Man arrested during Sacramento City Council meeting. Here’s what happened

A man who regularly makes anti-Semitic, racist and sexist comments at Sacramento City Council meetings was arrested Tuesday.

Ryan Messano, who has spoken at the meetings for more than a year, attended Tuesday’s meeting and submitted a speaker’s note to the city clerk. After the council heard public comments on an item about fee increases, the clerk said there would be no further public comments. Then Messano stood on his chair and shouted that he had turned in a note.

“No,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg. “Please sit down, otherwise we will ask you to leave… You cannot come to the lectern if you continue to disrupt the meeting, we will ask you to leave.”

“Your injunction to stop my free speech will not stop me,” Messano said from his chair as a police officer stood next to him. He approached the podium and repeatedly said, “It’s my turn to speak.”

Three officers approached him, handcuffed him and escorted him outside. They transported him to jail and charged him with “willful disobedience of a court order,” a misdemeanor, with bail set at $5,000.

A Sacramento police spokesman said a city employee had an active restraining order against Messano and that when he approached the podium he violated it. Police did not release the employee’s name. In addition to the city council and mayor, several senior staff members were at the podium at the time, including Assistant City Manager Leyne Milstein, City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood and City Clerk Mindy Cuppy.

Messano was held at the jail around 6:30 p.m., about four hours after officers removed him from City Hall, according to sheriff’s office inmate records. He was released Wednesday morning after spending the night in jail.

Spokespeople for the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office and Superior Court did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the details of Messano’s release.

In addition to the Sacramento City Council, Messano has also made comments on the Vallejo City Council, where he was barred from a meeting in 2018.

In May 2023, Messano told the Sacramento City Council: “Every white person in America is open game, but you are not allowed to criticize non-whites and you are not allowed to criticize other groups.”

Later that month he said: “Anti-Semitism used to mean someone who hates all Jews, now it means someone who is hated by Jewish bankers,” Messano told the council on May 15.

The comments prompted a large group of Sacramento Jewish leaders to denounce the comments in a press conference. This has also resulted in groups of people attending the meeting holding large banners to shout at Messano when he speaks, leading Steinberg to adjourn several meetings early or take hour-long recesses.

Messano could not immediately be reached for comment for this story. He posted on his website in May 2023: “Let me be clear, I am not associated with the Proud Boys, I am not a Nazi, I do not support an authoritarian government and I support the rights of all people, races and all.” Religions. I was viciously lied to, slandered and vilified by the Jewish media.”

This isn’t the first time the city has issued a restraining order against a person who disrupted council meetings. City Manager Howard Chan and three council members obtained a temporary restraining order in 2019 against Alexander Clark, who said from the podium in 2018, “I feel like if it were up to me, all you mothers would be dead.”