After Modesto protest and arrests, a prayer for healing and an end to racial injustice
The morning after hundreds protested in the streets of Modesto on Sunday, and as plans for more protests started taking shape, religious leaders and law enforcement came together to pray.
They prayed outside Modesto police headquarters for area residents as a whole and for specific groups like first responders and the black community.
“We recognize the black community suffered a lot over the years, a lot of it at the hands of people wearing this uniform,” Police Chief Galen Carroll said before the prayer for the black community. “There’s a lot of history.”
Since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, there have been protests and unrest throughout the country and some have turned violent.
A small, peaceful protest took place Tuesday afternoon on the corner of 10th and H streets in downtown Modesto. Roughly a dozen people stood on the corner holding signs and getting some honks from passing cars.
Amie Villalovos was one of the demonstrators.
Villalovos was not out Sunday and is not part of any organized group. She said she came out Tuesday because she heard about the protest and says black Americans never have been treated fairly. “The black community has been fighting for rights for 400 years. They were brought here against their own will. They were enslaved. They worked on plantations, and they helped build this economy. And this is how we repay them, by not giving them justice?”
She’s a mother and says she doesn’t want her children to grow up in a world full of racism. “I don’t want my kids to have to worry about the color of their skin, because I am Hispanic, and I may not be dark, but my sons, one of them is dark. I don’t want him to have to worry when he’s walking down the street.”
A man who gave his name only as KC was out Sunday, too. He said he saw on video his friend James roughed up by police and came out Tuesday in support of him.
“When the crowd was getting pushed back, they singled him out. I don’t know if it was because he was black or what. ... They threw him to the floor, with at least 10 cops around him. ... When I saw the video, it brought tears to my eyes, to be honest. It was sad to see.”
KC said he’s not African-American but wants to help spread the message that “this whole world was meant to be safe, it’s meant to be equal.” He said he’s a peaceful man and wants to do no harm. “But at the same time, we got to do what’s right because if nobody else is doing it, then ain’t nobody gonna do it at all.”
Modesto Police said they were monitoring plans for other protests and would keep the community updated on the department’s Facebook page.
In Oakdale, a demonstration is planned for Wednesday at noon at the Gene Bianchi Community Center. Several downtown businesses and municipal offices have been boarded up as a precautionary measure.
Officials are hoping none of the planned demonstrations devolve into an aggressive interaction with police like what happened Sunday evening. At the conclusion of the mostly peaceful demonstration in Modesto, a small group of people began throwing bottles and rocks at law enforcement, broke several windows at downtown businesses and sprayed graffiti.
Carroll estimated about 30 to 50 of the more than 1,000 people who attended were causing problems. He said during the march, peaceful protesters helped to temper hostility toward officers, at one point joining hands and standing between police and people throwing objects at them.
Sixteen people were arrested on Sunday, ranging in age from 19 to 46 years old. Most arrestees (10 out of 14) were under 30 years old. Five were 21 years old or younger.
Most of those arrested were from Modesto. One person was from Ceres, one person was from Stockton, and one person was recorded as transient.
The Bee had not reached organizers on Monday. A post on the Facebook page that publicized the March said, “we want everyone to know, what happened with the cops and buildings was not us. We lead a 3.5hr PEACEFUL non violent march that ended once we got to (the Brenden theater). The news story will be released on the peace this march brought, thank you.”
One man arrested on McHenry Avenue
One man was arrested for throwing things at officers on McHenry Avenue. Carroll said the man was holding a 3-year-old child and “was basically using a kid as a shield”
There were a few arrests on McHenry but most occurred downtown after the conclusion of the march when more people became violent.
A group surrounded a patrol car with two officers inside and began banging on the windows, Carroll said in an interview Monday. Officers wearing helmets and shields moved in to break up the group then formed a line.
“And when we did that, we started taking rocks,” Carroll said. “Once we started taking rocks that’s when we declared an unlawful assembly. We gave a lot of people a lot of time and a lot of warnings to leave.”
He said officers told people to leave for about 10 minutes and used aerial flash bangs as a warning before they began arresting people.
Many of the 16 arrests Sunday were for violations of state and local laws related to failing to disperse but at least four were arrested for assault with a deadly weapon or assault on a peace officer.
One man threw rocks at officers, left and collected more rocks in a backpack then pushed over a police motorcycle before being handcuffed. A 14-year-old boy threw rocks and glass bottles at the officers.
“What happened to us yesterday is not what we do and not what we’re about. We were invaded and we were violated,” Mayor Ted Brandvold said during Monday’s prayer. “When we come together, we come together like this, in support and prayer. And we do what we need to do to keep our city vital.”
Multiple agencies helped Modesto Police
Modesto Police and assisting sheriff’s deputies and officers from surrounding agencies used pepper ball rounds, bean bag rounds and batons as they arrested people and made people disperse.
Carroll said some people criticized the department for its use of force but he said his officers showed “an amazing amount of restraint.”
“They were being called things all day long, they were taking things thrown at them. I found it amusing that we’re protecting that group that’s walking and we’re also the targets,” he said “Some people are seeing images and they’re deciding that the police department was too aggressive because of this image. They have no idea what happened downtown.”
Carroll said he didn’t want Modesto to turn into other cities where people are looting and fires are being set while law enforcement stands by idly.
“I didn’t want to be walking around downtown this morning with a bunch of burned out buildings and broken windows,” he said. “The direction given to officers at morning briefing was we want people to be able to have their voice but we’re not going to tolerate people that are breaking our downtown.”
Aside from some graffiti and a few broken windows on J Street, downtown Modesto was intact.
A concrete barrier remained around the entrance of the police department where people prayed Monday.
Darius Crosby, a member of the Modesto Police Clergy Council who organized the prayer, said his neck was broken years ago at Fresno State, in the same way the officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck.
He said for change to happen, people need to “go back and own the ugly. Don’t make excuses. Just own it and ask God for forgiveness.”
“I share with all men, regardless of what color they are, I say I am guilty, forgive me,” he said. “Let us be redeemed and let us move forward with the knowledge of God.”
Sacramento Bee intern Mara Hoplamazian contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 4:51 PM.
