Over 100 protesters took to the streets in Sacramento, California, March 4 to protest Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s decision not to file charges against the two cops who shot and killed Stephon Clark in his grandparents’ backyard a year ago. Clark, a 22-year-old African-American, had been holding a cellphone that officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet claimed they thought was a gun. They said the youth was coming at them, but a pathologist’s autopsy report shows Clark was hit by eight bullets, seven in the back.
After marching through the city, the protesters were surrounded by over 100 riot police on a highway overpass. The cops carried out what they called a “mass detention,” arresting 84 protesters, including a reporter from the Sacramento Bee covering the march. Even Sacramento Mayor Darrel Steinberg had to say he had “questions” about the cops’ actions and the arrests.