Gregory Bull/AP Photo
A burned Union Bank branch in La Mesa, California, on Sunday, May 31
SAN DIEGO – Protests broke out at numerous locations across San Diego Sunday, one of the last major cities to join the dozens of cities nationwide that have seen popular actions against police violence after the murder of George Floyd by a cop in Minneapolis. Marches in the downtown area began as early as 10 a.m., and continued well into the evening, as overwhelmingly peaceful protesters were met intermittently with over a hundred cops in riot gear, SWAT teams, and intermittent flashbangs, tear gas, and rubber bullets. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, at least four people were arrested by the afternoon, two on suspicion of battery on a peace officer and two on suspicion of failing to disperse.
At multiple locations throughout the city, protest groups condemned police violence, and at various points, blockaded parts of the city’s major freeways. In the afternoon, demonstrators in the majority-Latino neighborhood of Barrio Logan blocked the on-ramp to Interstate 5. Protesters also gathered in the historically queer neighborhood of Hillcrest.
In the central activity in downtown San Diego, a group made up of largely young people of color chanted and played music. In what’s becoming a signature gesture of George Floyd protests, many kneeled in front of the police barrier holding signs. At one point, the crowd grew large enough to span four city blocks. But even those peaceful actions were met with sporadic aggression from police. Police set up a four-sided perimeter in front of the municipal Hall of Justice, and periodically advanced on protesters, clearing them from side streets. While the protest lacked the galling levels of abuse showcased by police forces in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, there were still a number of tense moments of police aggression.
At one point, a marching band headed to the front lines, and protesters chanted to the music. Others linked arms in front of the police barricade and encouraged cops to put down their batons and join them. But a few minutes later, after one water bottle was thrown, San Diego PD retaliated with a deluge of flashbangs and pepperballs, and advanced on the protest. Numerous protesters were teargassed, with some needing medical attention. Many fled, while others sheltered behind loose pieces of drywall. Armed police stationed on the rooftops of nearby high-rises added to the atmosphere of fear.
Still, late into the afternoon, protests remained overwhelmingly peaceful, largely at the behest of organizers, who encouraged attendees to remain focused on the issues, despite what many saw as provocation from the cops. When someone knocked over a potted plant at the tony Westgate Hotel, they were quick to condemn it, and many uprighted the planter and restored its flowers and soil.
“We hear you,” said San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer in a post on Twitter. “We hear your passion and we hear your pain. The mission of police is to facilitate and protect the ability to peacefully exercise the 1st Amendment, because we will not tolerate violence in San Diego.” The city declared the protest an unlawful assembly at around 4:30 p.m., though protesters remained, despite another round of tear gas.
Despite some reports of vandalism, the protest remained less combative than Saturday night’s demonstration in the San Diego neighborhood of La Mesa. There, an afternoon march was scheduled after a Wednesday incident in which a La Mesa Police Department officer used force against a black man sitting on a bench at a trolley station, ultimately arresting the man on “suspicion of assaulting an officer.” After video of the encounter circulated on social media, the officer was placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.
That incident, in tandem with the George Floyd protests nationwide, led to a planned march, which resulted in the Interstate 8 freeway being blocked. At least 1,000 people were estimated to have been in attendance. But when protesters returned to the La Mesa Police Department to continue demonstrating, things quickly escalated. Some protesters broke windows with rocks and threw water bottles; the cops blanketed the demonstration with tear gas and fired rubber bullets, even hitting people standing on the sidewalks away from the precinct. One woman was shot in the face with a rubber bullet and needed treatment, while medics attended to numerous tear gas victims. The escalating behavior led to a night of property damage in the town of 60,000. Both a Chase Bank and Union Bank, along with the city’s office building, were burned down, and a nearby grocery store was looted.
As the sun set on Sunday, police continued shutting down major thoroughfares across the city, and preemptively setting up at the city’s major malls, far from the protests, presumably in anticipation of looting, though there were no protesters at those locations. At one point, cops shot a male protester in the head with a rubber bullet.
Along with those shutdowns, growing demonstrations around the greater San Diego County area resulted in the implementation of curfews. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department issued a curfew order for some unincorporated communities starting at 8 p.m. Sunday night and lasting until 5:30 a.m. Monday. In the neighborhoods of Poway, El Cajon, La Mesa, and Santee, similar curfews were enacted.
But demonstrations were continuing as day turned into night. Police in San Diego have been joined by other law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At sunset, thousands of protesters knelt for an eight-minute period of silence, fists aloft, in front of the City Administration Building. Police in riot gear waited inside.
