Police shut down rally to #FreeThemAll from Santa Rita jail

I was a part of the car rally conducted on Thursday, April 16th to urge the government of California to free all prisoners being held at Santa Rita jail.

What I witnessed as a participant was a heightened police presence from the inception of the action, which started at Lake Merritt BART, all along the route which passed by the Oakland courthouse, through downtown Oakland, up to the Sherriff’s Office near Joaquin Miller and the Juvenile Detention Center just beyond Skyline.

The police blockaded the caravan’s destinations, making Santa Rita completely unreachable — it is my understanding that only one member of the caravan got that far and was told they had to leave and were not allowed on the premises.

By the time the caravan reached the Juvenile Detention center, I witnessed police blocking entry and demanding that traffic turn around. At this juncture, multiple protesters get pulled over and ticketed for noise violations (by honking) and obstructing traffic. Additionally, I witnessed a large police presence on 580 heading back from the rally, presumably to surveil the movements of the caravan further. The police effectively put the protest to a halt, threatened protesters with tickets & legal consequence, and ultimately disabled the protesters from reaching their goal at Santa Rita.

Because the action was made public, along with channels of communication for protestors also being made public and accessible, it appears that the police used information being used by organizers to premeditate and diffuse the action entirely.