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A Woodland protest organized by a group of young people drew nearly 150 people at its peak across the street from the Yolo County Courthouse. The protest drew, among others, Supervisor Gary Sandy and Supervisor-elect Angel Barajas, as well as Mayor Richard Lansburgh and Acting City Manager Ken Hiatt.
An overwhelming number of the cars passing by honked their horns in agreement with the message of the protesters — mourning the loss of George Floyd’s life, lamenting police brutality, and calling for accountability.
Many cars were seen coming around the block multiple times to honk there support. Parents, with their children in the back, hit their horns. Some even brought their own signs and shared the message of the protesters.
A few vehicles revved their engines in disgust for the protesters. Some screamed out profanity. There was one truck that unfurled a Trump sign from the back.
Deza Delgado from Woodland was one of the organizers of the event.
“We just decided to bring to the community this protest, because enough is enough of the police brutality going on,” she said. “Nothing really happens in this town even though it is a small town where there are so many minorities that are not represented here. We thought we could be their voice. That they can be heard.”
Jasmine Diel from Woodland said, “We need to support the black community too – especially in this town, they don’t get represented that much.”
Delgado said, “It makes me depressed just knowing how our system is. Knowing that anyone — even me or my friends that I know from school or at out of town can get randomly killed by someone just in a second.”
She added, “It makes me feel so much for the families and everyone out there.”
She said, “Enough is enough. The police system should get checked with the people that are hired. If they abuse their powers, they should learn not to do that and actually care for the people when they need help.
“If they’re saying they can’t breathe — give them the help they need,” she added.
Diel added that the message she wanted to send was to have “awareness that authority has of the people—there is such a thing as good authority, but taking advantage of the that is just the negative effects.”
The event went smoothly for the most part, but with one big misunderstanding that almost created a huge problem, as seems to be playing out across the country.
The Woodland police showed up, about six or seven cars with some undercover vehicles as well. They showed up with lights coming down Main Street. Were they there to intimidate or for solidarity? It appeared at first the latter. But when they turned around and came back, suddenly protesters took to the streets and the police got out, blocking traffic with a brief show of force.
However, some of the more experienced members of the protest group got people back onto the sidewalk and the police wisely exited the scene.
Speaking to some of the officials, they felt it was a misunderstanding by the protesters. The police, they acknowledged, might have been better advised to have made their intentions more clear.
For some this was emblematic of the distrust between both sides — even in a moment to show unity, it almost erupted into a problem.
Across the nation, police — often defensive about criticism of their brethren — acknowledged that the officers erred. Mayor Sam Liccardo took a knee in downtown San Jose on Sunday afternoon. Video shows a number of officers doing so as well. In Santa Cruz, Mayor Justin Cummings and Police Chief Andy Mills knelt in peaceful protest days after the killing of George Floyd.
In Davis, Police Chief Pytel joined the council and city manager in a statement acknowledging, “The actions of those officers in Minneapolis are simply indefensible. What we witnessed was an abuse of power, and it cannot be tolerated.”
They added, “The Davis Police Department has strict policies in place that prohibit a person from being restrained the way that George Floyd was, and for exactly the reasons that we all witnessed.”
In Woodland, Mayor Richard Lansburgh held up a Black Lives Matter sign.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
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Ummm, maybe they were there in case things got out of hand like we’ve seen all over the nation?
As I understand it that’s not the case. And if that was the case, their approach would have been completely reckless. I believe they were to show solidarity and it was misinterpreted by the protesters.
I guess you haven’t been watching what has happened in the last week.
I told you the explanation I got. Going in with sirens blaring is not the way to create calm and it almost blew up on them even when their intention was completely different.
First you just said “They showed up with lights coming down Main Street.”
Now you say “sirens blaring”, which is it?
THat’s the point you focus on rather than the explanation given for them arriving on the scene?
Yes, because it shows sensationalism.
There’s a huge difference between the police ‘showing up with lights’ and ‘sirens blaring’.
If they had come racing down the street with their lights on and sirens blaring that would’ve been over the top.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
When are cops going to say to Hell with it. This isn’t worth it.
No matter what they seem to do it’s wrong.
Here they get called out for having their lights on.
Then if they don’t show up and the protest turns into a riot everyone will be saying where were the cops?
They can’t win.
I would hate to think what would happen if all the cops walked off the job.
The interesting thing is that the reaction from a lot of the cops has been the opposite. They were horrified by the George Floyd situation. And they are understanding of the distrust in the communities of color. The riots threaten to undo some of that unfortunately, but this is the first time I can remember where one of these deaths occurred and everyone knew it was wrong.
Yes, everyone is disgusted about what happened to Floyd.
But cops are getting swore at, pelted with bottles, bricks, fireworks and gasoline bombs and one killed in Oakland.
So much for them agreeing that what happened to Floyd was wrong.
I appreciate Matt Rexroad’s tweet:
Well, they should be fired (pun unintended) and dismissed… you might like that would save a lot of taxpayer money in compensation, benefits, post-retirement benefits…
Yes, Police are between a rock and a hard place… like many other civil servants… nothing new under the sun there… there are many dedicated Police/public safety officers who are serving the public, the community… and some in their ranks are ‘bad apples/toxic’… very few, but those are toxic [perhaps, even ‘evil’]… public safety folk, with our encouragement/support, should root out the toxic ones… despite the powerful unions (which should be decertified, IMNSHO), who defend their folk, right or wrong… David and others may disagree… under the aegis of all are innocent until proven guilty… so, in that view, all the videos are no reason to assume guilt… yet, I am convinced that what transpired in MN was murder, under the color of law, and is reprehensible… yes, that is a form of intolerance… so be it. I’ll take responsibility for that view.
There are 3 other MN officers who should, IMO, be facing serious criminal charges… the one who just stood by… in some ways, he is most culpable, as he could have pulled out his weapon, and told the others to stop, he likely had the weakest soul. He exhibited both indifference and cowardice. It is far short of justice that they were all fired. They should be tried, convicted, and serve sentences in the general population in prison… with their crimes well known in prison. And, if they survive that, they should never be allowed to ‘serve the public’ in any manner… upon release, they should be shunned. But, just my opinion…
Because it was?
Cuz they were trying to make the point . . . that they were in favor of cops killing people? Not sure I get their point. This isn’t a partisan issue. At its core, it’s a call to root out racist cops and deadly police practices. And their response is “Trump, Trump, Trump!”. That’s just weird.
I don’t understand that, either.
Yeah I didn’t really understand that either.
Racist cops are not a partisan issue. The four cops were fired and the one is charged with murder. We have a legal system and we need law and order.
The partisan part of this is the rioting and looting being supported by the Democrat candidate for President and apparently every other Democrat as none have come out strongly condemning the rioting and looting, Democrat governors in blue states are making the cops stand down and allowing the rioting and looting to go unchecked, and many wealthy liberals are contributing to fund to bail out the rioters and looters.
How many blacks have died as a result of the rioting and looting?
The partisan issue is one side tacitly or explicitly supports the riots and looting, and the other side wants the rioters and looters stopped. The sad thing here is that Democrats are giving Trump the law and order candidate brand while they are adopting the violent chaos candidate brand.
This is a false statement. They have supported the protests. They have not supported the rioting and looting.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-biden-bail/biden-staff-donate-to-group-that-pays-bail-in-riot-torn-minneapolis-idUSKBN2360SZ
Sorry Don. Cannot have it both ways.
Sorry, Jeff, your statement was false. I’m not trying to “have it both ways.”
I think you should replace “racist cops” with “unconstiutional policing”
Jeff
“The partisan issue is one side tacitly or explicitly supports the riots and looting”
This is simply not true. If you read Biden’s entire statement, it is very clear he does not support rioting and the destruction of property. But you prefer to make false assumptions and claims. Why would you do that?
Jeff, the Fairfax County Democrats Call Riots ‘Part of This Country’s March Towards Progress’ in a tweet today which they have since deleted. This seems to support Jeff’s assertion.
Yeah Keith. And there is a lot more of that. Many Democrat politicians are walking the razors edge of lightly condemning the violence while expressing empathy for the rioters and looters at the same time. Like Biden’s staff donating bail money to release the rioters and looters while Biden says he is against it in a prepared speech. And most of the mayors and governors of blue states are having the cops stand down.
Isn’t it telling that they would threaten to put business owners in jail if they don’t follow the COVID-19 orders but then allow these rioters and looters to run free?
We absolutely know that many of our friends on the left are inwardly satisfied with the chaos as it validates their worldview and gives them hope for their political season. Soon you will hear from them “see, look what happened under Trump’s watch”! We are already hearing from them that the 100,000 dead from COVID-19 is Trump’s fault. It is all a game to generate advantageous political talking points… no matter what the harm done (ironically in advance of the Durham report on Obamagate). Frankly, it is disgusting. There is absolutely no acceptable action from any politician other than swift condemnation and aggressive defense against, and then the prosecution of, these thugs. Thankfully Trump named ANIFA a terrorist organization… long overdue. Trump is the law and order candidate, and his opponents are branding themselves as complicit with rioting and looting.
And it is time we draw the line at peaceful protest and those that practice “civil disobedience” because this is what happens when we allow the protestors to define what the rules are. Peaceful protest is peaceful protest… but ANY harm done to anyone, including blocking roads, etc., is not peaceful and thus should be force-ably dismantled.
We have to wonder too… are these thugs pissed of Bernie Bros? Might they be less angry had the DNC not screwed him over again?
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