 SACRAMENTO, Calif. AP - The California Highway Patrol spent 38 million responding to recent widespread protests over racial injustice, state officials said Tuesday, bringing state agencies combined law enforcement costs to 63 million so far. The new highway patrol tally sent to state lawmakers is on top of 25 million that Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration last week reported spending to deploy 8,000 National Guard soldiers to aid state and local police during demonstrations following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota. CHP officers reported more than 431,000 hours of unanticipated overtime between May 28 and June 11, accounting for the bulk of the cost. Officers were put on 12-hour shifts starting May 29 when CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley declared a tactical alert in response to the civil unrest. The CHPs request said it had to act because there were threats to the immediate health and safety of persons or property throughout the state. The CHP and the National Guard and that tally is an investment in largely repressing peoples First Amendment right to protest. And while there is some damage to peoples property in these, that also gets exacerbated by the response, said Sara Kershnar, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. The question is why is the state investing in that, rather than in the things people are asking for to keep their communities safe? she said. The more intense the state flexes its repression muscle, the more people are going to stand up against it. More than 6 million was for more than 70,000 hours of overtime in Los Angeles County, which declared a state of emergency. That allows the state to use state disaster assistance money for that portion... 