Organizers of the San Francisco Trans March met Monday with Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city leaders to discuss last month’s clash between demonstrators and police that led to four arrests and criminal charges.

Trans March organizers have condemned the police response to the demonstrators and called the charges overly harsh. They went into the meeting with Lurie with demands for safety measures and support from the city. While organizers left without a commitment from the mayor on their key demands, they plan to continue meeting.

The meeting with Lurie’s office coincided with a rally outside City Hall on Monday morning. About 100 people gathered to support both the Trans March organizers and the four people who were charged with vandalism, obstructing law enforcement and battery upon an officer.

Trans March organizers also delivered a letter to Lurie’s office calling for several changes to reduce the police presence at future Trans Marches. According to a Trans March Instagram post, over 1,000 individuals and over 50 organizations have signed the letter.

They also called on Lurie to persuade District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to drop the charges against the demonstrators. Rosa Astra, a Trans March co-director who met with Lurie, said after the meeting that the mayor explained he did not have the power to drop the charges. But Astra emphasized that as a public official, the mayor did have the ability to publicly urge Jenkins to drop them.

Trans March co-director Niko Storment said organizers also presented the city with a plan to eliminate the San Francisco Police Department’s presence at the march and instead utilize the organizers’ police liaison and a civilian safety team.  

“I feel like I know what our task is,” Astra said in an interview after the meeting. “I’m fired up, we have a good picture. I would say I was somewhat disappointed we couldn’t get firmer commitments from the city, but I’m also not surprised. We know it’s going to be a process.”

The mayor and city departments are “deeply invested” in the safety of the transgender community in San Francisco, said Daniel Lurie’s spokesperson Charles Lutvak in a statement. The mayor’s office initiated the meeting, Lutvak said.

The march was held June 26 and is a mainstay of the weekend of annual Pride celebrations. It started in 2004, and is San Francisco’s largest trans Pride event. The march was mostly peaceful, with clashes with the police starting when police attempted to arrest someone they said was committing vandalism.

At the rally, Trans March attendees noted SFPD’s response – in which people were arrested, thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed – was unnecessary and put demonstrators in danger.

Both SFPD and Jenkins replied to requests for comment with previous statements emphasizing that they would not tolerate criminal activity and that they supported and wanted to protect the LGBTQ+ community.

“I do think the mayor’s office has the intention to have positive actionable outcomes, but it’ll be our role to keep them accountable to that,” said Storment, who was also in the meeting. “We know whether by intention or negligence, a lot of times these things fall through the cracks and have real consequences for real people.” 

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This article originally published at S.F. Trans March organizers meet with Lurie after clash with police at Pride.