Residents are protesting in San Diego while an activist sits in jail on a bond amount usually reserved for severe offenses like murders.
Denzel Draughn is facing more than a dozen felony charges after authorities say he pepper-sprayed several San Diego Police officers during a demonstration on Aug. 28, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. Nine other people also were arrested that day.
The 28-year-old was arrested after protesters got into a heated confrontation with San Diego police after officers pulled over an SUV offering supplies to protesters. During a scuffle, an officer dropped a pepper spray cannister, which was allegedly picked up by Draughn. Authorities say he proceeded to spray the cannister toward the commotion.
Draughn was charged with nine counts of obstruction/resisting, nine counts of use of teargas against a peace officer, and one count of possession of projectile teargas. He was charged for the nine officers who were hit by the pepper spray.
He remains in jail and his bond was set at $750,000. Local station KPBS reports that the accumulation of charges Draughn faces typically would result in a bond amount of $380,000, while bond for murder is $1 million.
Police spokesman Lt. Shawn Takeuchi told KPBS Draughn’s bond was set high because he is a flight risk and SDPD is concerned about “future acts of violence toward officers.”
Draughn’s allies believe the amount is a form of retaliation because he is a well-known activist.
“They threw the book at him because they see him as the enemy because he’s part of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Lillian Lawrence, a civil rights lawyer who is representing him, told the station last week. “He is a hero, and they’re trying to villainize him for standing up for something everyone should be standing up for.”
Parrish Davis, Draughn’s fiancée, defended him in a GoFundMe campaign she created this week. She announced he is being held in a maximum-security section of the jail.
“Not only is this targeted aggression being used as a scare tactic to make an example of what happens when you defend yourself and others against the police, not only is this yet again the state and police abusing their power to harm a black man, but this excessive bail is unheard of for any protestor. Arsonists and murderers are held on less bail,” Davis wrote. The GoFundMe page raised more than $2,700 of its $26,000 goal. The bond for Derek Chauvin, the cop accused of murdering George Floyd, was $500,000.
Takeuchi insisted the department did not know anything about Draughn’s reputation.
“We don’t know his prominence, there’s no way for us to know that information, this wasn’t a targeted interaction,” he told KPBS. “We don’t know his organization or hierarchy, we wouldn’t have that information.”
Draughn’s next court date is scheduled for Sept. 25, according to records from the San Diego Sheriff’s Office.
