Eighth day of protests in Bay Area brings new cries for justice

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1of7 People participate in a Critical Mass style solidarity ride to demand an end to police violence in San Francisco on Friday June 5, 2020.Photo: Nick Otto / Sfc



2of7 Hundreds gather outside San Jose City Hall to protest police brutality and systemic racism on June 5, 2020 in the wake of the police killing in Minnesota of George Floyd.Photo: Lauren Hernandez



3of7 People participate in a Critical Mass style solidarity ride to demand an end to police violence in San Francisco on Friday June 5, 2020.Photo: Nick Otto / Sfc

For an eighth straight day, crowds filled streets across the Bay Area in the wake of the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd — but this time there were new cries for justice.

In Oakland, they rallied against police brutality to call for an end of a practice in which police are assigned to patrol certain schools.

In San Francisco, they expressed outrage at the killing of a 22-year-old local man by Vallejo police — a man unarmed and kneeling when he was killed Tuesday during unrest set off by the Floyd killing.

Hundreds of people also gathered in San Jose, Walnut Creek, Vallejo and Sunnyvale on Friday.June 5 protest at San Jose StateVolume 90% Hundreds of protesters gathered around Tommie Smith and John Carlos statue at San Jose State University.Video: San Francisco Chronicle

They were on bikes, in cars, on foot and at times, on their knees. They danced, honked, chanted. They conducted die-ins and sit-ins and vigils. They demanded change.

In Oakland, protesters urged the city’s school board to eliminate the district’s police department and the presence of officers on school grounds.

“Oakland’s just really amped up,” said Jasmine Williams, spokeswoman for the Black Organizing Project, one in a coalition of groups organizing car marches, caravans and other events throughout Oakland Friday to advocate for the change.

The district’s police department — an uncommon arrangement in California — costs $2.3 million, organizers said.https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=SFO9785340584

“We’re struggling to get money for schools right now, so why is this line item here?” Williams said.

Yvette Yarbor, 58, of the Laurel District drove to the protest in her gray Equinox van. Her son graduated from Skyline High and her daughter also attended Oakland public schools.

“I’m just here supporting the cause,” she said. “We don’t need police in schools.”

In San Jose, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at San Jose City Hall for a multicultural event with traditional Mexican dancers performing in the middle of the plaza. Some people created altars for people killed by police, including Oscar Grant and Floyd.

Essa Tokhi, 26, joined the downtown demonstration with members of the Muslim Student Association of America and its San Jose State affiliate.

“I’m here to show solidarity with my black brothers and sisters,” Tokhi said. “We have our own issues, and we have a lot of things we gotta get right ourselves, but today we’re out here to support the black people.”

Hundreds of people are rallying at San Jose City Hall. Passing cars are honking in support, and protesters are chanting, “Black Lives Matter” to the beat of a traditional Mexica dance group. pic.twitter.com/mZJarsazx4— Lauren Hernández (@ByLHernandez) June 6, 2020

Monserrat Andrade Lopez, 17, of East San Jose, sat cross-legged on the San Jose City Hall plaza, where she and a group of friends scribbled messages on cardboard, including “Black Lives Matter” and “If you support a racist system, all you can be is racist.”

She said that, as a Latina, she understands the fear that communities of color feel in response to police presence in general.

Other organized protests Friday included a gathering at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Amphitheater for Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville police officers after they entered her apartment on a no-knock warrant. She was sleeping at the time. Friday would have been her 27th birthday.

A separate vigil in Oakland honored Tony McDade, a black transgender man fatally shot by police in Tallahassee, Fla., on May 27 as they approached him in connection with a stabbing earlier in the day.

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In San Francisco, protesters rode bicycles through city streets demanding justice for Floyd.

Also in San Francisco, as well as Vallejo, a protest against police brutality focused on the police killing of Sean Monterrosa, who was kneeling on the ground outside a Walgreens that reportedly had been burglarized Tuesday. Police said the officer fired through his own windshield after mistaking a hammer in Monterrosa’s pocket for a gun.

Hundreds of people gathered at 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco to call for justice in the killing of Monterossa. Family, friends and community members joined to hear speakers, chant Monterossa’s name and tell stories about him. A group of dancers with the Latina Task Force performed a healing ceremony.

His sisters, Michelle and Ashley Monterossa, are calling on Vallejo police to release the body-cam video footage of the shooting and identify the officer who fired the shots.

In Vallejo, protesters also called for justice, at one point standing silently in front of City Hall, with helicopters overhead and the National Guard nearby.

“Sean is part of a bigger movement,” Michelle Monterossa said. “My mama always said God told her Sean had a bigger purpose. We never understood what that meant.”

Source: San Fancisco Chronicle