Mayor Adjourns City Council Meeting About Protest Arrests After Disruptive Individual

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The Sacramento City Council heard information about the 84 Stephon Clark protest arrests from Sacramento Police and the Office of Public Safety Accountability Tuesday.

The meeting was cut short when an individual reportedly spoke over others and prevented business to proceed.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the city council's responsibility to listen and engage with the public became "impossible" at the meeting. The meeting was adjourned after an individual "drowned out anyone else who tried to speak," Steinberg said.

The Mayor said he "exercised restraint in not having this individual arrested because I believe that arresting and forcibly removing him would cause a greater danger in the chambers and could potentially inflame an already tense situation in our community."

The city council is not taking "assertive actions" to prevent individuals who disrupt council business from entering the chambers.

Before the interruption, Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn and Deputy Chief Dave Paletta spoke to the City Council, explaining why officers arrested 84 people during a Stephon Clark protest in East Sacramento.

Hahn said protests have challenged the department over the last year, but he praised how his officers have handled them.

READ ALSO: Sacramento Police Department Explains Arrests Of 84 Protesters After DA Says She Won't File Charges

"The line level staff, those officers and dispatchers, performed admirably and in a professional manner. The facts bear this out. Over the last year, including last Monday, there have not been any fatal injuries, near-fatal injuries, mass property damage such as burning buildings and cars or mass looting, all of which we have seen in other cities around our country," Hahn said.

Paletta said police made the arrests in order to protect the neighborhood. He said investigators still have 1,600 hours of body camera video to get through.

District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert decided to not press charges against the 84 people arrested last week.