FRESNO (KMJ) — Fresno’s Police Chief says his department is ready in case demonstrations on Cesar Chavez day turn violent.
The day is considered a State Holiday in California, prompting closures at the DMV, the campuses of CSU Bakersfield and CSU Fresno, and UC Merced.
But amid rumblings that public shows of support for Cesar Chavez may turn violent, Fresno’s Police Chief says his department has nothing to suggest that will happen in their jurisdiction.
“We always work with organizers of marches and we make sure that we’re aware of what they’re plans are – and we are in this case,” reveals Chief Jerry Dyer. “We make sure we have a law enforcement presence. Sometimes that presence is visible, sometimes it’s not visible, but we always make sure that we have a presence.
Dyer adds that Fresno PD remains prepared for anyone who may attend an event with the intention of causing a disturbance.
“There’s multiple gatherings that we will have, for Cesar Chavez or Martin Luther King, all of those events. Quite frankly, at this point, we haven’t had any information that causes us to believe that we’re going to have any gathering of a large magnitude.”
But the Chief of Police reveals his officers have found no shortage of fear-mongering on social media.
“Spreading misinformation for the purpose of stirring the emotions of people, and trying to get them to come outside and to become problematic for law enforcement.”
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
