Sacramento City Council Ends Citywide Curfew

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The Sacramento City Council voted to immediately end the citywide curfew Saturday afternoon in an emergency meeting.

The National Guard will expire at 12 a.m. Saturday night, according to a press release from the city.

"We do not want to keep a curfew in place or the guard on our streets a minute longer than necessary," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg in the release. "The peaceful and powerful demonstrations of the past five days have given me confidence that these measures, which we imposed reluctantly, are no longer needed."

This comes after a week of peaceful protests in downtown Sacramento and one near Steinberg's house Friday night in the Pocket neighborhood of Sacramento.

"Last night's peaceful and powerful demonstrations give me confidence that these steps, which we took reluctantly, are no longer necessary," an earlier release said.

The curfew was instituted on Monday as a result of the rioting and looting that took place last weekend in the city. Approximately 500 National Guard troops were also deployed to the city to protect critical infrastructure.

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California sent a letter to Mayor Steinberg and city council demanding the curfew be lifted within 24 hours, stating that curfews of such matter are in violation of the First Amendment.