'Enough': Hundreds March For Justice In Calabasas
CALABASAS, CA — Hundreds of protesters from Calabasas and beyond braved triple-digit temperatures and the threat of contracting coronavirus to march in support of racial justice.
Peaceful protests and marches have took place Tuesday and Wednesday along Calabasas Road and Civic Center Way. A diverse crowd has met at Trader Joe’s parking lot on Calabasas Road at 3 p.m. each day and marched along Calabasas Road to City Hall. Several cars honked their support, and some held out signs.
“Enough,” said Calabasas resident Dee Margolis, on why she attended the first protest of her life. “It’s enough. I can’t take that people treat each other like they’re not equals … things cannot go on like this.”
Throughout the short walk, the large crowd chanted “Black Lives Matter!” “Hands up, don’t shoot!” “No justice, no peace!” and “Say their names” followed by a roll call of African-Americans killed by police. Once they reached City Hall, everyone took a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee over George Floyd’s neck.
“When you read about it in the papers and see it online it is one thing,” said Margolis. “But when you take a knee and you’re silent for eight minutes and 46 seconds, you can’t imagine. I can’t imagine what that man went through, calling for his dead mother.”
“Once we started taking a knee, I started to get a little teary,” said Francesca Gettings of Calabasas, who attended with her family. "It was surreal."
So far, no violence or arrests have been reported in Calabasas. Deputies from the Lost Hills-Sheriff’s Department were stationed along Calabasas Road.
“I have two priorities: community safety and officer safety,” Captain Chuck Becerra said in a statement. “I respect a person’s right to protest but I will not allow either priority to be compromised.” Mayor Alicia Weintraub told Patch that she was pleased by how peaceful the protests were, and noted that they were organized by Calabasas High School students.
Though the marches have been peaceful, some stores at the Commons at Calabasas shopping center were boarded up as a precaution.
“There are protest marches planned in the next few days in Calabasas,” a Tuesday statement signed by Mayor Alicia Weintraub, Mayor Pro Tem James Bozajian, and Councilmembers Fred Gaines, Mary Sue Maurer, and David J. Shapiro read.
“A City or law enforcement agency does not have the right to shut down a peaceful protest. To join in a peaceful protest is someone’s Constitutional right. But violence and hate of any kind are NEVER the answer. Law enforcement has a very active presence in our community. They will uphold the law and will step in, if necessary. As a City, we are not going to stand back and do nothing if there is anything other than a peaceful protest. We salute peaceful protestors. We salute law enforcement who have spoken out in support of George Floyd and we are here in support of all our residents.”
The letter also spoke out strongly against racism.
“In the City of Calabasas, we condemn this killing [of George Floyd] in the strongest way possible. Nobody deserves this fate. Sadly, we have seen this too many times in our nation’s history. Last night while watching the news, we were reminded once again about how racism is real and alive in our community when an innocent African-American woman protecting her liquor store was assumed to be a looter and handcuffed,”the letter read, referring to a black family in Van Nuys earlier in the week.
This article originally appeared on the Calabasas Patch
