Holly MatkinSacramento, CA – Outraged activists denounced the California Highway Patrol (CHP) after a rioter jumped on top of a officer’s patrol vehicle and fell off as the officer drove away (video below).
Hundreds of “demonstrators” spent a bulk of Monday afternoon blocking traffic around the McClellan Park area in protest of President Donald Trump’s visit to the city, KTLA reported.
President Trump had traveled to Sacramento County to meet with state leaders about the wildfires that have been devastating the West Coast, KXTV reported.
“We are here because it trickles down from the top. Trump coming out here was a political front,” Empact spokesperson Leia Schenk told KTXL. “He doesn’t care about forestry.”
Schenk, who helped organize the anti-Trump event, claimed that motorists and the CHP intentionally “ran down” her fellow protesters for no reason.
“So, we came out here peacefully and look what happens,” Schenk told KTXL. “We have six people ran down by Trumpsters and then we have two more ran down by CHP.”
But videos from the scene showed demonstrators as they harassed drivers and blocked the roadway, then complained when the vehicles sped past them.
At one point, a rioter climbed onto the front of a CHP patrol vehicle that was trying to move through the area with sirens blaring, another video showed.
The mob surrounding the officer stepped back as the rioter scrambled over the windshield and onto the roof of the car.
As the patrol vehicle accelerated, the rioter slid down towards the rear of the car and fell onto the pavement, the video showed.
Schenk alleged that the officer was guilty of carrying out a premeditated attack on the rioter.
“That officer was sitting here parked for about 30 minutes and all of a sudden he turns his car on and gases it as fast as he can,” she claimed, according to KTXL. “It was not an accident at all. He planned it out.”
The rioter was transported to Mercy San Juan hospital with minor injuries, the CHP told KTXL in a statement.
Schenk claimed that a second demonstrator was also hurt by the patrol car as the officer drove off.
The CHP said that when the two officers finished conducting traffic control in the area of Airbase Drive and Watt Street, they tried to drive away from the group.
“As the lead vehicle began to pull away, one of the protesters climbed up the hood of the patrol vehicle,” the department said, according to KXTV. “Fearing for his safety, the officer began to accelerate away and the protester fell off the vehicle.”
The North Sacramento Area CHP has launched an investigation into the incident.
Watch the incident unfold in the videos below. Warning – Graphic Content and Obscene Language:
A Black Lives Matter activist jumped aboard a police cruiser in Sacramento, CA. BLM activists are now claiming he was "run over" by the police. pic.twitter.com/mdhI74Mn8P
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 14, 2020
Protests against President Donald Trump just took a turn. Bystander video shows a protester climb on top of a CHP car. The officer keeps driving— knocking the protester onto the street. The protester is waiting on medical aid @FOX40 pic.twitter.com/Wi7lDvzZdX
— Jessica Mensch (@Jessmensch) September 14, 2020
Tom Gantert
