Protesters blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in mid-April to draw attention to the war in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinian civilians whose cities were being bombed.
San Francisco authorities are now suing them for trapping people in their cars on the bridge for hours. San Francisco’s public defender has countered that authorities were “weaponizing the law” against the protesters; he wants the charges dropped.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release Monday that arrest warrants have been issued for the 26 people who participated in the April 15 protest. According to the California Highway Patrol, all 26 people surrendered to law enforcement, but they did not appear in court and were not provided with an attorney.
“While we must protect the avenues of free speech, the exercise of that freedom cannot compromise public safety,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “The protest on the Golden Gate Bridge has created a level of safety risk, including extreme threats to the health and well-being of those trapped, that we as a society cannot ignore or allow.”
The group, dubbed the “Golden Gate 26” by its supporters, could be represented by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, which criticized the charges and cited a higher moral authority for the protest.
Pedestrians and cyclists wait outside the pedestrian gate on the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge while the bridge is closed due to protesters on April 15 in San Francisco.
(Léa Suzuki / Associated Press)
“The protesters oppose the use of American taxpayer dollars to fund the ongoing attacks on the people of Gaza, which the International Criminal Court has called crimes against humanity,” San Francisco attorney Mano Raju said in a statement. “Our attorneys intend to vehemently defend anyone we are tasked with representing.”
The prosecutor’s office charged the 26 defendants with trespassing in a business, obstructing a public way, unlawful assembly, failure to disperse during a riot, failure to obey police orders and 38 counts of unlawful confinement. Eight of the defendants are also charged with criminal conspiracy and the others with minor conspiracy.
Since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, anti-war protests in Gaza have taken over highways, university campuses and city streets. Militants have killed 1,200 Israelis and taken about 250 hostages, about 115 of whom remain missing. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, who include both Hamas forces and civilians in their casualty counts.
The protesters gathered shortly before 8 a.m. on April 15 on the Golden Gate Bridge, where they abandoned their vehicles and chained their bodies while holding signs. The group was repeatedly warned by police and other officials that they would be arrested if they did not move, but the group ignored them, according to the district attorney’s office.
A protester later identified as Sara Cantor told police that the demonstrators would not resist arrest, but that the protesters who were pinned between vehicles with a large metal tube would not voluntarily submit to authorities, the prosecutor’s office said. All protesters were arrested and removed from the bridge, and traffic lanes were reopened at 12:20 p.m.
About 12,000 vehicles traveled southbound and 8,000 vehicles traveled northbound on the bridge between 8 a.m. and noon, according to the Golden Gate Bridge District, which the district attorney’s office said lost more than $162,000 in revenue due to the protest.
Jenkins took to social media after the protest to ask anyone stuck on the Golden Gate Bridge to come forward, as they may be entitled to restitution and other rights guaranteed by state law.
The prosecutor’s office said several hundred people were held against their will, at the mercy of the protest. People stuck in gridlock missed work and important medical appointments, and one mother with her baby had no water for formula, according to court documents.
