Downtown Martinez came to a standstill on Sunday afternoon as it braced for a large-scale protest in the aftermath of an attempt to paint over a Black Lives Matter mural that intensified unrest during the past two weeks.
The Contra Costa district attorney filed hate crime charges on Tuesday against a Martinez couple that was recorded on video defacing a Black Lives Matter mural on July 4th.
Justin Gomez had just painted “Black Lives Matter” in giant letters that stretched 165 feet across Court Street, when a white man and woman - identified as David Nelson and Nichole Anderson in court documents - arrived on the scene.
As shown in the video, Anderson used a paint roller to in an effort to blot out the yellow letters with black paint.
“What is wrong with you?” a bystander asked Anderson.
“We’re sick of this narrative. That’s what’s wrong,” Nelson replied, according to the video. “The narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism. It’s a lie.”
Earlier Chronicle efforts to reach Nelson and Anderson were unsuccessful.
Activists organized Sunday’s protest at the end of June, after police found flyers threatening Black Lives Matter supporters in the name of a white-power group. But this month’s incident commanded national attention to the 38,000-person East Bay city.
Martinez police chief Manjit Sappal said he asked the Together We Stand Revolution, which had been involved in major demonstrations in Minneapolis and San Jose, to postpone the protest, but the group declined.
“While they appear to be a peaceful group, we have intelligence that counter-protesters will show up to protest against protesters,” Sappal said in a statement. “It is during these instances that confrontations can escalate and create public safety challenges.”
Court Street and connecting roads in every direction were closed to traffic Sunday afternoon, and most businesses had windows and doors boarded as thousands were expected to rally at the courthouse and march to Waterfront Park.
Many of the businesses’ plywood coverings were painted with messages, including establishments on Ferry Street — two blocks away from Court Street.
Words scribbled in red and white paint on the shuttered windows of an accounting firm read, “This is what Martinez business owners has to do due to a chicken s--- police chief and city council.” Next door, at Barrelista, messages of peace and equality were painted on boarded windows as recordings of Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches blared out of the restaurant’s speakers.
By 3 p.m., an hour ahead of the scheduled demonstration, pockets of protesters started gathering on Court Street. The vibe was mostly calm, even as a drone circled overhead and the smell of smoke lingered in the air from a fire near the Contra Costa County Health Department on Alhambra Way. For a couple of hours after the fire started, a large plume of smoke hovered over the city.
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron
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Protesters gather in Martinez for major Black Lives Matter demonstration - San Francisco Chronicle
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