More than 300 people gathered Saturday at La Palma Park in Anaheim before marching to Anaheim Police Department Headquarters, seeking an end to what is seen as systemic racism in policing.
It was one of several demonstrations in Orange and Los Angeles counties in the third weekend since nationwide protests began over the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
The park has served as a gathering spot for the recent protests in Anaheim.
More than 100 people have gathered at La Palma Park in Anaheim. A pro-black life, anti-police brutality/systemic racism demonstration is about to start. pic.twitter.com/cs6UVwf2wv
— Ian Wheeler (@iwhlr) June 13, 2020
On June 1, a week after Floyd’s death, several hundred came to the park — many listened to speakers describe experiences of police brutality. Later that day, protesters from the park joined with others around the city and walked Anaheim’s downtown. Police declared an unlawful assembly as night fell, shooting rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
Saturday’s protest remained peaceful as of 4 p.m. At the park, speakers recounted personal experiences of racism. They took a knee and raised their fists in silence for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, representing the amount of time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck.
Just after 3 p.m, the crowd began to march south on Harbor Boulevard, holding signs and chanting “No Justice, no peace! No racist police!”
They marched more than a mile, briefly stopping in the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue, before arriving at police headquarters, where a few officers guarded the entrance, while others on motorcycles diverted traffic around the march.
A few protesters directed their speech directly at the nearby officers before the crowd resumed marching eastbound on Santa Ana Street.
By about 4:15 p.m., the march had made its way to City Hall, where protesters gathered along stairs leading up to the building and held up their signs and banners.
Demonstrators are marching again, headed east on Santa Ana Street. Chants of: "Black lives matter!" and "This is what democracy looks like!" pic.twitter.com/H4DsvZgLkW
— Ian Wheeler (@iwhlr) June 13, 2020
Justice Crudup of Anaheim led the march to the police department and City Hall, to demand that the City Council takes steps to reign in bad police practices.
He said the Anaheim police department has a track record of police brutality, particularly against people of color, and that protests will be planned until the City Council puts on its agenda a policy that would transform the police department.
“We will be here each and every weekend,” he said in front of City Hall.
Crudup and others led the protesters away from City Hall just before 5 p.m. They went back to La Palma Park, where organizers had planned performances to celebrate Juneteenth. The holiday, commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., is on June 19.
Kason Clark of Fullerton said he was tired of watching the protests from home and felt he needed to join in and help keep the momentum going.
Clark said he was encouraged by some developments as a result of the protests — that the officers involved in Floyd’s death were arrested and charged, but there is more to do in the fight against systemic racism.
“There has been some reform and some change, but the important thing is not to let up … To keep telling people in charge that we want change,” he said.
Hundreds also gathered on Saturday at a pair of protests in Irvine, the first of which involved faith, city and law enforcement leaders who gathered with more than 500 protesters at Christ Our Redeemer Church and embarked on a one-mile march Saturday morning, Sgt. Karie Davies said.
About 200 protesters later demonstrated outside Irvine City Hall, Davies said.
Both demonstrations were peaceful.
Staff writer Nathaniel Percy contributed to this report.
"gather" - Google News
June 14, 2020 at 04:22AM
https://ift.tt/30ExtHe
More than 300 gather in Anaheim to rally against police brutality - OCRegister
"gather" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Sqdbwp
https://ift.tt/2Yjhqxs
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "More than 300 gather in Anaheim to rally against police brutality - OCRegister"
Post a Comment