With protests around the country continuing in the wake of George Floyd’s death, peaceful demonstrations have grown in size over the weekend in Culver City. Due to the lack of overall incidents and the nature of the demonstrations, Culver City lifted the curfews it had put in place in response to violence seen in nearby cities such as Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
While there have been burglaries and the National Guard was called in to protect the Westfield Culver City mall from opportunistic looters who reportedly circled the mall. While protests have been occurring daily since the death of George Floyd, the numbers at Culver City protests have increased substantially over the past week.
Vice Mayor Alex Fisch was among those present at protests, posting pictures from a demonstration organized by the Black Student Union at Culver City High School held June 5, with people spread out over the large field at Veterans Park.
These demonstrations only got larger over the weekend, as several thousand people came together the next day to march. Footage of the march was shown on local news outlets, and was touted as being one of the largest demonstrations of the day in Southern California.
June 9 saw another demonstration also held at Veterans Park. This too was organized by concerned high school students, several of whom spoke at the protest to voice their stories, their fears, and their anger.
One recounted a story where, in a Zoom call meant to help teach about blackness, a group of white males hacked into the call, yelling out the racial slur that has defined the oppression felt by African Americans for generations.
Another retold a memory where a police officer pulled over and parked to pace back and forth across from the street from where he, a black man, was simply recording a French project.
Following the speeches to a crowd of several hundred people, the demonstrators began a march from the park to the LAPD Pacific Division at 12312 Culver Blvd., Los Angeles, chanting things like “No Justice, No Peace,” “Say his name,” and “I can’t breath,” all of which have become synonymous with the Black Lives Matters movement.
However, due to the lack of feasibility of social distancing during the march, the Culver City News was not able to record the march.
