Sacramento police raided the Occupy ICE Sacramento camp located outside downtown’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices on 7th and N streets Tuesday around 2:30 p.m. And they brought help.
As with most Sac PD raids, demonstrators were prepared for the cops’ arrival due to the 24-hour notice they handed out before returning to clear up camps in violation of Sacramento’s unconstitutional anti-camping ordinance.
Here’s the 24-hour notice to vacate dropped off by @SacPolice every day at @OccupyICEsac camp outside Sacramento’s downtown @ICEgov offices pic.twitter.com/b7XuIAHvJF
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Since they knew the time that police would be arriving, the campers removed all of the important structures, supplies and food reserves provided to them by Sacramento residents.
Occupiers have made a pretty effective satire of police removing things from camp, getting community members to drop off furniture they want to get rid of. @SacPolice will dispose of it for free, they’re saying pic.twitter.com/O4y52kPEE8
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
The demonstrators made sure to leave out unwanted couches and beds dropped off by Sacramento residents looking to dispose of old furniture. By the protesters’ logic, the police might as well serve as a public clean-up crew if they were going to raid a peaceful assembly.
The occupation is otherwise cleaned up—tents, food donations from community, banners, coolers—and will be replaced after the cop raid pic.twitter.com/FonGMJT3VA
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
A sample piece of furniture left out for Sac PD:
Here’s one couch left out in anticipation of this afternoon’s @SacPolice raid pic.twitter.com/H0S2MHsDHW
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Police tore up the above couch’s cushions before throwing its remnants into a truck for disposal.
Unlike 2011’s Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, Occupy ICE Sacramento is spry and bare-bones. When cops threaten removal, campers pick up their preferred structures, furniture and supplies in the hours before a raid. After that, it’s a waiting game:
Demonstrators waiting for @SacPolice at @OccupyICEsac: pic.twitter.com/rKZvLLhztC
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Soon enough, signs of a coming raid began to pop up. Inside the US Citizenship and Immigration building, employees gathered around the windows. One man on the ground floor broke out a pair of binoculars.
Surveillance vehicles with deeply tinted windows — SUVs likely owned by the Department of Homeland Security — parked inside the fenced-in structure near the protesters.
One legal observer claims this white van backed in, facing Occupy ICE camp, and no one got out pic.twitter.com/M6KilcYWO1
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
White van left soon after I took an image of its plates. Now here’s a Jeep, conveniently with no tags, facing the demonstration: pic.twitter.com/cUQn8txNa0
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Two cops and an ICE official armed with a camera hid inside a nearby parking lot and watched the demonstrators.
Three law enforcement officers hiding inside adjacent parking garage, viewing the @OccupyICEsac protesters. Here’s what I think @SacPolice is doing: Wait with these folks until media leaves and then have them send cops in to break things up once they’re gone pic.twitter.com/WgrGRk3HNG
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Within a minute of the V:RC reporter posting the above tweet, Sac PD rolled into action.
Here we go: @SacPolice just blocked off N 6–moved multiple vehicles in pic.twitter.com/li493zZA1I
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
The ICE official who had been surreptitiously taking photos of protesters joined the estimated 12 Sac PD vehicles in the street as the raid began.
And here’s our @ICEgov friend with the camera at the @OccupyICEsacto camp, where @sacpolice are protecting ICE from peaceful protest pic.twitter.com/zMVg2XKss0
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Cops walled demonstrators off from their discarded furniture and got to work.
Here’s @Mayor_Steinberg’s @SacPolice protecting @ICEgov in downtown #Sacramento at @OccupyICEsacto camp: https://t.co/duwtBSPL75
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Before long, they’d finished their job.
And now @OccupyICEsac’s free @SACPolice furniture removal is nearly complete: pic.twitter.com/bT0uDHIK3B
— Dave Kempa🕳 (@kempadimes) July 31, 2018
Later Tuesday evening, Occupy ICE demonstrators returned with the supplies they’d removed earlier. Sac PD returned Wednesday morning to provide another 24-hour notice.
An Occupy ICE Sacramento statement Wednesday morning said the group would be participating in a national rolling hunger strike for immigrant families detained by ICE, joining for three days starting 11:30 a.m. Thursday morning.
As of Friday, July 27, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has not responded to a VOICES: River City request for comment on the Occupy ICE Sacramento demonstration and Sac PD’s response.
In early March, the mayor released a strongly worded video in opposition to ICE’s behavior and in support of immigrant families in a video released to the Sacramento public.
“We will not cower, we will not retreat. We will do everything in our power to stand up for and protect Dreamers, hardworking families, immigrants – people who are just doing their best to work, to learn, and to have a part of the Sacramento and the California dream,” he said.
While the mayor does not directly control the actions of Sacramento Police Department Chief Daniel Hahn, pressure from his office — both public and private — has resulted in changes in police protocol.
In early 2017, V:RC reported on Steinberg’s first months in office being marked by some of the highest rates of anti-camping ordinance citations in the city’s history, despite Steinberg running on a platform of empathy to the homeless community. In the months following the report, citations dropped drastically.
Occupy ICE Sacramento demonstrators say they will not be leaving.
