OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – On Thursday, the suspect charged for assaulting Oakland’s Chinatown Chamber of Commerce President will go to court for sentencing.

In addition to assault, he was previously charged with a hate crime, but those charges were since dropped.

Victim, Carl Chan says he’ll be there to provide a victim’s impact statement, however, groups like the Anti-Police Terror Project plan to show up in support of dropping charges altogether citing mental illness.

A demand for action is planned at the Alameda County Courthouse on Thursday, where the Anti-Police Terror Project and its allies are asking that all charges be dropped against 25-year-old James Lee Ramsey.

Ramsey was charged in May with assault and a hate crime following the attack on Chan, however, the hate crime charges were later dropped several months later.

Chan says he was walking near Chinatown running errands when Ramsey suddenly came from behind him and hit him in the head back in April.

On Thursday, the District Attorney’s office has the option to ask the judge to sentence Ramsey to service his time in a secured mental health facility or face up to four years in state prison, something Cat Brooks with the Anti-Terror Police Project considers unethical.

“James Ramsey had not been on his medication for a month. He was in extreme psychiatric duress. He did not harm Mr. Chan because Mr. Chan is an Asian man right? He engaged in a violent act out of a place of severe mental distress,” Brooks said.

Citing Ramsey’s history of mental illness, Brooks argues prison is not the answer. 

She believes all charges should be dropped and Ramsey should instead be placed in a treatment center.

“He needs help, right? He needs support. He needs wrap-around services. He needs a facility that is not mired in violence and punitive behavior modification and needs to be put somewhere where they can figure out how to stabilize him but living his life behind a cage and his only crime being a severe mental illness, we all should find that morally reprehensible,” Brooks said. 

Chan was unavailable for an interview on Wednesday but will voice any of his concerns in the courtroom on Thursday. 

He says there, he will provide a victim impact statement at Ramsey’s sentencing hearing.