Crowds wait to get into the Golden One Center outside.
Sophomore John Snyder wanted to attend the Sacramento Kings basketball game on March 23, which was disturbed by protesters. According to the Sacramento Bee, only 2,000 fans made it in to see the game.
Q: What happened that night?
A: My family, some friends and I were at Sauced, a restaurant right next to the Golden 1 Center, where we were eating dinner before the Kings game.
Then all of a sudden there were protesters outside of Sauced. I could hear (the protesters) cheering, but I didn’t really think anything of it until I turned around: The protesters were looking right at Sauced because there was a protester on the roof who was cheering them on. We also saw that there were some cameras and tv crews outside.
(The protesters) then moved on in the direction of the Golden 1 Center, so we didn’t think anything of it – I thought it was just a regular protest.
However, once we left and began walking toward the Center, we could see that the protestors had surrounded the main entrance to the Center.
No one could get in or out of the Center because it was unsafe. Although the entrance to the Center had opened up early, (not many people were able to enter) the Center before it was closed due to the protest.
So we decided to wait and try to get into the Center. We waited at the different entrances for about an hour, after which we decided to wait for 30 minutes at another entrance. Since we couldn’t get into the arena, we decided to go back to the main entrance to watch the protest for a bit before leaving.
Q: Do you think that there was a better way to protest?
A: They were protesting for a cause, which is great, but I don’t think they had to ruin the night for that many innocent people.
I have no problem with protesting for a cause, and I understand that they wanted to make a point, but I don’t think that anyone appreciated how they were trying to make their point. In my opinion, they easily could have protested at the Capitol building or another place.
I feel that they were just excessively disturbing the peace – the protesters were on the freeway at one point!
Also, I know that a lot of people got hurt by the protest. While I was there, I saw many guys get taken away on stretchers by EMTs and ambulances. There were just a lot of innocent Kings fans who got injured by the protest – some protesters were throwing water bottles at people who wanted to see the game.
—By David Situ
