On the street: Everyone had his or her own reason for attending the downtown protest
Scores of angry people yelled at each other back and forth across Washington Street, and face-to-face at times, as a locally organized protest against the police custody death of George Floyd stretched into its third hour at Courthouse Square.
A phalanx of nine law enforcement motorcycle officers made a passing show of presence about 3:35 p.m., heading up North Washington Street toward the Red Church, while sign-waving protesters still crowded corners and leaned out of moving car windows. Earlier, protesters and counter-protesters exchanged curses, chants and emotional shouts, in their efforts to make themselves heard, and drown out the other side.
Numerous motorcyclists came to observe the protest. Members of the Hells Angels and Death Traps said they could not comment, though they did say they were from Sonora. One motorcyclist, who was not wearing club colors and insignia, revved his Harley-davidson as loud as he could repeatedly, to drown out protesters' voices. He said he was from Sonora and declined to be interviewed.
Protesters and counter-protesters numbers thinned out considerably by 3:30 p.m., with 100 to 150 remaining in the park and about 50 remaining at the Tuolumne County Veterans Hall And Museum. Some Sonora and Tuolumne County residents, who were among those who portrayed themselves as protectors versus protesters, said they would not leave the Veterans Hall until Courthouse Square was empty and all protesters were gone from downtown.
“We're just here to make sure everyone is safe and ok,” retired Army Staff Sgt. Jill Paterson of Twain Harte, who served two combat tours in Iraq, said about 3 p.m. out front of the Veterans Hall. “Even the protesters. All lives matter here.”
“Yeah!” a man with an American flag yelled out near Paterson, directing his shouts across the street. “All lives matter!”
Protesters in Courthouse Square answered, “No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace.”
On the other side of the street, Michayla Botts, 25, of Sonora said she came to stand up for people who have lost their
lives in encounters with law enforcement. She believes the nation is in a bad state already, and to have another black man's life taken for no reason, what better time than now to stand up?
“At this point in our country's history,” Botts said, “why are we still here dealing with this? Black lives matter.”
Christy Nava, 41, of Jamestown, was leaving the protest as she walked up North Washington. She said she thought the protest was awesome, and the most important thing for her was to show love to everybody no matter what they did at the protest.
“I'm very proud of our town,” Nava said.
Sam Santry, 25, of Sonora, rode his Harley-davidson to the counter-protest and parked on the Veterans Hall side of Washington Street. Santry served eight years in the Army, including a combat tour in Afghanistan in 2014.
“A lot of people on this side of the street feel the way they do over there,” Santry said. “Some of us feel excluded, though, because of their message. What happened to George Floyd should never have happened. There's real systemic failures in the justice system and I think both sides agree on a lot of things. But I'm staying here at the Veterans Hall until everyone's gone. I'm not leaving. I could care less if they burn the police department. I don't want to see any damage here downtown.”
Paul Snell of Crystal Falls stood in a narrow sliver of shade at Jackson and Washington. He said it's important to note hundreds and hundreds of black people are being killed by Boko Haram Islamists in Africa, and nobody's doing anything about it.
“It seems like those black lives don't matter to anyone,” Snell said. “Worldwide.”
Dave Newman, 62, and his wife, Anna Newman, 39, said they came from their home in Daggett in San Bernardino County, for vacation and scouting a place for a new guitar-making business in Sonora. They were sitting at an outside table at Sonora Brewing Company, where at least two women counter-protesters sipped cold beers.
“They're missing the boat,”
Dave Newman said of the protesters. “All lives matter. But chanting black lives matter, they are getting singular, one-dimensional, myopic. The veterans and hard-hitting residents over there, they're here to protect their town.”
Josh Tucker, 34, a Sonora resident, was leaving the protest momentarily and he said he was proud of the George Floyd protesters in Courthouse Square.
“It's important the Black Lives Matter message gets across, because not all lives are in danger now,” Tucker said. “I'm pleased so many people are there on the Black Lives Matter side.”
From about noon, an hour before the George Floyd protest was scheduled to start at 1 p.m., through 3 p.m., the temperature rose from 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit and tensions between both groups of protesters and counterprotesters increased at times, too.
Some men stripped off their shirts. Some people doused their hair and heads with bottled water. Sometimes people shouted expletives at each other, and sometimes they entertained each other by yelling, “We love you!” in jest.
One shirtless man tried to taunt some protesters in their car by riding his bicycle slowly down Washington Street in front of their car, then dropping his drawers to immense laughter from customers outside Sonora Brewing Company.
At one point Ryan Campbell, the District 2 supervisor for Tuolumne County, walked past with a somber expression. “I'm not happy,” Campbell said. “Members of our community are on opposite sides of the street glaring at each other. I'm ready for this to be over.”