San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
PAIR OF LOCAL EVENTS FOCUS ON BLM, POLICING
A Breonna Taylor 5K downtown; pro-police car caravan in East County
The debate over policing in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement continued to play out publicly Saturday at a pair of demonstrations in San Diego County.
The peaceful events had roughly the same number of attendees, about 150 to 200 people.
The first was a “Justice for Breonna Taylor 5K” run/walk/ride downtown designed to bring attention to what organizers said was the unjustified killing of a Black woman by police. The other was a “We the People Support Law Enforcement” car caravan in East County designed to show support for police in the wake of criticism following the killing of Taylor and other people of color.
Nicol Hodges, 49, of Encinitas said she helped organize the run because she wanted to continue to bring attention to the case, and running is something visible that she was doing anyway. She said as a Black woman it was important to create an example for her daughters about standing up for justice.
“We’re looking for justice for Breonna Taylor,” Hodges said, “and all Black women that have been murdered by police.”
Taylor was killed in Louisville, Ky., in March, when police served a search warrant at her home. Her boyfriend, who said he was unaware who had knocked down their apartment door, fired at police. The conduct of police, and the type of warrant used, has made the case a lightning rod for the Black Lives Matter movement.
A grand jury trial resulted in one police officer being charged with three counts of wanton endangerment, but no one directly charged with her killing. Further details of the grand jury proceeding were released Friday.
“Justice wasn’t served,” said run organizer Gina Wickstead, 49, who lives downtown. “It was the opposite of justice.”
Participants, a mix of different races and backgrounds, wore shirts and masks that said “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for Breonna.” Organizers say they will continue to meet there every Saturday.
Not everyone had the same idea for how to change policing, but it typically involved some type of training program or new protocols for handling calls with people of color.
“We’ve been seeing injustices in this community for so long,” said Emily Saunders, 28, of North Park. “We just need to listen to those communities about what they need.”
Across the county in Santee, a pro-law enforcement event kicked off with up to 200 cars and motorcycles in a caravan that drove by different police and sheriff’s stations.
The group was overwhelmingly White, and many of the participants wore clothing with American flags, pro-law enforcement Thin Blue Line flags and Trump 2020 hats; one man wore a hooded sweatshirt displaying a Confederate flag. Attached to vehicles were Trump, American and Thin Blue Line flags, as well as Defend East County banners.
Participants said they were unhappy with how police were being criticized.
Ralph Garcia, 65, of Ramona, said people who watch the news might think everyone wants to defund police departments.
“It’s not what the public wants,” he said at the Santee YMCA, where participants started the caravan.
Garcia said he was not opposed to changes made to police departments, but wasn’t in favor of quick, drastic changes that some Black Lives Matter protesters were asking for.
Lonnie Scott, 46, of El Cajon said he knows that officers will leave him alone if he doesn’t do anything wrong. He said that “one bad apple” in a police department shouldn’t mean all cops are bad.
Justin Haskins, founder the Defend East County Facebook group, attended along with some of its members. He said he wasn’t in favor of no-knock search warrants — which police officers originally had in the Taylor incident but was carried out as a “knock and announce” before the shooting — but police should not be held accountable for her death.
“I think it is an unfortunate circumstance,” he said. “However, I don’t think the cops did anything wrong in that situation.”
At one stop, a uniformed El Cajon police officer posed for photos with child participants, including one who held a sign with a Defend East County logo that read “We the people (heart) cops.”