Another day of protest in Southern California opened Tuesday morning with a moment of solidarity as officers outside of the Los Angeles Police Department’s headquarters knelt with protesters.
The ministers, pastors and priests in attendance at the rally said it was important to remain peaceful and that the actions of rioters were not helping their cause.
“We cannot allow this moment to go by without all of you understanding that we are here in the spirit of George Floyd,” said the Rev. K.W. Tullos, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference. “We wanted to do this the right way.”
The LAPD released a statement praising the day’s events: “This afternoon we saw the best of Los Angeles. Thousands of peaceful demonstrators marched in solidarity. We will continue to facilitate everyone’s 1st Amendment right to assemble peacefully … we will continue to listen, learn, and grow.”
Protests in Hollywood, Venice, Brea and elsewhere unfolded peacefully throughout the day, perhaps signaling an easing of the tensions that flared into bursts of violence and property damage over the weekend.
“This is a great crowd. This is what Venice is all about,” LAPD Capt. Brian Morrison said during a peaceful march in the Westside beach community. “This whole thing is pulling at the heartstrings. This is the way these things should be done. So, I’m very proud of this community today.”
Curfews return
Cities and counties throughout the Southland instituted curfews yet again Tuesday with some, such as Beverly Hills, shutting down as early as 1 p.m. Most pushed their curfews back to 6 p.m., while Riverside County took a different approach and removed its curfew altogether.
V. Manuel Perez, chairman of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, explained the Sheriff’s Department did not believe a curfew was necessary moving forward. The county is trying to find a balance and is cognizant of the fact that curfews can agitate, Perez said.
“It’s important for people to recognize that their ability to protest is their right,” Perez said.
Tuesday marks a full week of nationwide unrest over the police killing of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Floyd, who was accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner convenience store, was killed when now-fired Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while other officers stood by.
Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation Tuesday into the Minneapolis Police Department that is designed to root out systemic racism, according to NBC News.
LAPD chief under fire
Despite the calmer mood at the protests, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore continued to take flak for comments he made Monday blaming looters in part for the death of Floyd.
“His death is on their hands, as much as it is those officers,” Moore said during a press conference.
Moore retracted the comment later that night and apologized for misspeaking.
“While I did immediately correct myself, I recognize that my initial words were terribly offensive,” Moore wrote on Twitter. “Looting is wrong, but it is not the equivalent of murder and I did not mean to equate the two. I deeply regret and humbly apologize for my characterization.”
Speakers during the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioner’s meeting — which was hit with technical issues because of the sheer number of participants — weren’t interested in the apology. They spent more than seven hours criticizing the LAPD and calling for Moore’s firing. At one point, more than 26,000 people were watching KTLA’s live stream of the commission’s meeting, its first since the unrest began.
“You don’t care about us, you don’t care about black lives,” one caller said. “You need to resign.”
Los Angeles continued to attract massive crowds, including at Mayor Eric Garcetti’s official residence in Windsor Square.
Rapper organizes Hollywood protest
Thousands turned up for a Hollywood protest organized by the rapper YG, who released a new song disparaging police officers earlier in the morning. On Twitter, YG later warned protesters to “go home” to avoid a potential clash with the National Guard. That didn’t happen, and instead, the troops and protesters in Hollywood hugged, shook hands and brushed elbows.
“I don’t want to be here; they shouldn’t have to be here,” one emotional demonstrator told NBC LA during an interview.
The march spread out through Hollywood, ballooning to 10,000 people, according to LAPD estimates. It broke up at points, with at least three groups fanning out on local streets, passing by Hollywood landmarks, guarded by troops, police and deputies. NBC LA’s helicopter captured dozens of Humvees and armored vehicles rolling into the area about 4 p.m.
Earlier in the day, protesters knelt in an intersection and briefly blocked traffic on Sunset Boulevard. Then later, a police line cut off a chanting crowd stopped on Hollywood Boulevard. Organizers negotiated with police and officers eventually moved out of the way to let the protesters reconnect with another larger group.
‘Marching for peace’
Protesters — who hit the streets much earlier than Monday — were setting themselves apart from the looting and the vandalism that has hit the region for several days in places like the Fairfax District, Van Nuys, Santa Monica and Long Beach.
“We’re marching for peace,” said Darius Devime, 25. “This is injustice. So many of us have died. We’re marching for the end of that. We want to be treated as equals. To feel safe, the people protecting us have to treat us like humans
“The looting has nothing to do with us,” the Hollywood resident said. “Those are opportunists.”
Outside of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, thousands gathered again in Grand Park to peacefully protest. Before 2 p.m., some protesters briefly made their way on to the 110 Freeway, but then exited onto surface streets to head back to the Civic Center.
In Van Nuys, dozens of people gathered to clean up the aftermath of vandalism and looting surrounding Monday’s protest. Despite police efforts to protect businesses in the low-income area nearby the protest, looters and vandals successfully targeted at least a dozen businesses, from Boost Mobile to immigrant-owned stalls in the Van Nuys Bazaar swap meet. More than 300 arrests were made Monday night in the San Fernando Valley, according to LAPD Valley Bureau Cmdr. Alan Hamilton.
Additionally, nearly 600 additional arrests were reportedly made by the Hollywood Division, according to media reports. Most of the arrests in both areas related to the violation of curfews.
Smaller community protests
In San Pedro, a small gathering of about 40 people held signs outside the LAPD’s Harbor Division. There, too, residents spoke against the looting caused by opportunists in other parts of the region.
Crowds ballooned to about a thousand in Manhattan Beach as protesters set up near boarded up businesses and an equally fortified City Hall. Police closed off Manhattan Beach Boulevard below Ocean Drive, hemming in the growing crowd in a relatively small area. That made physical distancing virtually impossible, although the vast majority of those in the crowd wore masks and officers offered them to those who didn’t.
The event took place the day after one was canceled at nearby Bruce’s Beach, the former site of the only beach blacks were allowed to use in the 1920s before a resort that catered to them there was torn down.
Peaceful protests took place without incident in Pasadena and Whittier as well.
Is racism a public health crisis?
In San Bernardino County, the Board of Supervisors will vote whether to declare racism a public health crisis at its meeting next week.
District Attorney Jason Anderson and Public Defender Chris Gardner joined faith leaders and residents to voice their support for a public health declaration. Pastors from churches throughout the county, including Kelvin Simmons, co-pastor at Immanuel Praise Fellowship in Rancho Cucamonga, called on supervisors to make the declaration.
“What we’re experiencing is reminding us of something that has taken place before, before and before,” Simmons said. “I represent people who are looking for an answer to the trauma — a stop to the trauma, that they can step outside and experience life, that they can jog down the street, they can go to the market, they can walk in the park without experiencing trauma.”
In Yucaipa, tensions flared between two groups: one protesting the death of Floyd and another made up of mostly white men who said they were there to protect the city. The two groups came together in a Stater Bros.’ parking lot and spoke loudly and passionately at each other, face to face, watched by security guards and deputies. The tensions were a continuation from Monday night when, according to videos posted on social media, protesters and another group clashed in the city.
The message Tuesday, though, appeared to be about peace.
Orange County protest peaceful
In Orange County, more than 300 demonstrators gathered in Brea with signs saying “Your silence is deafening” and “Enough is enough.”
Ace Brown, 30, of Brea, made an impromptu plea to the crowd to keep the protest peaceful. He expressed pride in the turnout, saying the group represented all walks of life.
Brown, a black man, said he recognizes the “pain” people are enduring.
“We all react differently to suppression,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we have to respect our city and protect our homes.”
Similar events occurred in Rancho Santa Margarita, Los Alamitos and Yorba Linda.
Staff writers Jeff Horseman, Pierce Singgih, Ryan Carter, David Rosenfeld, Ariella Plachta, Jeong Park, Tony Saavedra, Brian Rokos, Jennifer Iyer, and Nick Green contributed to this report.
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Another day of protests in Southern California marked by calm - OCRegister
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