Protesters block traffic on Highway 101, vandals break windows in SLO

June 2, 2020

Protesters blocked traffic on Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo on Monday and later engaged in a standoff with officers near the police station, while vandals and looters focused on the downtown area.

Hundreds of people protesting the death of George Floyd gathered in the afternoon at Mission Plaza. They then marched through downtown SLO and onto Highway 101, walking southbound in the northbound lanes.

Shortly before 5 p.m., the protesters stopped traffic in both directions on the highway near Santa Rosa Street.

After exiting the highway, protesters walked through downtown and later engaged in a standoff with officers on Santa Rosa Street near the San Luis Obispo police station. The standoff between protesters and officers at the intersection of Santa Rosa and Walnut streets continued until after 7 p.m., when police asked the protesters to disperse.

While many left, a small group remained with some throwing water bottles at police. Officers arrested several people and shot tear gas at protesters.

In line with protest in larger cities, after the march led to civil unrest, vandals and looters focused on local businesses. A vandal shot out windows at Central Coast Surfboards, Founders Community Bank, and Shoe Palace. Looters then snatched items from the shoe store.


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I really hope these experiments to see what happens when the police do nothing end soon. I’m pretty sure we know for certain it’s a bad idea.


Say! How’s that Corona Virus coming along? What’s that? Huh?


I really hope more people can wake up and come out of the fog. The lunatics will double-down, of course, because they are lunatics.


I pray there are enough sane, level heads who do not digest the propaganda 24-7 and react like fools (as we’ve been seeing). One well-planted agitator, the useful idiots will then take it from there. They’ve been conditioned their whole lives, it seems.


I hope Heidi Harmon is happy now. She has officially become a pain in the @ss to more than just the residents of Happy Town.

Will someone please explain what kind of privilege allows these people to think they won’t be killed walking on the freeway.


Not privileges, sir, but the courage of standing up for a just cause.


No, not a protest my friend, but rioting and looting, with the intent of causing mayhem. Just call it what it is. Well done. Here was a golden opportunity to bring about real change for the better in our criminal justice system but antifa and the hate America far left just squandered it. Nice going. Mr Floyd’s family said as much.


“Rioting is self destructive…, it is the language of the unheard”


MLK


Pretty sure “Rioting is self destructive…” is not part of “language of the unheard” quote. In fact, here’s the actual quote:


“Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention”- Dr. Martin Luther King


Sadly, African-Americans remain “poor,” holding less than 15% of the wealth of whites. We often look at the well paid black athletes and entertainers and believe that the blacks have done well since MLK was assassinated by a white supremacist in Memphis all those years ago. But the stubborn facts remain that blacks have not gained much in the last 52 years and if rioting is the way to be heard, then more power to them. I’m sure this nation can afford to replace broken windows and rebuild Target stores.


Mercut1469, really? did you notice the … in my statement? That means I took the language from a larger statement (s) by MLK, not necessarily the same exact speech or quote of the 2nd King quote. Give me a break man, using a smartphone in this context makes elaborate citation and writing cumbersome, to say the least.


And what’s your point anyway? Are you suggesting that Dr. King was wrong in either of the sentiments?


The better question is, if King were around today what do you think he’d be saying about the physical violence to people and property being done in the name of social justice? Yeah, what justice.


King was exactly right in his sentiments. I am just lamenting the fact that we have not gotten very far in achieving his goals in the last 52 years. King followed the lead of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi so he would have spoken out against the violence just as Obama, Sharpton and other black leaders have done. But sometimes those that are chronically poor and victims of systemic racism will turn to rioting. It is the “language of the unheard.”