tv ABC7 News 400PM ABC January 18, 2016 4:00pm-5:01pm PST
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news. >> that breaking news is happening now on the bay bring, protesters have blocked the upper deck of the bay bridge heading into francis. this is happening right before the tun. these are living pictures of the scene from sky 7-hd, as you join us at 4:00 on this mlk day. thank you for joining us. >> this protest is causing huge problems, of course on the bay bridge. it looks like the line of cars have attached themselves maybe with chains, causing a significant backup. this is on the new span of the bay bridge coming into san
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francisco. they have put up some signs which seems to say "black health matters." this is a protest in honor, if you will, it appears that they are part of this protest. the first line, anyone. the backup is going on. we can look at the traffic on the skyway. it's strange to see no traffic coming after the traffic isn't coming over the bay bridge. after all, this is a holiday. traffic should be light, but this is causing an enormous problem. black health matters is what this protest is touting. this is a play on protests many times over called "black lives matter" after a series of police
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shootings. we don't know the details of what we are referring to specifically with "black health matters" this is a health care protest, we're not entirely certain, but it's having a huge impact on traffic, backing up into oakland as well. >> it looks like the people are attached. you can see an officer pulling up the portion that says "matter" trying to get that off the roadway so they can get traffic moving again. >> for the majority of the people stuck behind this protest, i imagine they would tell you that traffic flow matters. but it's very peaceful. so far there's been know pushing
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or shoving, no difficulty, but it looks like the police are getting the signs removed. does it mean the protesters have soon be on their way and let traffic proceed? we don't know. they protesters are not legislate traffic go web, actually is where it's backed up. you can see it still moving now. and of course, look at the traffic back up with the new span. this has been a peaceful demonstration, which is of course very much whose legacy we honor today. that is certainly what's been taking place on the bay bridge. while inconvenient for hundreds or now thousands of people stuck behind this blockade. >> and we saw the traffic back
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you said all the way to the -- >> just no cars coming through hardly at all because of that traffic that is stopped, and all those cars just trying to get to where are they're going. it's been peaceful so far and police are there. they've pulled up the signs laid out across the freeway. , but so far it doesn't appear to be any violence or any real tension between police or these protesters at this point, but you can see those -- the first line of cars, they're part of this, because they have championed or tied together somehow, people standing in the middle as well. it looks like police and protesters are talking with one another. there's a woman shouting there in the back, but presumably there's discussion going on about we need you to clear the
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roadway. so far there's been nothing more than this. this person has xor sized. it looks like other protesters trying to calm her down. >> absolutely. as people are milling about, and the cars of -- and right-hand side. it's kind of hard to see how many are in there, but out to the right-hand side. you can see them there. now they're moving to the front of the line of cars, and -- >> the police are ahead of the line of vehicles. they are in the -- that sign on that vehicle is pointed backwards, so we don't know what it says. as you can see they are
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attached. and then link these cars together. they had obviously a deliberate plan sought to make their point black health matters. still want to know desperately -- through oakland, in fact they stop traffic for a time different roadways, as they seek in their way to make a point on this. >> this woman is now kicking cones, pulling trash out of cars. so she is a bit more emotional than some of the others we have seen. others appear to be talking, gathering, it seems like they were trying to get her to calm
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down a bit. but we have seen police out there. they brought up the signs that were laid out on the -- so far we haven't -- now you can see the line of police officers scheduling, and make sure it doesn't fall farther onto the bridge. the cars, the backup is gathering all the way down past the toll plaza. the good news for motorists is this is a light traffic day. that doesn't help you, but imagine if this was happening on a regular work diehl that woism still holding court and fellow protesters. >> very animated. it's not a huge group of people compared to what we see in
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protests, but enough in front there. >> this is not the double-decker area, and look at the backup as it stretching all the way, we saul it over at the toll plaza, you can only imagine it's just continuing. it's a holiday, traffic is a bit lighter today, which is good, but now if you're stuck in this, nowhere to go on the bridge, you're not getting off the bridge. you can only imagine the frustration by a lot of those drivers. now you can see where the cars are backed up beyond the toll plaza at this point. >> now we want to go talk about -- another protest began at 14th and broadway, and currently in emeryville. elisa harrington is there live. we can see what's happening on the bay bridge, what are you
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experiencing? >> reporter: dan, ama, it was supposed to end here, but many have continued onto the bay bridge. this shopping mall behind me is built on a native-american burial ground, they wanted to raise awareness, just one year ago police shot and killed a suspected shop -- this is mlk day, and they say that today they honor his legacy, but they don't just want to talk about anything you learned in school. his "i have a dream" speech. they want to talk about some of the other things they did to really make a change, some of these things that maybe weren't so popular at the time, but now we look back and see how many he really did for this country. starting in oak lend earlier, it was a very large group, gathered at the plaza. some people gave speeching. they were with the third liberation party, i believe was
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their name, and they did urge the crowd not to resort to violence. they wanted to keep everything peaceful. the group on the bay bridge, we're not sure which group they're with, because they were -- people from concern unions, there were a lot of people that gathered, they wanted to honor the legacy and also wanted to raise awareness, such as gentrification, they say a lot of black families are being forced out of their homes. they also wanted to raise awareness, so that's what was happening in oakland. the group gathered and started marching to emeryville. i want to say we got there around 11:00, so this has been happening through outthe day then they got to emeryville, they were supposed to end the
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protest at the mall behind me, but many have continued onto the bay bridge. from what we know there's not any big issues, no huge conflicts. again the group did urge people to stay peaceful. dan, ama? >> we're taking a look at the scene now. it appears that some of the protesters are going to their cars. >> i also saw, ama, as we panned back toward the oakland area, a lot of people had gotten out of their cars, looking over the edge of the bay bridge, so maybe they're taking an opportunity to see the view, but as elissa points out while these protests, though inconvenient, versus peaceful. anything else of course would be in direct conflict with the teachings of dr. king, and on this days, really an insult to his memory. though protesters seem to be
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keeping that in mind. >> the vehicles not knowing what to do. but it did appear that the protesters were moving away from the front line where those initials cars had stopped and we are linked together, and people were not letting the rest of the dryers through on the bay bridge. >> you know, there is someone sitting in traffic right there, with maybe an eighth of a tank of gas it's a good good reminder. you never know when you're stuck in traffic, but there are a few people i'm sure sweating it out there. >> and you can see the motorcycles from the officers. gathered here in front, and there are fewer people than were here just a few moments ago, gathered in front, you can see they seem to be linked together in their arms. i can't exactly read what that says. no somebothing on the armband. it seems they're prepared to cut
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the chains. >> and apparently there are some tweets from protesters police telling anyone who is not involved in the protest to get back in their cars. >> that makes sense. >> of course there will be lookie-lous, and police are apparently asking them to get back in the car, and it's definitely a chain linking the cars together, and the "black health matters" was the signage, but after all the "black lives matter" protests because of shootings involving police and african-americans, all around the country and certainly here, police are very mindful of the need to not escalate things. you know, they have been under a great deal of pressure and criticism around the country and around the bay area. you know police are doing their very best to keep things calm, as orderly as possible and get
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traffic moving again without turning this into something it's not intended to be. >> as we said, it has been relatively peaceful. there was one woman who happened to be shouting and waving her arms, very animated, but for the most part there doesn't seem to be a big cob frontation. they pulled up their signs. there were large signs and now they appear to be getting ready to cut the chains between the vehicles so -- >> there we go. he's working on it. and many of the protesters have both hands in the air. >> i think it says "no justice". >> that's right. "no justice." harder than it looks to cut these chains evidently. >> the driver of the vehicle just sitting inside, keeping people from going about their day on this mlk day. >> i think we've gone to the second pair of bolt cutters. please are working, doing the best they can.
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the traffic is backed up to the toll plaza, i'm sure beyond at this point. people waiting, trying to get back to their day. let's sees if those can heavy-gauge chain for the job. >> we have somebody who is stuck in traffic, ahmad sultan, are you with us? >> hello, yes. >> where are you on the bridge? >> we're after the tolls on the bay bridge. how long have you been stuck there 1234? >> i would say almost 40 minutes. >> oh, my goodness. did you even know what was going on? >> no, i just recently checked twitter to see maybe if there was something up, like traffic reports. i saw all this like, i guess, news about black lives matter on the bridge. >> and what people are doing is chaining themselves on the
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bridge and basically just holding up traffic. >> yeah, in fact as we're talking to you, we're watching police detain, if you will, one of the drivers on the vehicles who stopped and backed up ought this traffic. what is your reaction, know what's holding you up at this point has been keeping you stuck on the bridge for 40 minutes. it's like is this has beening to through across more people, but i understand their message. >> so you're sympathetic, though inconvenient? >> yes. a lot of people are snap z -- >> if you look behind you, hour far does that line stretch? >> is it pretty bad?
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>> as far as i can see. >> wow. >> where were you going? >> we were just going to go eat some very good steak at harris ranch, but now i guess we can't eat steak anymore. >> maybe just a little later. >> we're from jersey, too. we're just visiting. >> let's put it this way, you'll be very hungry when you get there. >> do other people appear angry, frustrated at this point? can you tell at all? >> yeah, some people are like agitated, honking their horns, but i saw a couple tow trucks just pass by, so i think they're going to start toeing the cars. >> ahmad, thanks very much.
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this woman is being detained, flex cuffs, arms behind her back. two officers there. >> she didn't appear to be one of the drivers. we noticed her earlier as one of the people just milling around. they did take out of the one of the drivers. >> or she may have been in one of these advance. >> exactly. >> we're working on -- >> and there is another person with their arms cuffed behind them. everything is peaceful. this person is walking back unescorted. there we go. >> they're just sitting on the sidewalk or pave, i should say. this is very civil and very, you know -- not very tense.
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the protesters are doing what they came to do, make a point, cooperating with the police, in terms of at least not resisting. police look like they're being pretty mellow. the only people probably not quite as mellow are some of drivers stuck and agitated baas they can't get where they're going. >> nour our sky 7-ohd, showing a bit more of that backup as it stretches to the east bay and beyond. we have a traffic camera showing the skyway in san francisco. none of that traffic is going through, which is such a straight sight. backed up, yeah, toll plaza and beyond. so ahmad sultan was right back where the toll plaza is. he's been stuck about 45 minutes, didn't he, ama? >> it's too bad those people who aren't going to know what's
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going on. they're just going to get stuck not going anywhere at this point. as we've been seeing for the past, if you're just tuning in since we started at 4:00, we've been watching this backup on the bay bridge after these protesters made their way to the front. this is on the eastern span where they drove out to the front. they had chains connecting the cars, not letting any cars by, but police are actively trying to break those chains. and getting people moving again. >> yeah, despite the thousands of cars backed up. imagine if this was a normal day. there would be far more cars impacted. traffic going the other direction, not impacted significantly, though it's a bit slow getting onto the bay bridge the other direction now.
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>> there it is. the skyway is kind of slow. those cars with the headlights are trying to get onto the bay bridge. there's no protest on that side of the span, but things could be slow bomb normal traffic and look looky-lous. >> maybe a couple dozens cars -- this is the culmination of 9 hours of this protests of the point they are making. they're usingle #of 96 hours. >> and also re-claim mlk, as you can see. this is an active civil disobedience, which is what dr.
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king urged his followers and sympathizers to do in order to effect civil rights change. >> this twitter says police have given dispersal order, for those left on the bay bridge. we did see that in detaining a couple people. there is where you can see the sign, three separate signs that said black health matters that they laid onto the freeway. that's one of the first things police did. they pulled up those signs. >> let's go back live if we can. there we go. so the bolt cutters have been doing their job. some of the guys that was stuck in traffic that have kind enough to call in, said he saw tow trucks passing his position, which was backwards oh, probably a quarter mile or so. >> the chains are gone. there were chains linking the vehicles toe, and people were
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attached to the chains. police have cutting those, and they have been detains some people who are off to the side sitting down. >> i can't tell. there are no drivers in any cars. everybody are sitting out of the cars. they're unattended, it looks like. >> but it looks like they pulled out the driver. the question is do they get the keys and drive them off the bridge or tow them all. >> ahmad, our caller, said he believe maybe he sauce some tow trucks coming. >> hey, abc 7 news reporter alan wang is on the bridge. >> i'm about 100 feet away from the protesters who are chained together. i guess they chained themselves across the bridge a little while ago. and they also handed out flyers. this is an anti-police brutality flyers, called #mlkshutitdown.
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96 hours of direct action. i'm not quite sure whether they meant to hold off the bridge for 96 hours. they have a set of demands, asking for resignations, and i have a guy here named jun manuel. his a tourist. it happened in front of his car. can you tell us about it? we were driving, and all the cars stopped, and all of them started going out, and they had chains on their bodies, and then tied to the cars. so we're on our way to san francisco for some sightseeing and we don't stranded here. >> at any point was there a point where these people could have been injured or run over? >> yeah, because we were running at the -- with some ped, and
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yeah, just possible danger from that. >> so you had to slam on your brakes? >> actually my brother was driving, and he -- he noticed some slowing down, so we didn't this place is a parking lot, with people walking around. we'll see a guy walking around with his dog, taking pictures. you mentioned, jun, they asked for bolt cutters? >> i heard one cop asking for bullet cutters from one of the car owners. i think they wanted to cut the chains. >> reporter: all right. you heard it from one of the people who was right there when it happened and all of the traffic got shut down. this westbound side of the bay bridge is a virtual parking lot. people were out of the cars walking around.
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>> and alan -- >> protest not necessarily here on the bay bridge. just passing out to drivers, flyers. yes, they are. >> hey, jun, tell us how you received this flyer. >> yeah. one of the organizers handed it out. and this organizers, was he chained up? >> no, walking, giving food, and then flyers. >> okay. so there seems to be a support network or group around these protesters who were chained across the bridge? >> that's what it looks like. >> okay. how is this inconveniencing you today? >> well, i told you i'm a tourist, and less time for us to sightsee, but a good experience. having my picture taken at the bay bridge. >> reporter: quite an
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experience. thank you very much. ama and dan, that's the latest. >> there's an optimist, making the best of it, which is frankly all you can do. >> now people are running away from that line where they had stopped. >> are these protesters or motorists? >> i'm not sure. are the cars with the balloon, are they part of the protest? >> a lot of police vehicles on the upper portion of your screen, so the police have responded in large numbers, as you can see, one suv after another from the highway patrol, a tow truck belonging to caltrans. >> we counseleded about 15 people detained. they're up towards the front of the lines, you can see the back, look at the eastbound traffic just moving along, but the sea of cars just stuck, now extending beyond the toll plaza. you can see where the end of
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that backup is there. >> if this was a normal day, not a national holiday, it could be even worse, and don't tell that to anyone stuck in this traffic. it's going to be quite some time, because the next thing they have to do. they've got the protesters dealt with, and again thieves very peaceful, cooperative in terms of not resisting or fighting, but certainly recalcitrant in terms of wanting to stay up there as long as they possibly can. some sort of van or vehicle to move them. >> and it looks like they've moved some of their vehicles. you can see that chp -- it's possible the keys are still in -- >> or they got the keys from the protesters. >> and started to get people through. >> maybe at least get a lane or two open. >> if people can even start crawling through, that would
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obviously be advantageous at this point. >> this was clearly a very well thought out. they knew exactly how they were going to do this, drive in a line together, stop at once, and then get out, chain the cars together. so, it was a well thought out plan, well organized plan. >> that's part of this movement that they're doing, you know, on social media. they're using the hashtag 96 hours, 96 hours of protests, not necessarily here on the bay bridge, but other protests across oakland. emeryville on this mlk day, they're trying to get their point across. they are doing it peacefully, some of the -- and that's where they -- police shot and killed a woman who was suspected of shoplifting, so a lot of people trying to get their point
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across. >> which they have done so so far in a peaceful way. it was a hallmark of dr. king's teachings and practices, as he organized civil disobedience around the country, back in the '60s, so today these protesters have chosen to honor dr. king's memory by conducting a civil act -- an act of civil disobedience thenselves. >> and we actually have someone from caltrans on the phone. lee, thank you for joining us. what can you tell us about the effort to get traffic flowing again here on the westbound lanes of the bay bridge? >> well, as you can see, the chp are working quite quickly to ensure that this situation is progressively moved forward, so the traveling public can continue to come through the lanes. we want to, you know, emphasize
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that the safety of both the protesters, the chp, the traveling public, our workers as well, is our priority. so in an effort to do that, the chirp, as you can see have worked very strategically in gaining access to the cars. cutting the protesters away from each other, so that we can do everything to move traffic along. and it is our priority. el cannot emphasize enough the safety of all parties involved. so as we get traffic flowing, then chp as well as any other local enforcement agencies will address the protesters. it looks like we're seeing some people on motorcycles moves through and maybe some regular cars. >> >> do you have -- obviously i would assume this caught you
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completely by surprise, but how quickly are contingency plans able to be put into place when something like this arises. i know you plan for these sorts of things. how quickly can you responsible typically? >> we can respond within a few moments. it's constant wli being surveyed and watched for both cars that are disabled as well as any other activity. we have our processes in place so that any challenging circumstances can be immediately addressed both by cal france, our tow trucks, as well as our chp enforcement component, because we work right along with them. we are ready and able to address any concerns like this with the priors of safety of all involve. >> leah robinson, thank you very
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much. from caltrans, leah robinson-leach. it looks like traffic is moving in a couple lanes at least. you saw the protesters sitting along the side of the bridge, almost unattended. the police are watching them, but they're not causing any trouble. >> are they pushes that vehicle off to the side? >> they were. there is it's encouraging we saw some traffic. we are starting to see some traffic moving, which i'm sure motorists are just relieved. we spoke to one man maybe 15 minutes ago that would already been stuck for about 40 minutes. >> about an hour or so that they had been slowed down, but they are pushing that car, it looks
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li like. >> police were quick to get the signs out of the roadway right away, then got somebody with the bolt cutters. caltrans says they can respond basically in just moments, and they did move quite quickly. there's your drive tapp traffic map. we have three lanes, the right hind lanes heading westbound into francis open once again. this backup was in the new section of the bridge right before you get to the tunnel, the center anchorage. as you look at the drive time traffic, real-time look, you can see the backup this protest has caused. thousands and thousands of cars. of course there would have been far more significant had some not been a national holiday. commute was pretty light generally. >> they're starting to be things
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moving. they have moved the vehicles off to the side fishily blocking the area. they've detained at least 24 peoples. they pulled some of the -- not necessarily pulled physically, but -- >> right. there was no roughness. >> they came out of the car, and most people were calm. >> the protesters weren't causing any trouble, one lady seem to be animated, and her fellow protests seemed to be calming her down, and our friend ahmad, it looks like he'll get his stake dinner, just a little later than he planned. >> he was in this area where it's just all backed up, but fortunately on the other end we're seeing these poor people don't know it, but traffic is starting to move. you can see a tow truck will, now that they moved them off to the side, if they can get them out of the there, potentially they can get all the lanes open. probably would be better if they
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could have free tolls for the day. >> that might make people happier. >> so, again, three lanes on the right-hand side now open again, but the traffic was stopped completely -- completely stopped debt on the western span of the bay bridge before the center anchorage before the tunnel by this line of cars that stopped and literally with pretty heavy chains chained each car to one another. it took police -- the protesters were not removing chains on their own. but -- so the entire span was choked off for about an hour, maybe a little more than an hour. >> those were pretty good chains, too, but you know, they managed to get through it quickly. i know it doesn't help those people too much, and does the mant them feel much better and into the ears bay, but things
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are starting to slowly guess moving again. to give you a contrast on what kind of traffic day it is, normally, the eastbound lanes, the ones at the top half of your screen would be packed with cars, but it is a national holiday, so it's a light traffic day. if not for this traffic backup. >> and there weren't -- we see a lot of protests with a lot of people. there weren't a ton of protesters out there. a couple dozen, but they seem to disperse, he talked to a driver who is received a flyer, the protesters are passing out flyers to people stuck on the bay bridge. >> which probably help for them to know what's going on? at least give them some sense of the purpose.
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and again if you're just tuning in, the purpose was in terms of the signage that the protesters brought with them. black health matters, which of course is a play on the protest this summer, black lives matter that happened many, many times after a series of officer-involved shootings, police officers shootings of african-americans in various cities around the country, including here. >> there have been a lot of protests on this day, very peaceful, because they wanted to, you know, do what he would do, and not have anything too disruptive, but we were talking to elissa harrington erbilier with a protest that began at 14th and broad wra in oakland, kind of the bay street mall area now in emeryville, that's where she had been stationed. they were relatively peaceful as well, just trying to get their message across at this point.
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making this at least a smoother operation andal less concerns. at least it's not -- raining. >> rain and wind and everything else. at least we have some clearish skies for the moment. not any rain to speak of to slow down or hamper the effort to move the cars and the protesters out of the way. of course they're not going to let these protesters just hop back in the cars and drive off. so presumably they'll be released on their own recognizance, but they'll have to move the cars, and you can see caltrans pulling in tow trucks thoughts those cars off the bridge. then they get the cars off the bridge, and then they can open all lanes of traffic instead of just three. >> we continue to cover this protest that stopped traffic on the westbound lanes. we're following it on twitter. we're following it online,
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before we move on to other matters, to the breaking news we've been focused on. a protest that's been entirely peaceful, an act of civil disobedience under the banner "black health matters" which we want tore details on exactly what they represent were shut down by cars chained together. there was never any problem of violence. police acted very calmly. if you look at the traffic headache this caused a little more than an hour ago, thousands of cars stuck in traffic, trying to get into san francisco and beyond. this is on the new span for the bay bridge right before you get to the center anchorage.
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they're getting tow trucks in there, so traffic is moving again, but it's going to be some time obviously before things get back to normal. we will keep you up to date, but we want to move on to other matters. >> we have a lot of other headlines to catch you up on. repair crews say they're going to way for the stormy season to pass before they make permanent repairs to the sinkhole in pacifica. we're getting a break right now in between those storms. here's a live look outside. you can see the cloudy conditions there. this is from our emery have i camera. spencer will have the latest on when the rain will return in a minute. we're learning abe 7 news
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reporter mellie wood row tweeted that she talked to his close friends. here from them on a news report at 5:00. abc 7 news reporter melendez, they're demand been the mayor fire the police chief after the shooting death of mario woods last month. vic lee has the story. >> i'm sure i speak for ever mother who lost their baby. >> reporter: mario woods' mother appeared with her attorney who announced they formally asked the justice department to investigate the officer-involved shooting of her 26-year-old son. burris said mayor ed lee had
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made the wrong decision to ask the police department to conduct the investigation. he should not have appointed them to do the evaluation. this is very much like the fox providing -- protecting the chicken house. >> woods died in a barrage of gunfire last month, all of it caught on camera. police say video shows him raising hi hands with a tiff burris said another video shows his hand going up after he was shot, no knife in sight. whatever the case, demonstrators have disrupted mayor ed lee at public events, even at his home, demanding the firing of police chief greg surr and criminally charging the officers. today was no exception. >> go up in there. go up in there and show me how you feel. >> reporter: protesters booed the mayor off the stage during martin luther king ceremonies. >> people want to continue to interrupt, that's their right, but i didn't want to be a
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subject, so i ended my speech quickly. >> reporter: the mayor said -- but welcome a federal investigation as well. >> i also think the department of justice will do theirs independence of ours, and we should make sure they're doing the right thing. >> reporter: the board of supervisors is also considering a resolution calling for a federal investigation of the shooting. let's move on and talk about the weather. the series of rain symptoms have brought smile to homeowners who took the plunge and installed rain barrel systems. >> they are filling up quickly. david louie is live in san jose with one couple's stories. >> reporter: they're much taller and wider and all that rain pelting or rooftops gets collected, stored in these tanks. that means this household doesn't have to worry so much about water rationing or the hot
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summer months ade. the green pointing is indicating these three interkepted storage tanks are full. it only two three rain events to accomplish that. each one holds 530 groan, almost the equivalent of 1 ccf, the unit that many water agencies use to measure monthly allotments. >> we have tanks completely full, and two big tanks over here are 90% full. >> martin and susan are very happy. it means they can use the rainfall to top off their swimming pool which they use for exercise three times a week. it will help to irrigate the raised garden beds. thirsty tomatoes and other crops will get rainwater. >> i don't think it's possible to store too much. you can empty it out in the garden, even though the garden doesn't need it for growth, but it will refill the aquifers. the ground level sevens when you lose the water and we can help that. >> this cost $6,000, but
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contractor brad daniels of rain savers says a homeowner can start small with a $200 barrel and expand over time. >> there's thousands and thousands that come off every roof. people don't realize a roof is such a big capture device, and all that rain, all that water comes down, and if you gout out when it's raining hard and look at the downspouts where it comes out, you'll see a torrent of water. >> reporter: but not here. the rainwater tanks are filling up fast. in san jose, david louie, abc 7 news. >> fast with more to come. >> that's right. spencer has the details. >> in some places right now, we have sprinkles falling all right. we have thick clouds across the bay area, and little pockets of light rain and drizzle. scattered across the north bay, now shifting to the east bay and
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into the delta area. 4re9's move along and take a look at the bigger picture. it's well to our north, but sprinkling have arrived already. here's the live view from the explore torium view. some of it will begin before midnight, rainy and windy for the morning commute. what a mess tomorrow morning. another is expected at the end of the week. this ranks number two on our storm impact scale. we 1 the weakest to 5 the strongest. this is moderate intensity. i expect it to produce half inch to an inch in the lower elevations, more in the higher elevations, and wind gusts up to 40. 5:00 tomorrow morning, you can see what a mess it's going to be for the morning commute. that pattern will continue with pockets of moderate to heavy rain, at least until the mid morn to mitt day hours.
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and then into tomorrow evening we'll see it winding down. we project rainfall totals at least an inch in many north bay location, and around half on inch in parts of the south bay. to wind gust animation, we'll see the winds picking up rather significantly, but briefly tomorrow morning. so strongest gusts along the coastline. lows tonight mainly in the low 50s, and the accuweather seven-day forecast looks like this. partly to mostly cloudy skies wednesday and thursday, also ravening 2 on our impact scale, and a bit of a break on saturday and sunday. it looks like milder and drier weather for next week, which i'm sure will be welcomed. dan and ama? >> thank you very much. we do continue up next
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honors with a day of service, a look at the activities around the bay area, and then then at 5:00, we're following breaking new on the bay bridge, traffic finally moving at protesters shut it down for about an hour. shock. it's a horrific accident. >> neighbors react after their friend is hit and killed by a tour bust? san francisco. what the company is saying. plus the investigation that apple is launching into the newest i phones. and why commuters had a smile on their face on their morning
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had been blocking the front line and traffic was not getting through, at least about 24 people detained. >> completely choked off for about an hour. now three lanes are open. they still have the protester vehicles, some of them to remove with tow trucks. a number of protesters we are detained and put in handcuffs or flex cuffs. no problems, no violence, just an inconvenience. >> we're keeping an eye on it for you. check the app for the latest, check on twitter and keep it here on abc 7 news. on this day, some are celebrating by helping their communities. >> abc 7 news was in san bruno, mountain state park, as teenagers picked up weeds and pulled out invasive vines. >> and abc 7 news reporter katy utehs was there.
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>> reporter: who knew pulling weeds was so much fun. >> these gardens will be clean and beautiful for people to come and see them. >> reporter: when you're honoring dr. martin luther king jr. with a day of service, chores become even more fulfilling. >> there's no dedicated staff. >> tora rocha says the volunteers are vital. >> because we're pesticide and herbicide free, so it takes a lot of human weed-pulling hours to keep it beautiful. >> it's -- you have to win civil rights, but once you have the rights, you have the responsibility to participate. that's what we're doing today. >> reporter: participation, just one of the lessons 8-year-old al sandra learned. >> i was like, this man rules. >> reporter: katie utehs. abc 7 news was at an elementary school as some 300
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employees spent the holidays fixing up the campus. today's event has been going on for more than ten years. >> very nice way to honor the memory and legacy of dr. martin luther king jr. thank you for joining us. >> we appreciate year time. abc 7 news at 5:00 begins right now. it's frustrating but i understand the message. >> that's the voice of one driver expressing sympathy. >> this is a live picture over the bridge span right now. you can see -- you can kind of tell there are still a lot of cars backed up. we do have live team coverage coming your way. plus -- >> about 80 tons of rock emergency fix. >> it's also a temporary fix. the huge sinkhole in pacifica, which is a long way from a permanent solution. >> announcer: abc 7 news starts right now. >> that breaking news, as you
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know, if i've been with us, protesters shut down all westbound lanes last hour. they stopped their cars in each of the five lanes. >> chained together, completely stopping traffic. you can see them trying to come through some chains. it took time for police to show up and cut through the links. >> about 20 minutes later, the drivers who got out of their cars started to run back to the vehicles, as lanes were about to reopen. just half an hour ago, traffic started moving again. >> this all happened on a holiday when the commute could have been much worse, but cars were backed up all the way past the toll plaza. >> here's a live look. once again, you can see two left-hand sides of your lanes still closed, but traffic now inching along as motorists are allowed to get past the site of that demonstration. >> good even.
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i'm ama daetz in for kristin, and i'm dan ashley. this is the new span of the bridge right before the center sank r anchorage, to show you a bit of backups that continues and will for some time as a result of this protest. >> on a holiday, you would want all of that to be green, but not the case today. our alan wang is live on the phone for us as we're looking at the map to tell us the situation now. you've been talking to people stuck in this? >> reporter: yes, ama and dan, almost all the lanes are open. traffic is flows except for the far two left-hand lanes which they were using to tow away the cars, the protesters that they used to get up here. also they are arresting, the last few of them, taking them off of the bridge. they say about 40 to 4
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