A protester argues with a San Jose police officer who told other protesters, “You guys make me laugh,” at the Highway 101 and 30th Street offramp Friday afternoon. Christian Trujano/Spartan Daily.
Updated 3:06 a.m. on May 31.
A protest over the death of George Floyd started outside San Jose City Hall and ended in Downtown San Jose as protestors took over the highway yesterday, stopping traffic.
Floyd was an unarmed blackman who died after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck while arresting him on the suspicion of forging a check.
But after three hours of marching, chanting and blocking traffic, the protest turned into a clash between officers and protesters just after 5 p.m.
Tear gas filled the eyes and lungs of protesters while San Jose police officers shot rubber bullets at those throwing projectiles at the police barricade.
Garbage dumpster fires scattered the streets of downtown as many protesters attempted to slow down groups of officers in riot gear that were pushing crowds to disperse.
Nikita Kasaraneni, a University of California, San Diego student, who is from San Jose, said that even though the protest began peacefully, the police started to push back protesters after the first shot came from San Jose Police Department.
“They were throwing tear gas at us, they threw it, like, right at my feet. It got all in my face. I had to pour water in my face and everything,” Kasaraneni said. “But to be fair, people have been throwing things at them . . . every time something gets thrown, that’s when they start shooting.”
KPIX 5 reporter Maria Medina posted a video on Twitter courtesy of Julian Romero showing an SUV speeding toward a crowd of protesters, then reversing and hitting at least two people. According to an article published yesterday by The Mercury News, officials have not released information on the condition of the two protestors.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested Friday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter according to a news conference posted on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s website.
Protesters chanted, “No justice, no peace!” throughout the day, demanding due process for Chauvin’s alleged role in Floyd’s death.
No first appearance has been set for Chauvin. The three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest have not been charged with anything as of publication.
The San Jose protest, which aimed to criticize all police officers and not just those involved in Floyd’s death, started peacefully around 2 p.m. outside of City Hall.
Protesters slowly moved into the street while cars honked in solidarity with them.
The crowd then headed toward First Street, slowly moving their way through cars blocked in traffic. They then hit Plaza de César Chávez at San Jose State and then returned to City Hall.
That’s when the protest turned toward Highway 101 and protesters started to block traffic on both sides. Some people screamed to go back to City Hall and leave traffic alone, others jumped on top of cars. But the majority of protesters just sat down to block cars from getting through.
One man even laid down while he held a sign that read, “What does solidarity look like?”
Bela and Christy, protesters who did not feel comfortable giving their last names for fear of their safety, criticized police officers and the state of the country because the people who are not mad are “part of the problem.”
“It’s not OK anymore,” Christy said. “The fact that this has happened so often, it’s just not fucking OK . . . our generation is going to be the one that ends it. We will change it, because obviously nobody else is.”
She said the U.S. is not a free country until everyone is free and people of color stop dying in the street because of the color of their skin.
Bela added that her dad has been profiled by the police for walking down the street. “He would be walking down the street and a cop [would] pull up and say, ‘What are you doing, what are you doing?’ ” Bela said. “That shit hurt for us.”
After almost an hour of protests on the freeway, San Jose police officers showed up in riot gear at the freeway exit. As protesters made their way back to City Hall, SJPD began forming a human blockade. This is also known as kettling, a police tactic used to control crowds.
Tensions between protesters and police immediately escalated.
Police officers began pushing the crowd while protesters launched glass bottles, rocks and anything else they could find at officers. SJPD responded with rubber bullets, tear gas and flash grenades.
“Anger & peaceful protest will always be appropriate responses to injustice; violence will never be,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo tweeted last night at 5:14 p.m., just as the violence began to escalate.
He also tweeted that the city is united in outrage over the death of Floyd and that SJPD will facilitate a peaceful protest, but there will be “no tolerance of violence to our people or damage to our city.”
Mateo Ruiz, a 19-year-old political science student at De Anza College, said he came to the protest because he’s had a passion for speaking out against racial injustices since his time at Abraham Lincoln High School.
“It universally goes to show that not only is our country going through a quarantine, but there has always been this illness within our country,” he said. “I think that it’s funny that during this time, this incident occurred and Mr. George Floyd had to lose his life. That just goes to show a whole other story of just the diaspora of America and race within it.”
San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said, “We’re angry as well, and we’ve made that clear,” in a statement on Twitter at 9:35 p.m. last night. “We’ve allowed peaceful protest. But we will not tolerate lawlessness.”
The Twitter account for the Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff posted at 10:32 p.m. last night that: “On 5/29/2020 at around 9:00pm, one of our deputies was involved in an officer involved shooting in the area of Sixth Street and Santa Clara Street in San Jose.”
Protect San Jose, a collaborative effort of the men and women of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association along with neighborhood and community leaders, posted on Twitter: “We share the anger with what happened in Minneapolis but we have a #SJPD officer in the hospital now, attacked by violent protesters.”
“More violence will not help,” the tweet read.
Even though UC San Diego student Nikita Kasaraneni said she didn’t think SJPD officers would use force at first, she said the protest was eye opening because even officers of color continued to push back protesters.
“We’re fighting for the rights of all these people, including the race of the cops,” Kasaraneni said.
As crowds finally began to disperse around 9 p.m., the streets of downtown San Jose were covered with anti-police graffiti, small garbage fires and remains of the clash that happened just hours before.
Regarding Floyd’s death, Kasaraneni said she believes it was disgusting and cold-blooded murder after information surfaced online showing that Chauvin, the officer who is accused of murdering Floyd, used to work in the same Minneapolis club, El Nuevo Rodeo, as recently as last year.
She said there is a systematic oppression against people of color and that any cop who joins that system without wanting to change it is complicit.
“All these cops are fucking silent because they put their brotherhood above anything else,” Kasaraneni said.