Riverside turned down introducing new protest regulations that would have prohibited face coverings, metal containers, wooden sticks, metal pipes and more ahead of the upcoming election.
The City Council rejected the ordinance presented Tuesday, Oct. 8, by Chief of Police Larry Gonzalez.
“With election season just a couple weeks away, we’re concerned about protests that are going on across the country and in our city,” Gonzalez told the council at its meeting Tuesday.
The proposed ordinance was meant to assist with worse-case scenarios, Gonzalez added.
Councilmembers Steven Mill and Clarissa Cervantes raised concerns about “broad” language in the ordinance and said they worried it was “overreaching” for government entities.
“I look at this ordinance and I’m having a real, real hard time,” Mill said at the meeting.
“I see this as government overreach,” he added.
He said that labeling groups as “subversive” and other language in the proposal was too broad. He also questioned how officials would determine what masks are for religious or medical purposes, as opposed to masks used to hide protestors’ identities.
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Gonzalez said law enforcement would have to take it case by case.
The ordinance would have prohibited the use of objects that could be weaponized during public demonstrations, gatherings and rallies — it would have banned wooden sticks, metal and plastic pipes, baseball bats, aerosol sprays, weapons, glass bottles, metal containers, shields, gas masks, helmets, body armor, bricks, rocks and also face coverings and disguises, according to a city report.
Cervantes noted public response was overwhelmingly opposed to the proposed ordinance.
“A total of 87 comments were submitted, with 81 being in opposition (to the ordinance),” she said. “Two are showing neutral, I think someone made a comment that one is in opposition but is marked as neutral and one in support of the item here today.”
Adam Wedeking, president of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside, who spoke against the ordinance, said his church values justice and equity.
“These values call us to ensure that all people have the right to express themselves freely and safely in public spaces without unnecessary restrictions that may undermine their right to peaceful protest and assembly guaranteed to us by the sacred scripture known as the First Amendment of the Constitution,” Wedeking said.
Jason Hunter told the council the proposal seemed like an “overreaction destined for the courts.”
Mill and Cervantes joined fellow Councilmembers Philip Falcone, Steven Robillard and Steven Hemenway in voting against the ordinance. Councilmembers Chuck Conder and Jim Perry voted in favor.
