As Protests Proliferate, Nervous County Brings in National Guard
Protests continue to spring up in places no one ever thought would see demonstrators.
Paranoia rather than understanding has all-too-often been the result. I get it, bad things happened in La Mesa and downtown. I just wish fear and loathing wasn’t such a common reaction.
Vigilante groups have popped up on Facebook. Deplorable excuses for human beings have physically attacked or tried hard to intimidate people expressing their protected by First Amendment opinions. Visions of looters and black-clad Antifa shock troops paid for by George Soros are being propagated by people with a vested interest --racism-- to protect.
Property has been damaged and/or stolen. For 400 years, the lives of a significant part of our population have also been and continue to be stolen. Property can be replaced. Lives, not-so-much. And Black lives even less.
Locally there were public displays of dismay and grief (all peaceful) in Encinitas, Mira Mesa, Midway, Southeast, Ocean Beach, Santee, Poway, Escondido, Oceanside and likely others.
In Mira Mesa the protest, which consisted of people standing by the road holding signs organized by a Junior High School student, a local shopping center boarded up its windows.
The County of San Diego has requested the National Guard to assist them with security in the region due to the “recent civil unrest.”
From KPBS:
Lt. Tim Matzkiw, a Sheriff’s Department watch commander, initially told KPBS Wednesday evening that all of the troops are in San Diego but later he clarified that some may still be en route. Matzkiw said they have not been deployed yet but half will be assigned to La Mesa while the other 100 will be placed elsewhere in the county.
They will provide “force protection,” such as providing security at courthouses and other public buildings but will not be making any arrests, Matzkiw said.
The La Mesa Police Department posted on social media that National Guard troops will be present in La Mesa this evening.
A KFMB 8 reporter suggested the Guard was pulling into La Mesa at night because of a lively press conference earlier in the day.
Apparently some black people spoke without being spoken to first. I reviewed a bunch of KFMB’s coverage and concluded that some reporters there are doing their best to gin up fears.
https://twitter.com/LemorAbrams/status/1268411141929091074?s=20
At the press conference in question, La Mesa police and city officials joined other jurisdictions in the county in announcing the carotid neck restraint would no longer be used by police. Word was that body camera video of Amaurie Johnson's arrest last week at a trolley station would be released.
There was the usual shuck and jive about an “outside investigator, under review” etc, etc.
What officials didn’t count on was Johnson, his attorney, and local activists taking over the microphone as the presser ended. I guess asking hard questions makes bringing in the National Guard a good idea.
The ten minute, heavily edited “official” video didn’t prove anything, other than Johnson was angry about being racially profiled.
A six-minute bystander video of the encounter between Johnson, who is black, and a white police officer spread on social media, leading to calls for police reform and social justice.
The video of the incident shows a white officer detaining Johnson. He repeatedly grabs and pushes Johnson, forcing him to sit on a bench and saying Johnson had smacked his hand.
Within 35 seconds, other officers arrive and help handcuff Johnson.
As he sits in handcuffs, Johnson expresses frustration, says he had been waiting for a friend and says, “I already know what the issue is. I’m black as (expletive) out here.” He later says, “Why am I still here? I am doing nothing wrong. I am being a citizen.”
The young man, who was initially accused of smoking marijuana (none was found) was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer.
This made the La Mesa police department headquarters ground zero for protests as the country reacted to the death of George Floyd.
What ensued was a demonstration that broke badly, as police defended aggressive behavior based on allegations of stuff being thrown at them.
A 59 year old woman, Leslie Furcron, was hospitalized after being hit in the head with a rubber bullet fired by police.
Dante Pride, an attorney representing the family, said he had reviewed dozens of videos and spoken with scores of people present at the protest outside La Mesa police headquarters and has seen no evidence that Furcron was violent or did anything to justify being shot.
Furcron was holding up her cellphone, recording the protest when an officer opened fire, Pride said. The other demonstrators also were being peaceful and received no warning from law enforcement before "the tear gas came and the bullets rained down," he said.
Pride said he believes the involved officer purposely aimed at Furcron's head, in contradiction of the LMPD's rules regarding use of force, which he said hold that projectiles be aimed below the waist.
Following dispersal of the crowd, looters descended on commercial districts in La Mesa, setting fire to two banks and causing widespread damage. Hundreds of good samaritans came out to clean up the mess on the following day.
***
George Floyd, the man who died with a knee on his neck in Minneapolis, will have a funeral this weekend.
The family of the woman who was killed in her sleep by police executing an improperly gotten no-knock warrant (no contraband was found) in Kentucky hasn’t heard that any officers will be held responsible.
A very small and very afraid man living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is having multiple fences erected around his residence and is being guarded by soldiers with no unidentifiable uniforms.
https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1268233764070731778?s=20
Rumor has it that one million people are expected to visit the nation’s capital this weekend. Perhaps they’ll want to exercise some constitutionally protected rights.
And protests will continue in cities big and small around the nation, as this snip from Buzzfeed indicates:
There have been protests in Belfast, Maine. In Farmington, New Mexico. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In Bentonville, Arkansas. In Lubbock, Texas. In Idaho Falls, Idaho. The biggest anyone can remember in Paducah, Kentucky, in Bozeman, Montana, in Pendleton, Oregon, in Frisco, Texas, and in Ogden, Utah. In Tacoma, Washington, pastors knelt in the rain, pleading with God. In Bowling Green, Kentucky, three rolling days of protests. In Owatonna, Minnesota, a student-led protest lasted for 10 hours. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, thousands gathered on the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre. In Myers Park, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Charlotte, North Carolina, where black people were prohibited from owning property for decades. And in Petal, Mississippi, where protesters have spent days calling for the resignation of Mayor Hal Marx, who tweeted last week that “If you can talk, you can breathe.”
These protests cut across demographics and geographic spaces. They’re happening in places with little in the way of a protest tradition, in places with majority white population and majority black, and at an unprecedented scale. People who’ve watched and participated in the Black Lives Matter movement since 2015 say that this time feels different. And the prevalence of these small protests is one of many reasons why.
https://twitter.com/SDUTdyer/status/1268428677605322752?s=20
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Lead photo of Point Loma/Midway protesters laying down from Michael McConnell's Twitter feed