BY BRANDY TUZON BOYD
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz
Updated March 28, 2021 at 1:30 p.m.*
Text message received by area residents.
Sacramento leaders are denouncing a demonstration set to take place later today in Natomas at the home of Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan.
In an open letter addressed to “those targeting our public officials in their homes” all eight Sacramento city council members, Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and more than three dozen community leaders and organizations criticize the “kind of protest that traffics in violence, hate and intimidation.”
A group calling itself Sactivists plans to march and demonstrate at Chan’s home this evening, March 28, according to posts on several social media platforms.
Several posts include “Wanted” posters lettered in bloody calligraphy with photographs of either Chan or Police Chief Daniel Hahn.
Chan issued the following statement Sunday afternoon, “I appreciate the Mayor and Council, community leaders and others speaking out against these residential protests designed to threaten, harass and intimidate people and their families. I hope that if anyone chooses to protest me as City Manager, they will remember that my family is not the focus of their anger. My family, like all residents of our city, deserves to feel safe, especially during these times of increased violence in our country.”
In the days leading up to the planned protest, the Sacramento Police Department has left notices at homes in the area surrounding where the demonstration is expected to take place.
This morning, text messages were also sent directly to area residents via the community notification system alerting them of the planned protest.
Police are advising those who live in the area around Elderberry Park to park vehicles inside their garages or, at a minimum, in driveways.
“On Saturday morning, hundreds of people participated in a caravan of cars through south Sacramento to denounce anti-Asian hate and counter it with unity and love,” reads the letter from city leaders. “We, the undersigned, strongly believe in the power of peaceful protests like these to prod institutions and leaders to act.”
The letter goes on to criticize protestors’ plans to bring “their campaign of intimidation” to Chan’s home.
“A small group of people willing to embrace violence to advance their ill-defined agenda cannot be allowed to put our City leaders and their families at risk in their homes,” it reads. “Protest at City Hall, not outside someone’s bedroom.”
*Article updated to include statement from Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan.
Notice received at homes of Natomas area residents.
[…] event came under fire by city leaders earlier in the day for targeting Chan at his private […]