LAFAYETTE, CA – JANUARY 6: President Trump supporters stand on an overpass as Highway 24 traffic passes underneath in Lafayette, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2020. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
LAFAYETTE — City and state officials are working together to see what can be done to address complaints that frequent demonstrations by supporters of former President Trump on a Highway 24 overpass are noisy, intimidating to residents and dangerously distract motorists driving underneath.
Some residents say they are especially concerned now about the goings-on at the El Curtola bridge after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last month, leaving five people dead.
A person apparently not associated with the protest group grabbed a flagpole on Feb. 1 and threw it over the fencing and onto the highway, and recently there was a minor collision that may have been the result of the distraction of the political signs on the overpass, according to city officials.
“Are we going to wait for something bad to happen in our local community before the city ofLafayette actually does something?” resident Noopur Batsha Liffick wrote in a Jan. 27 email to the city. “Why can’t we simply stop allowing any protesters from protesting on that bridge? If they protested in front of your home, would you simply pass it off as free speech and go about your day? It’s been well over five months, and I’m tired and more importantly, scared of what’s to come.”
On Monday, Lafayette City Manager Niroop Srivatsa will brief the mayor and City Council about the protests and what can be done to address residents’ worries.
Because the bridge is owned by the state, Mayor Susan Candell also was scheduled to meet with Sen. Steve Glazer and Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan on Friday to understand the state’s responsibilities and enforcement procedures on its property.
The mayor noted in a statement last month, however, that people have a right to demonstrate.
While the state owns the bridge, the city has an agreement to maintain the surfacing, which includes sidewalks.
Starting in November, because of the increased calls for service, Lafayette police regularly began posting one to two officers in the area of the overpass during the protests, which sometimes have attracted counter-protesters.
The largest counter-protest was Oct. 9, during which access to the El Curtola bridge was blocked for more than two hours.
During the demonstrations, people wave flags, sometimes chant slogans through bullhorns and attach signs to the bridge’s chain-link fence.
Resident Morgan Buchanan welcomed the bridge as a place to protest in an email Tuesday to the city.
“We want to thank you for allowing us a venue to promote our efforts to raise an awareness in the general public that our way of life as stated in our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution is under attack by the radical left,” Buchanan wrote.
Monday’s council will begin at 6 p.m. For more information, go to www.lovelafayette.org and click on the city council tab.
