As peaceful protests continue, some Bay Area curfews lifted
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVI) - After nearly a week of unrest, many Bay Area counties are emerging from curfews. San Francisco and now Contra Costa County are now joining a growing group of Bay Area counties that will again allow people to be out and about overnight.
Days of protest around the Bay Area in solidarity with cities across the country over the death of George Floyd gave way to nights sometimes filled with chaos. In response, many cities and counties responded with curfews.
Now, many of those curfews are being lifted.
Alameda County officials released a statement saying that because order has been restored, the curfew, which was supposed to last five-days has been lifted.
Sergeant Ray Kelly from Alamada County's Sheriff's Office said the curfew is an effective tool in restoring order. Allowing officers to surgically target looters and those who would take advantage of the protests.
"When the curfew went into effect, a lot of the community members went home, they followed the curfew guidelines," said Kelly. "That allowed us to focus on that element that was still out on the streets and traveling up and down to the different cities."
The sheriff's office said they made more than 120 arrests after Monday night's curfew, that number dropped to about 30 by Tuesday night, and about a dozen Wednesday night.
The sheriff's office said they hadn't imposed a curfew in decades and that the deputies are listening to and understand the criticism over how curfews impact the community.
"And the implications that would have around policing around the fact that a lot of people said curfews are racist," said Kelly. "That they are harmful to our most vulnerable communities. He took a lot of that to heart."
Individual cities within Alameda County still have curfews of their own. Oakland lifted theirs late Thursday afternoon.
It's a similar story in Solano County, where the curfew has expired, but some cities still have orders in place.
San Francisco's mayor announced via twitter that the curfew for her city would be lifted a.m. Thursday morning. San Francisco residents said they're relieved.
"I'm glad it's over with man," said one San Franciscan. "I'm glad everything came to a peaceful resolve. God bless America."
Santa Clara County and San Jose also removing the curfew restrictions, the South Bay city keeping the option to put a curfew back in place again should the need arise.
"We've got intel about something serious that's going to be going down that night we may have to institute it again," said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
Contra Costa County announced Thursday afternoon it has lifted its curfew order, but there are a number of cities within the county that still have their own curfew orders in place.