At Least 3 Arrested Outside SDPD Headquarters During Protest

Speaker 1: 00:00 San Diego protesters joined demonstrators in cities across the country. Wednesday protesting, no charges being brought against police in Kentucky in the death of Brianna Taylor, only one of the three Louisville officers involved was indicted by a grand jury and that charge was a minor felony for shooting into another apartment at the scene. Taylor was killed in a hail of gunfire as police mistakenly rated her apartment last March after a peaceful demonstration involving several hundred protestors, San Diego police say three protestors were arrested in a smaller March near police headquarters journey may is San Diego union Tribune reporter Andrea Lopez via Fanya and Andrea welcome. Speaker 2: 00:45 Thank you for having me Speaker 1: 00:47 Were protesters here saying about the decision not to indict the officers involved in the killing of Briana Taylor? Speaker 2: 00:53 I think it definitely echoes what we were seeing, you know, across the, um, the state, but here in San Diego, what I was getting from a lot of people was frustration, frustration that, um, after waiting for so long, they felt that, you know, justice, they did not get justice. Um, so a lot of, uh, especially black women that were at the protest, uh, were saying that they saw themselves in, um, in this case and just looking at pictures of Brianna, they saw themselves and they felt like they're not protected under, uh, current laws or, you know, current practices in place. So people were very upset. Some people were saying, you know, our community is bleeding, our community is hurt. Um, so there's a lot of frustration and, um, people were just demanding some kind of accountability, uh, hoping to maybe get more information as to how the grand jury came to this conclusion, whether some of that could, um, be available to the public and things like that. Speaker 1: 01:50 Where did the San Diego protests take place and about how many people took part? Speaker 2: 01:56 Well, there was two I'm in downtown San Diego. I believe there was another one in Escondido. I did not go to that one. Uh, the first one was outside the San Diego superior court. Um, it was pretty small. I was at that one, it was around 4:00 PM. I would say, uh, maybe started off with like a handful of people. And then, uh, throughout the day became like 35 people. And then after that, there was one at 7:00 PM, uh, closer to downtown area, like on eighth and B street. And, um, that one, you know, we had like hundreds of protesters. Speaker 1: 02:28 Now, the San Diego Sheriff's department apparently secured the front of the superior court building downtown. What actions did they take? Speaker 2: 02:36 So that was interesting. I actually had just walked up to the court building before that happened. Um, there, there weren't any protesters yet, but, um, these deputies came out and they just placed caution tape around the steps T kinda to prevent people from is from standing on the stairs. It seemed, um, and yeah, they just rolled out some, some caution tape. They stood there for a little while. I think one or two protestors had up at that time. And, um, they ended up just going back inside the courthouse, even when the bigger group came about. Um, most of the Sheriff's deputies stayed inside. You could see them through the window, uh, doors or the glass doors. Sorry. Um, but, but they weren't doing this kind of like big presence where they were, you know, standing out there. It was just a couple of sheriffs Speaker 1: 03:22 Police apparently declared the evening protest that smaller protest, where the arrests were made, uh, an unlawful assembly. Did you two reporters, see the protests turned violent? Speaker 2: 03:34 I personally didn't, like I said, I was at the earlier one and that one was pretty calm. Uh, there's not a lot of police presence, although there were some, um, in the group who, um, you know, did mention, um, some intentions that if, if things got violent from police officers, that they were going to return with some sort of action. I didn't see it personally, but, um, later once at night time, Alex did capture some videos on, on Twitter. Um, you know, you, in one video, you see police officers kind of pull this protester, um, behind their line. And, um, it kind of looks like a scuffle maybe, um, maybe they were on top of him sort of, and you can just hear in the background, this woman, you know, screaming and, uh, telling them to let them go. And, um, so, so that's kind of what was captured last night. Speaker 1: 04:25 You know, a lot of the racial justice movement in the past months has been advocating for a change in the way the police sort of handle protests and other kinds of interactions. Were there any visible signs San Diego police or deputies had changed their tactics toward protesters? Speaker 2: 04:40 You know, one thing that really stood out to me, I mean, like I mentioned, when they were placing the caution tape before any of the protesters showed up, um, all the sheer Stephie deputies kind of stood up at the top of the stairs and it was very, you know, they were like in their stance, um, they weren't wearing any, uh, right gear or anything, but it was intimidating to see so many Sheriff's deputies out there. But then I think they kind of backtracked on that and then went inside as I mentioned. And so I thought that was interesting because by the time that the group had gotten larger, um, there was like one Sheriff's deputy outside by the steps, just kind of watching things. So it seemed a different approach from what I saw when we first saw some of these protests in downtown. Um, and then later into the night, I noticed that, um, as opposed to having, you know, these like big, uh, caravans kind of following protesters or leading the protest, um, of like police officer vehicles, um, I saw a lot of, uh, officers on bicycles, which, um, it feels different, right? Speaker 2: 05:38 It feels different to have a bicycle following you than like these big cars. So that, that stood out to me. Um, I did see that Alex later at night posted a video of something that looked like, um, like, uh, like a fire bang or flash bang, I think is what they're. And, um, so, so I did see that in a video, but, but, you know, I don't know how, what led them to use that tactic. Speaker 1: 06:06 Okay. Well, I have been speaking with San Diego union Tribune reporter, Andrea Lopez via Tanya. And thank you so much for speaking with us. Speaker 2: 06:14 Thank you for having me, Maureen.