Thousands of people again took to the streets of Los Angeles County in numerous demonstrations to call for justice and condemn police tactics that lead to the deaths of George Floyd, who died in custody in Minneapolis, and Breonna Taylor, killed in a police raid of her Louisville apartment.
Large, peaceful marches were held Saturday morning near the USC campus and in San Pedro, and continued through the day in several parts of town.
In the Fairfax District, hundreds of people left Pan Pacific Park around 2 p.m. and began marching west on Beverly Boulevard. Separately, crowds numbering more than 1,000 showed up for a City Hall protest and another march in Hollywood.
The march, which began at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street at noon, swelled to a few thousand people and made its way into West Hollywood and Beverly Hills in the late afternoon, then went back through West Hollywood, where it continued into the evening..
With thousands marching in downtown L.A., Long Beach and Hollywood, Metro officials cautioned riders to expect rolling bus detours and possible delays around those areas Saturday. In West Hollywood, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials blocked off several streets through Monday morning to accommodate protesters.
The day’s events began at 8 a.m. with the protest at Los Angeles City Hall, where Cal State LA professor of Pan-African Studies Melina Abdullah told the cheering crowd it is not enough to call for police reform. “Policing evolved from slave catching,” Abdullah said. “You cannot reform policies that evolved from slave catching. You have to abolish it.”
Other protests in Los Angeles County included: USC, Chatsworth, Reseda, Carson, Wilmington, Koreatown, Pasadena, Century City, Torrance, San Gabriel, Pomona, Lancaster and Signal Hill.
Organizers at many of these events asked protesters to wear face coverings and observe social distancing to guard against further spread of the coronavirus.
No arrests were reported at any of these demonstrations.