

In total, 38 charges were filed against the 26 protesters, including conspiracy and false imprisonment — and eight individuals are facing felony charges.

The handling of this protest, so far, stands in contrast to how the DA's office handled a similar protest last November that shut down the westbound Bay Bridge for several hours. In that case, 78 people were arrested and charged with misdemeanors, and they all accepted plea deals for pre-trial diversion in March.

Jenkins appears to want to make an example of the Golden Gate Bridge protesters and seek harsher penalties.

The group used a tactic known as "sleeping dragon," concealing handcuffed hands under PVC pipe to make it more difficult for police to break up their human chain. A group of them — likely the ones facing the felony charges — linked arms out car windows in order to blockade the entire bridge. Each of the PVC pipes had the words "Stop the Genocide" painted on them.

The day of the protest, Tax Day in the US, there were dozens of other organized demonstrations around the country to protest US aid to Israel in the war in Gaza. A similar "sleeping dragon" protest that same morning shut down I-880 in Oakland, only those protesters used steel drums filled with concrete to further obscure their linked arms.

Previously: SF DA Charges 26 Over April Golden Gate Bridge Protest

Photo: JerseyNoahx/X

A live broadcast of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Tuesday night in Chicago with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi as a guest was interrupted several times by pro-Palestinian protesters in the audience.

Colbert, who typically tapes his shows at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, is doing special live broadcasts this week in Chicago, in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention. And some protesters managed to get tickets to the show, and shouted several things during his conversation with Pelosi, which Colbert then acknowleged.

As Deadline reports, Pelosi was there, in part, to talk about her new book, The Art of Power, and she was discussing the book when a female audience member could be heard shouting.

"For the people at home who can’t tell, there’s a protest going on in the audience right now," Colbert said on air. "Hold on young lady, I can hear you. We’re actually at a commercial break but the subject is on Israel and Palestine, and if you’ll have a seat, we have to go to a commercial break and when we come back I will ask the next question I had on that subject, if you will listen."

They went to commercial, and when the show came back, Colbert asked Pelosi about whether the United States should be supplying Israel with the weapons that are killing innocent Palestinians.

"If the goal is the peaceful and prosperous future for both Israel and Palestinians, what role does the United States play?" Colbert asked.

Pelosi responded with a quote from John F. Kennedy, and then said, "Yes, we’ve had a commitment to Israel, that’s been in our security interest to do so. Israel was attacked by a terrorist organization. We want the hostages freed, but we don’t want children killed in Gaza, so we have to come up with a solution."

While she spoke, protesters continued to speak out from the audience.

"War has no place in a civilized society," Pelosi continued. "We have to learn more about trust and peace and learning about each other rather than to have a conflict by war."

Colbert continued to engage her on the issue, saying, "As you can see from the continuing protest out here, that answer is unsatisfying to some people."

"Israel has a right to defend itself," Pelosi continued. "But the other part of it that has been so major for all of us for so many years is that there must be a two-state solution. We cannot have peace unless there’s a two-state solution… Unless you have a two-state solution, we’ll not have a resolution of this."

The outbursts continued, and Colbert ended up saying to the protesters, "Please don't interrupt my guests."

You can see the whole exchange in the clip below.

Is a tent encampment really the best form of protest in San Francisco regarding the situation in Gaza? A few dozen protesters figured so on Monday, but were quickly driven off by police with something resembling rubber bullets.

The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” phenomenon has died down for the moment here in the Bay Area, though we have seen similar large-scale efforts this week at UCLA and in Washington DC. Your Bay Area protest types attempted to form another encampment Monday afternoon at the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, according to the Chronicle, with tents at first being strewn right on the street in the car traffic lanes.

Around a dozen tents showed up shortly after 3 pm Monday, with some on the street, while the bullhorn-wielder led chants of “Free, free Palestine.” The encampment eventually moved out of traffic and onto the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building.

At that point, some 50-80 protesters continued their chants and set up their tents on that sidewalk. But it did not take long for police to move in. (Note: The video below contains an F-bomb if you have the sound on.)

Judging by the badges, these appear to be Federal Protective Service officers and not SFPD. An apparent eyewitness claimed that “riot police shot [the protesters] with rubber bullets and pepper balls,” and indeed, these officers were certainly firing something. The protesters used tables and whatever else was at their disposal in an attempt to shield themselves.

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That said, the cops apparently won this round pretty quickly. About an hour after the above video was posted, an update from the original poster said, “all have been dispersed. Stay tuned for jail support.” Similarly, a livestream link on the rabble-rousing site IndyBay is defunct.

Per the Chronicle, “It was unclear if any arrests were made.” We will update this post if any information on arrests associated with this incident comes available.

Related: USF Starts Clearing Gaza Encampment, Protesters Mad Because They Claim They Said They’d Leave Willingly [SFist]

Image: spirit.ofthelion via Instagram

The college campus protests sweeping the nation have of course also swept UC Berkeley, with an estimated 175 tents now pitched at Sproul Plaza — up from just a dozen last week — and classes have been canceled at UCLA today amidst an outbreak of violence at that school’s protest.

As the death toll in the Israel-Gaza conflict now approaches 35,000 killed, we are seeing protests at college campuses nationwide. Of course, campus protests are pretty much business as usual at UC Berkeley. But that school, like many others across the country, has a large-scale protester encampment set up, and people have now been camped out at Sproul Plaza for ten days. It started as about a dozen tents last Monday, but KGO reports that UC Berkeley’s “Free Palestine” encampment has now grown to an estimated 175 tents.  

Obviously, it’s unclear how many of the campers are actually university students. And in the case of UC Berkeley, which is in its final week of classes before summer break, there has not been any cancellations of classes or commencement like we’ve seen at USC. Thus far, the Berkeley protests have not caused much trouble aside from a little graffiti here and there, though Jewish students are able to request chaperones to cross the quad if they feel the need.

According to KGO, the university said in a statement, “To date, there has been no disruption of University operations. We will continue to try to respond per policy to any and all claims of illegal conduct for harassment and/or discrimination."

Though as one UC Berkeley freshman told KGO, “It's gonna suck if graduation doesn't go through but they're standing up for a good reason."

Things are far more problematic at other campuses, notably UCLA, as local station KTLA reports that violence broke out Tuesday night at UCLA's pro-Palestine encampment. That violence appears to have been the work of counter-protesters who stormed the encampment, aiming fireworks at the people camped there, and even spraying what “looked like bear spray to douse pro-Palestinian protesters,” according to KTLA.

UCLA has canceled all classes Wednesday, and has closed a couple of campus buildings for the remainder of the week.

Meanwhile, a cleanup effort is underway on the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, where a weeklong occupation of a campus administration building led to significant damage and graffiti — and were about 35 students and staff were arrested early Tuesday morning, and the occupation was brought to an end.

Related: May Day and Gaza Protests Expected Around the Bay Area Today [SFist]

Image: @atlajala via Twitter