Seventh day of George Floyd protests in San Jose remains peaceful, for the most part

Story by Christian Trujano and Bryanna Bartlett

Music, birthday wishes and peaceful marching in front of the San Jose Police Department and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office offered a vastly different scene this weekend in contrast to the previous week’s protests in Downtown San Jose.

“You don’t understand white privilege to its fullest extent til you come out here and listen to these words . . . I’ve never been more heartbroken,” San Jose resident Jessica Williams said.  “My entire perspective on this country has changed more these past few days than in my whole life.”

Friday’s demonstration, organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), started around 4 p.m. near San Jose City Hall and featured speakers who shared stories, poetry and led a massive happy birthday song for Breonna Taylor.

Taylor, a Black woman who was shot in her sleep several times by Louisville Metro Police Department officers in March, would’ve been 27 years old.

After singing “Happy Birthday” for Taylor, hundreds among the crowd at San Jose City Hall either took a knee or laid down flat on their backs and remained silent for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the same amount of time former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck, resulting in his death.

Many of the speakers spoke about protesting Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen and pressuring his office to prosecute police officers who abuse their power. 

One of the cases that stood out was Anthony Nunez’s, an 18-year-old who was shot by two San Jose police officers.

While he experienced a suicidal breakdown in front of his East San Jose home four years ago, the two officers used excessive force when they fatally shot Nunez

Sandy Sanchez, Nunez’s aunt who raised him, spoke on police brutality during her speech.

“This is happening in our own backyard,” a tearful Sanchez, said. “My son was only 18 years old . . . after [police] murdered him they gave each other a high five.”

She also advocated to put pressure on city officials and for the District Attorney’s office to take action, rather than letting officers like the ones who shot Nunez walk free.

Sanchez said her family was awarded $2.6 million from the civil case, but also said, “That’s not justice . . . justice would be giving my son back, but [the policemen are] still on the job.”

After the speeches ended, protesters marched to SJPD headquarters on Mission Street.

“The march organizers, the leaders, were extremely explicit about being peaceful as we approached the police department,” said Mary Celestin, an engineering student at Harvey Mudd College.

Protesters filled the streets of downtown San Jose, many blasting hip-hop and rap music by Tupac, N.W.A. and other artists, who spoke out against police brutality.

Others in the crowd took the responsibility of handing out hand sanitizer and water.

“It’s moving to be here, being as Black guy . . . seeing all the support from all the different races, it’s pretty dope,” San Jose resident Cory Watts said.  

Watts marched with his wife and his infant son Amari in the protest. He said he hopes change will happen for the sake of his son’s future. 

“It’s dope for him to see this, hopefully by the time he gets our age . . . we see more of an equal as far as race and justice,” Watts said. 

But he also said that even though he is comfortable raising his son in the Bay Area, which is known for its diversity, he still needs to educate his son on how to be “Black” during these times.

“It sucks, I got to teach him what to do, what to say, how to move and again what to do when he gets pulled over and comes in contact with cops, but it’s the day we are living in,” Watts said. “I hope by us doing this, it makes a big difference.”

At SJPD headquarters, the chanting only got louder, but this time it was heavily directed toward officers who were inside the building. 

“Fire Jared!” protesters chanted, referring to Jared Yuen, an SJPD officer under investigation for taunting protesters during the May 29 protest in Downtown San Jose.

Shareef Allman Jr., a San Jose resident, stood on top of a mailbox and told the story of his father being shot by police in 2011.

“They gunned him down with 44 rounds and handcuffed him dead,” he said. 

Allman told protesters the streets belong to the people and they should take back the streets from police, while being safe at the same time.

“Don’t become a hashtag, stay alive, once you die you become a hashtag,” he said.

Several one-on-one discussions between protesters and officers standing behind fences ended in disagreement, so protesters moved on to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

Once there, the group had another eight minutes of silence for George Floyd, but not before many protesters yelled into the microphone calling out the sheriffs who remained behind glass doors. 

“We’re your children,” Cambria Saavedra, an SJSU sociology and philosophy senior, said to the sheriff’s deputies. 

She added later she felt it was wrong young people especially have to go through this turmoil, but if nobody else does it, who will, she asked. 

“We’re students and we’re young people, we shouldn’t have to be doing this right now,” Saavedra said. “When people don’t even know that people are being killed, that’s a problem and that’s why protesting is important.”

Protesters remained silent while backup sherrifs remained behind the glass doors. 

Every once in a while, a sheriff’s deputy with a rubber gun would peek out to make sure none of the protesters became violent.

“If it’s not you, stop letting your colleagues kill people,” said D’Angelo McKenzie, a California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo business sophomore, to a sheriff’s deputy’s face.

Some protesters got up close and personal with various sheriff’s deputies.

Mckenzie said he wanted to hear the sheriff’s deputies speak up and say something. At one point, one of the sheriff’s deputies asked Mckenzie to step back and give them some space.

“You need some space? [George Floyd] needed to breathe for eight minutes! Push me back if you need space,” he told officers.

“That’s what hurts the most to the people, the community . . . the most important thing we say is silence is still violence,” Mckenzie said. “If you’re silent and you can’t stand up and speak on that issue that is happening, then you’re a part of the issue.”

After a while, the main crowd of protesters decided to head back to City Hall while a small group of about 20 stayed behind at SJPD headquarters to try to have some dialogue with the line of sheriff’s deputies. 

This is when many voiced their concerns and grievances regarding police brutality.

Hallie Olson, a Los Altos resident who went to protests in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, spent the latter half of the time at the sheriff’s office staring down one of the deputies and asking the sheriff to at least look her in the eyes and show her some humanity.

“I’m trying to connect with you, please look me in the eyes . . . Please show me your humanity,” Olson said. 

The deputy sheriff looked at her for a minute, but didn’t say anything.

“Seeing all these Black men die at the hands of the police, it didn’t affect me like it affects me now,” Olson said. “All I can say is that once you woken up to this, there’s no going back.”

Back at City Hall, the scene was very calm and peaceful around 9 p.m. said Harvey Mudd College student Mary Celestin as she networked with people about her platform, San Jose Strong, a grassroots platform she created that crowdsources activism information for San Jose residents. 

About 15 minutes later, she was talking to a small family who was holding a vigil outside City Hall for Taylor with the San Jose Peace and Justice Center when she saw about a dozen SJPD officers arrive on Santa Clara Street.

Celestin said she and other protesters were perplexed why officers were there, given that the protests all day were peaceful. The protesters were starting to leave when she said about a dozen officers approached her, the family and other protesters. 

The officers arrested a man she believed to be the father of the family. She said SJPD did not ask the protesters to leave before engaging. 

“Now you have, like, 200 people, I don’t know maybe more . . . swarming the police being like, what’s what’s going on?” Celestin said. 

After officers arrested the man, she said she tried making sure the rest of the family was safe before she went home, but wasn’t able to find them in the sea of protesters.

“We were already leaving,” she said. “We were peacefully protesting without a curfew.”

Celestin said that she went from being completely inspired from the peacefulness of the protest earlier, to completely perplexed.