Families join in protest
Parents, children join in demonstration in San Jose, Oakland
To mark the “Black Lives Matter National Day of Action” on Thursday, hundreds of people rallied in San Jose, Oakland and other Bay Area cities to draw attention to incidents of police violence and the movement against racial injustices.
Children of all ages joined adult activists at a familyfriendly march from Frank Ogawa Plaza by Oakland City Hall to the Oakland police headquarters and back.
Back outside of City Hall where about 600 protesters rallied, children danced while their parents chanted and listened to speakers.
The family-friendly event featured informational booths and arts and crafts for kids.
A teenage girl wearing a Pikachu beanie yelled into a speakerphone, leading “black lives matter” and “black children matter” chants.
Angelica AmesquitaCarter, of Oakland, and her children were among the many families at the peaceful protest.
The mother said she brought her children, 6-year old Andre and 1-year-old Maya, because she believes it’s important for her black children to see “all the love that this community can bring.”
“I believe that black lives matter,” Amesquita-Carter said. “I don’t think that the world as a whole believes that, and I don’t think the police believe that.”
She said her family recently moved from San Francisco to Oakland because “it’s a real community” with more people of color. “People come out and speak about what they care about,” she said.
In San Jose, Laurie Valdez, whose partner Antonio Guzman Lopez was shot and killed by San Jose State police in 2014, organized an event outside City Hall featuring Independent Police Auditor Walter Katz, various public defenders and Oscar Grant’s Uncle Bobby, Cephus Johnson. Grant was shot and killed by a BART police in 2009. Valdez estimated the event drew about 150 people.
Valdez, 51, was joined by the families of half a dozen other people who have died in confrontations with law enforcement in San Jose. She called on the community to unite and police itself.
“Basically, we have to look out for each other until our leaders are able to meet with us and come up with a solution,” Valdez said. “They are not going to be able to fix what is broken, because they’re not even addressing the families that are in the shadows hurting, suffering the trauma and being re-victimized every time another killing happens.”
Before the march in Oakland, parent Shayna Cureton, 31, of Berkeley, briefly led a group of kids in a chant of “Power, power, power to the people” next to a makeshift altar to honor minority men killed by police. She’s a member of a community education project called Abundant Beginnings, which helps parents talk with kids about issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement.
Cureton said the protest gives children an opportunity to take part in “what they want their future to be.”
“It’s also so parents and families have an opportu- nity to talk about issues facing all of our communities, as well as black ones. ... A lot of the white families have begun talking about what it means to be an ally, what it means to work in solidarity,” she said.
At a morning news conference in advance of the afternoon march and rally in Oakland, Anti Police-Terror Project co-founder Cat Brooks addressed public comments blaming movements for recent police deaths in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Brooks said the suspects in both shootings had disavowed connections with activist groups.
“At no time have any of our organizations have said go out and kill cops. It’s a convenient redirect for people who don’t want to have the real conversation about genocide against black people in America.”
Black Lives Matter Bay Area member Kamau Walton implored Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to press charges against all officers allegedly involved in a recent sex scandal involving officers from Oakland and other Bay Area departments having sexual relations with a teenage prostitute.
In response, O’Malley issued a statement.
“While it is our practice not to discuss pending investigations, I can firmly state that we do not and will not turn a blind eye to human trafficking or the sexual exploitation of a minor, whether the offender is a civilian or a law enforcement officer,” O’Malley said. “The alleged conduct of the officers in this matter is not in line with what our office and the wider community feel is acceptable for those who are sworn to protect and serve.”