SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco prosecutors on Monday started charging 80 protesters who final month blocked visitors for hours on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge whereas demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.
The protest got here as San Francisco was internet hosting President Joe Biden and different world leaders for the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit.
Seventeen folks appeared in court docket on Monday to face expenses of false imprisonment, refusing to adjust to a peace officer, illegal public meeting, refusing to disperse and obstruction of road, sidewalk or different place open to public. Their arraignments had been continued to February.
Tons of of demonstrators holding indicators that learn “Biden: Ceasefire Now” and “Free Free Palestine” and “Drop the Expenses!” held a information convention exterior the court docket earlier than the arraignments of these charged started.
Aisha Nizar, of the Palestinian Youth Motion, mentioned she was amongst those that had been arrested and charged however does not plan to cease demonstrating.
“We’re extra resolute in our calls for for a cease-fire than ever,” Nizar mentioned exterior the court docket.
About 200 protesters participated within the demonstration throughout the world commerce summit, and blocked all lanes of visitors into San Francisco on the bridge’s higher deck, with some drivers tossing their keys into the bay. Dozens of them had been arrested and 29 automobiles had been towed. Protesters demanded that Biden name for a right away cease-fire within the warfare between Israel and Hamas.
The demonstrators charged might be arraigned in batches all through the week, prosecutors mentioned.
“Whereas we should defend avenues without cost speech, the train of free speech can’t compromise public security,” San Francisco District Lawyer Brooke Jenkins mentioned in a press release saying the costs. “The demonstration on the Bay Bridge that snarled visitors for hours had an amazing impression on those that had been caught on the bridge for hours and required large public assets to resolve.”
Protesters calling for a cease-fire have additionally blocked main roadways in cities together with Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Police and prosecutors in these cities did not instantly reply to inquiries about whether or not arrests have been adopted with expenses.
A short lived cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which Qatar helped dealer, was introduced on Nov. 21 however the warfare resumed on Dec. 1 after talks to elongate the truce collapsed.
The warfare began after Hamas broke by way of Israel’s high-tech “Iron Wall” on Oct. 7 and launched an assault that left greater than 1,200 Israelis lifeless. Hamas additionally took almost 240 folks hostage.
Greater than 19,400 Palestinians have been killed because the warfare started, roughly two-thirds of them ladies and minors, in response to the Hamas-controlled Well being Ministry in Gaza.