San Francisco demonstrators took to the streets Saturday in the latest of many protests in the Bay Area against the killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man, at the hands of local police.
Friday night, thousands marched in San Jose and Oakland in demonstrations in the name of police reform. Local businesses also saw their windows smashed and fires dotted Oakland’s downtown in a scene that spurred outrage from Mayor Libby Schaaf.
“People came out in Oakland to express their understandable anger about the death of George Floyd,” she said in a Saturday press conference. “But that rage crossed an unacceptable line. We are sickened to wake up this morning to the destruction and violence to our beloved Oakland.”
By contrast, San Francisco’s daytime demonstration, at least as of 6 p.m., was a calmer affair.
KQED News on Twitter Until #BlackLivesMatter no lives matter.” Captured by KQED’s @BayAreaJulie in #SF #GeorgeFloyd F https://t.co/DXsOdcfDfQ
Organized by an individual, Raiah Sinn, hundreds first met at U.N Plaza and marched to San Francisco City Hall, then gained more marchers as they wound through San Francisco, ultimately stopping before Mission Police Station as of 6 p.m.
“They hear our chants they hear our pleas for mercy,” Sinn told the demonstrators, at U.N. Plaza. “Hear us when we’re screaming for somebody to get off of our neck. They hear us when we’re pleading for a deceased mother during our last breaths, and they still won’t make the changes that we need to see.”
While demonstrators at first gathered in a socially distant manner, social media showed crowds bunching up as they marched. The densely packed protesters in Oakland sparked warnings from Schaaf that they were endangering their lives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday, Schaaf warned, “stay home, there are other ways to express your anger and your activism right now.”
Speaking to KQED, one San Francisco demonstrator, Kai Galt, says marching during the pandemic for human rights is âjust as essential as going to the grocery store.â
Erin Baldassari on Twitter Demonstrators just pulled a traffic sign (for construction) into the fire
San Francisco has seen its share of police killings of unarmed people, including the shooting death of Alejandro Nieto, who was armed only with a Taser, on Bernal Heights Hill in 2014.
SFPD’s Mission Station, where San Francisco protesters marched to Saturday, was also the site of the Frisco Five hunger strike in 2016 that pressured the city to fire former SFPD Police Chief Greg Suhr, who eventually resigned, following high-profile SFPD officer-involved shootings some decried as unjust.
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