Pro-Palestinian protesters receive 30 days in jail for blocking Golden Gate Bridge in 2024
By Carlos E. Castañeda
A group of demonstrators who blocked San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in 2024 to protest Israel’s war in Gaza were sentenced on Friday to 30 days in jail following their convictions on misdemeanor charges last month.
Seven people were convicted of charges including false imprisonment, obstruction of a thoroughfare, and unlawful assembly after they were among a group of 26 people arrested on April 15, 2024. The pro-Palestinian protesters had driven onto the bridge, stopped their vehicles, and chained themselves together to call attention to the war and conditions in Gaza after Israel had launched a relentless bombing campaign in the Palestinian territory following the October 7 terrorist attack.
Traffic on the bridge was blocked for hours. Most of the 26 protesters arrested, later dubbed the “Golden Gate 26” or “GG26,” had their charges dropped or reduced, but prosecutors found enough evidence against seven of them to go to trial.
Aside from a month in county jail, protesters River Allen, Bhavika Anandpura, Sara Cantor, Rocky Chau, Conrad de Jesus, Sarah Ferrell, and Em Tillotson also received six months probation. Each must also pay fines and restitution totaling more than $1,000.
The defendants had faced a maximum of five years in the county jail.
Jurors deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge which could have sent them to prison for up to 15 years. Prosecutors said on Friday that they would not seek to retry the defendants on the felony charge.
The protesters’ attorneys called the charges heavy-handed, and compared them to the punishment issued to pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2023. They were issued a fine and five hours of community service.
