Action slows traffic briefly on 3 bridges
Motorists protesting a Kentucky grand jury’s decision not to charge any officer directly in the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., temporarily slowed traffic on three major Bay Area bridges Thursday.
Protesters took to Instagram to encourage people to create gridlock during the afternoon commute on the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridge.
“Pick a bridge and drive slow!” said a flyer advertising the demonstrations. “#Gridlock.”
An hour into the planned protest, only two vehicles had slowed on the Golden Gate Bridge. A van slowed in the far right, northbound lane at around 5 p.m., but traffic did not come to a stop. At about 5:30 p.m., a gray Ford Mustang tried to slow down in northbound traffic, but a California Highway Patrol officer pulled the motorist over and cited her for not having a license plate and impeding traffic, CHP officials told The Chronicle.
The CHP traffic stop created the most significant slowdown on the bridge by late Thursday afternoon because passing motorists rubbernecked. The driver behind the wheel of the Mustang held up a closed fist, prompting passing drivers to honk in support.
Muni temporarily suspended bus service on the 25 line to Treasure Island because traffic on the Bay Bridge was slowed by protests, Muni officials said. Service returned to normal once traffic subsided.
In Oakland, the amphitheater at Frank Ogawa Plaza was lined with 500 blackandwhite pictures of Californians who organizers said were killed by law enforcement since 2015. The images were compiled by a local civil rights organization, All of Us or None.
A crowd of about 50 gathered at the plaza for a peaceful protest organized by local police reform advocates and family members of Bay Area residents who were killed by police. Dozens of masked, socially distanced demonstrators chanted the names of those killed.
The gathering in memory of Taylor also spotlighted other police shootings. Family members of some victims were at the rally: Oscar Grant, killed by a BART police officer at BART’s Fruitvale Station in 2009; Richard “Pedie” Perez III, slain by a police officer in Richmond in 2014; and Colby Friday, killed by police in Stockton in 2016. Protesters also chanted for Erik Salgado, shot to death by California Highway Patrol officers in June; his pregnant girlfriend was also shot, and survived.
One after the other, family members mourning loved ones stood in front of “Black Lives Matter” spraypainted on the boardedup City Hall entrance, and shared before a socially distanced crowd of about two dozen.
Denise Friday chanted, “No Justice, No Peace” while clutching a photo of her son and cried as she spoke about her 11yearold granddaughter calling people to protest on her father’s behalf.
“If you cannot imagine the pain of losing a family member to the heinous acts of police violence, it’s a forever lifetime of pain,” said Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson, the uncle of Oscar Grant.
“There can be no peace without justice,” Johnson said. “Let today be about your real work that you’re going to put in to bring about change. Don’t sit on the fence and do nothing!”
The protest was organized by grassroots groups including Oakland’s Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice and Anti PoliceTerror Project. The groups and the families of people killed by police had pushed Oakland to cut its police budget by 50% and redirect funds to education and social services, which did not happen, and supported a bill in the Legislature to decertify police officers with troubled histories, which died before a vote this session.
Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice Executive Director George Galvis criticized what he called “performative allyship” by Bay Area leaders.
“If they don’t take these decisions to protect our people and hold officers accountable, we’re going to vote them out,” Galvis said behind a mask that read, “Stop killing us.”
“This is the voice of the voiceless,” he said. “We’re here to say never again.”
Taylor, a Black medical worker, was shot several times March 13 by white officers who entered her Louisville apartment during a narcotics investigation. Taylor’s boyfriend, who was in the apartment, fired a shot that hit a police officer, causing the other officers to open fire, hitting and killing Taylor.