Small Protest in Downtown S.D. Marks King Verdict

While rioters set fire and looted Los Angeles, about 70 San Diegans gathered outside the Federal Building at midnight Wednesday to voice concerns about the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King.

Asked why some marchers carried candles, one organizer replied: “I don’t know. Good visuals.”

It was protest San Diego-style.

Though the hastily prepared event was punctuated with snags, the sentiments of marchers were heartfelt.

“No man should be beaten like Rodney King--you don’t treat a dog like that,” said Joe Ward, 29, an unemployed chef. “I just hope it never happens to my son (born seven weeks ago).”

Many arrived to the demonstration still stunned by the verdicts, the racism that it seemed to display, and the ensuing violence that engulfed Los Angeles. Especially for African-Americans, there was a terrible sense of deja vu, that they themselves or their family had suffered similar racism at the hands of police or the judicial system.

“My parents went through this stuff 25 years ago,” said Felicia Eaves, 26, an environmental specialist with the Environmental Health Coalition. “I couldn’t understand how the jury could look at the tape and say those four policemen were not guilty. I couldn’t believe it.

“We are not going to take this lying down; we don’t want to see this happen to anyone in any town.”

For whites, the sense of revisiting history was equally strong and horrifying.

“I remember the Watts riot, and I never thought my son would live to see this,” said Virginia Franco, 55, an elementary school teacher who brought her 18-year-old son to the demonstration.

But, for Franco and others in San Diego, no one was quite sure of what to do about the dreadful injustice that they believed had unfolded that day. Some, like Ward, went downtown--simply hoping that somebody would be doing something.

Others knew about the planned protest, but the trick was to find it. First, the organizers gave out the wrong address--citing the address of a state building while directing people to the Federal Building on Front Street and Broadway.

Then, as the television cameras and reporters clustered at one end of the block looking for the demonstration, the protesters gathered at the other--each group unable to see the other because of construction scaffolding.

Just as the television cameramen began to grumble about having to shoot a live protest scene devoid of any protesters for the 11 o’clock news, the two groups realized that each did indeed exist.

For several moments, it seemed the whole event might be derailed when a security guard approached the protesters, complaining: “You don’t have a permit to be doing this.”

But at that moment, a television cameraman intervened, singing out: “They can do what they want on the sidewalks.”

And thus, cameras rolling, the protest began.

Marchers walked in circle, raising their voices for more than an hour, singing out heart-felt chants: “Today Rodney, Tomorrow You.” As they they trudged and chanted, there was an ominous sense.

“So now it’s going to get wild,” Ward said.

“This makes the Watts riots (of 27 years ago) look like a tea party,” said Eaves, who lives in North Park.

And the volume of anger and outrage ran high.

“I know it wouldn’t have happened to a white person,” said James Wilson, a 28-year-old Poway resident.

“Apparently, white America just wants to turn a blind eye to this,” said Geoffrey Johnson, 29, and a member of People Against Police Brutality.