What had been a day of mostly peaceful protesting in Sacramento turned destructive after the sun went down on Saturday. The second day of protests in California's capital city following the death of George Floyd, the black man who recently died while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officers, devolved into arson, vandalism, and looting in the downtown area of Sacramento.
After a standoff with sheriff's deputies wearing riot gear outside the Sacramento Main Jail, where the glass entrance had been smashed and graffiti spray-painted on the walls earlier in the day, a group of people started multiples fires in the street, then they headed south to Downtown Commons near the Golden One Center. Some of the looters used what appeared to be metal baseball bats to shatter the second-floor doors of Macy's before entering and stealing clothing and other merchandise. Another store in the area, Kicx, was also looted. Later a handful of people broke into the Sharif's Jewelers store on K Street, destroyed glass cases and took nearly everything on display.
Someone also defaced the multimillion-dollar Jeff Koons sculpture in the center of the DoCo plaza, scrawling "BLM" for Black Lives Matter, and "ACAB" for All Cops Are Bastards. The $8,000,000 artwork, called "Coloring Book," is an 18-foot-tall sculpture of a piglet made from colorful, mirror-polished stainless steel.
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Similar behavior on what appeared to be an even larger scale also took place over 300 miles to the south in Los Angeles on Saturday. The destruction prompted LA Mayor Eric Garcetti to request help from Governor Gavin Newsom, who authorized used of the National guard to help keep the peace. Garcetti also issued a curfew from 8:00 p.m. Saturday through 5:00 a.m. on Sunday.
Governor Newsom had previously issued a statement indicating that state officials were aware that some of the people involved were using the Floyd protests to as an opportunity to create chaos and commit crimes.
"In California and across the country, there are indications that violent actors may be attempting to use these protests for their own agendas. We are closely monitoring organizing by violent extremist organizations," wrote the Governor.