About 100 people gathered at the Santa Barbara Courthouse on Wednesday night to condemn the federal agent who pepper-sprayed someone in the face on the Eastside earlier that day.
Santa Barbara residents captured video Wednesday morning of a masked federal agent pepper-spraying a person in the face at close range.
The person appeared to have been filming the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with a phone, according to videos of the incident.
Wednesday night’s protest was organized by 805UndocuFund, SB Resiste, 805Rapid Response, Carpinteria Sin Fronteras and Unión del Barrio, according to Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805UndocuFund.
She also said a man was reportedly detained by ICE agents during Wednesday morning’s incident.
“It is just so inspiring and powerful to see this many people here gathered on such short notice,” she said. “I debated whether to call the action today or tomorrow, but I chose today because people are paying attention.”
El Camino Elementary School teacher Stephanie Hernandez-Jarvis happened to be driving past the scene while taking her 10-year-old daughter to school on Wednesday.
She and her daughter witnessed Santa Barbara Police Department vehicles blocking Salinas Street, forcing her to make a detour, she recounted.
“It was really traumatic,” Hernandez-Jarvis said. “I grew up undocumented, and my whole childhood was scary to think about that happening, and now being a citizen, I think about what if that had to be me, having to stay home not being able to leave because ICE agents were right outside.”
She said she came to Wednesday night’s protest to help her process what she witnessed.
“It shows me that people are not going to be OK with this,” she said.
Ana Garcia, a volunteer with 805UndocuFund, shared her account of Wednesday’s incident as someone who responded to the area.
“The community showed up, the entire Eastside was out on the streets holding it down, lining the sidewalks, lining the streets, guiding everyone, calling the hotline,” she said.
Chelsea Lancaster, another 805UndocuFund volunteer, denounced the statement that the SBPD released a couple of hours after the incident, alleging it was a lie.
“Even if they are choosing neutrality, neutrality only benefits oppressors,” Lancaster shouted through a megaphone.
In the statement, police representatives said they had no prior knowledge that ICE would be in the city on Wednesday. Sgt. Bryan Kerr said police responded to the scene in response to reports of a “large fight” and found multiple ICE agents and protesters. He said the department’s role was “limited to medical aid coordination, information gathering and traffic management.”
Volunteers with 805UndocuFund led the group from the courthouse to the police headquarters at 215 E. Figueroa St., a block away, holding upside-down American flags stitched together.
The group chanted “Whose Streets? Our Streets” and “People Power” while holding signs.
In front of the police headquarters, protesters used a megaphone to demand accountability from the department.
One was Candice, an Eastside resident who was present during Wednesday morning’s incident and shared footage with Noozhawk that appears to show an agent shoving her.
“Why are you telling us to stay on the sidewalks?” she shouted at the building.
She criticized the SBPD for not taking a report of the incident in the moment, when she asked them to do so. Instead, she said, they kept telling her to file one online.
She said eventually they took her information and she sent them the video after showing the officers the video of her getting pushed.
Following a handful of protester speeches, the group then began to walk from the Police Department along State Street.
“Let’s show the tourists,” Hernandez, the leader of 805Undocufund, told the crowd.
An artist group under the name VJayBombs also cast a variety of images, including some of President Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and large words reading, “Love Thy Neighbor,” onto a courthouse wall.
A bystander appeared to get angry with the projection, yelling at the group of protesters but eventually leaving after a protester gave him a hug.