‘It feels like a shift is happening.’ Hundreds in SLO turn out to protest George Floyd killing
Hundreds of people peacefully gathered in Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo on Sunday, joining together with people across the nation to protest racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Protests have erupted across the nation in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing. Looting and vandalism has been reported in many major U.S. cities, including in Los Angeles, where some San Luis Obispo County law enforcement personnel were deployed Saturday night.
RACE Matters SLO County said it hosted the rally to “stand together against anti-black terror, and pledge action against ongoing violence and injustice against black and brown people in America,” according to a Facebook event description.
Sunday’s protest was quickly organized in response to the movement sweeping the country, RACE Matters SLO County founder Courtney Haile told The Tribune at the event.
“Today we came together to meet this moment we are really having around police brutality and racial injustice,” Haile said. “I believe George Floyd has really been a tipping point.”
Videos show a Minneapolis police officer pinning Floyd, a black man, with his knees on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes on May 25. In at least one of the videos, Floyd can be heard saying “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd soon became unresponsive. He was declared dead at the hospital a short time later.
The Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers who were present during the incident were also fired.
Haile said the San Luis Obispo rally was held by popular demand, despite her own personal exhaustion and the difficulties presented by the coronavirus outbreak.
“It’s been hard, it’s been traumatic,” she added. “We’re in the middle of this pandemic. It feels like a shift is happening.”
Similar protests were held around the Central Coast on Sunday, in both Santa Maria and Paso Robles.
Even before Sunday’s protest began, the area surrounding Mitchell Park was crowded with people, many carrying signs decrying police brutality or racial injustice across the United States.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was clearly still on people’s minds as they gathered.
In the park itself, people stood six feet apart where possible and wore masks. Spray-painted Xs on the grass marked socially distant places for people to stand to watch the speakers standing in the park’s gazebo.
One protester’s sign read: “One plague is enough.”
‘I am being suffocated.’ Activists share experiences during SLO rally
Local activist Tianna Arata spoke first during the rally, discussing her experiences as a young black woman in San Luis Obispo, and the casual racism she faces each day.
“I feel every day in this town like I can’t breathe,” she said to the cheers of the crowd. “I am being suffocated. Every day I am just a black girl dealing with racism. And I feel like I’m being exploited by my community.”
In the crowd, signs declaring “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop killing black people” waved, and people took a knee as Nipomo performer Lorde Sanctus took the stage to rap.
San Luis Obispo transplant Aaliyah Sade, who said she spent the previous day in Los Angeles peacefully protesting, closed out the rally with a message for those assembled who were not people of color:
“I want to encourage you all to think of the ways you can contribute to black liberation, vitality and joy,” she said. “I want to ask y’all — what can you do for the liberation? What can you do for the revolution? What kindness, resources and abilities can you contribute to anti-violence, justice and peace? What conversations can you have within your family, and with people who look like you? What can you say?”
“My people are dying, and we are being shown over, and over and over again — I’m being shown that it’s a crime to exist, and I’m tired,” she added. “So for those of you who don’t walk around with a target on your back, what can you do for justice? What risks are you willing to take? How uncomfortable are you willing to be?”
Sade then led the crowd in a libation ceremony honoring the lives lost to police violence, before leading the crowd in an 8-minute-and-46-second moment of silence in Floyd’s memory.
As quiet descended upon the crowd, the San Luis Obispo protesters turned on their phone flashlights and raised them up in a silent salute to Floyd.
‘Whose streets? Our streets.’ Protesters march throughout downtown SLO
After the rally, a group of protesters filed into San Luis Obispo’s downtown corridor, where they peacefully walked the streets of town for close to four hours.
As they walked down Higuera and Marsh streets, the crowd of several hundred people chanted — interrupting their chants with cheers when people joined the quick-moving crowd.
They encouraged those standing on the sidelines in restaurants or shops to join them with calls of “Off the sidewalks and into the streets” or “Walk with us.”
Other chants were reminders of lives lost: “Say his name: George Floyd.”
Still others were brought out only when police blocked pathways out of the downtown corridor as march organizers attempted to expand the march to the rest of San Luis Obispo.
“Why are you in riot gear, I don’t see no riot here,” the crowd chanted as protesters encountered police blockades at first Santa Rosa and Higuera streets, and then again at Higuera and Nipomo streets.
Officers with shields and helmets blocked the march from going past those points, so instead the group circled throughout the downtown for most of the afternoon.
The second time the protest wound back onto Marsh Street, organizers instructed the crowd to stop and lay or sit down in the road for another eight-minute moment of silence for Floyd.
As the protesters dropped to the street in front of Downtown Centre Cinemas movie theater, some held their fist in the air, while others continued to wave their signs.
Though tense at some moments, the peaceful march did have its moments of levity.
One refrain, “No justice, no peace, no racist police,” morphed into a dancing song at several points throughout the march, with people drumming and singing the chant.
Close to the end of the afternoon, an impromptu conga line even sprung up to the beat, as the protesters made their way back to Mitchell Park.
The march concluded in the intersection of Osos and Buchon streets, where some protesters spoke about their experiences, and urged others to continue to do their part in fighting racial injustice.
The protest finally ended around 6 p.m. — more than four hours after marchers first took to the streets.
It concluded with one of the simplest of the group’s chants: “Black lives matter.”
SLO County officers sent to L.A.
Though there was a definite police presence at Sunday’s protest, no clashes were observed between law enforcement and protesters.
Meanwhile, San Luis Obispo County law enforcement personnel were en route to another city where some protests have turned more chaotic.
According to a San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office news release Saturday night, agencies across the county were contacted by the California Office of Emergency Services with a request for mutual aid to Los Angeles.
Like other cities around the United States, Los Angeles has seen a number of clashes between police and protesters this week, as many gathered to protest Floyd’s killing.
A city-wide curfew was put into place there Saturday night and renewed for Sunday after incidents of looting and vandalism occurred at multiple locations in Los Angeles. The California National Guard was also deployed to the city.
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office initially sent 35 deputies to Los Angeles, according to the release.
The Atascadero Police Department sent five officers, the Paso Robles Police Department sent three, and the Pismo Beach Police Department and Cal Poly Department both sent two, according to the release.
The Sheriff’s Office said it will continue to coordinate resources with other local law enforcement agencies to provide further personnel to Los Angeles County if additional resources are requested.
Santa Barbara County law enforcement agencies also sent personnel to Los Angeles.
This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 1:12 PM.
%20Cropped.jpg)