Santa Rosa Curfew Ends, Barriers Remain Up Downtown

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After five nights of protest and three days of curfew, the city of Santa Rosa allowed its citywide curfew to expire at 5AM on Thursday, as was originally planned. However, in an interview on Thursday Santa Rosa Police Chief Ray Navarro said the need for curfew would be reviewed every 24 hours, as conditions are evaluated across the region. Officials also said that concete barriers that had been placed at key intersections downtown to control access during the curfew would remain up through the weekend.

This comes after nearly a week of daytime rallies and nighttime marches across the city’s downtown core and nearby neighborhoods. During that time the overwhelming majority of marchers have participated peacefully, while a few small groups have broken off to engage in acts of vandalism. Well over 100 protesters have been arrested in Santa Rosa, most of those arrests coming Tuesday night on charges of violating the city’s 8PM curfew.

The protests locally and throughout the nation were called to protest the killing of 46 year old George Floyd of Minneapolis, whose death was captured on video as he was held down by a white police officer, while that officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

The killing has sparked huge protests in 100s of cities across the nation and and dozens around the world, with marchers demanding an end to police brutality and law enforcement reforms.