Black Lives Matter Protest Brings Hundreds to Arcadia County Park

By Alex Cordero 

Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests continue to build momentum across the nation and around the world demanding justice for the death of George Floyd and bringing the issue of systematic racism to local communities like Arcadia, where hundreds gathered to participate in a protest at Arcadia County Park.

The protest was organized by local high school students and gathered a big crowd of residents from different generations and backgrounds in solidarity for the BLM movement.

The BLM protest in Arcadia was also in the name of Breonna Taylor who was shot and killed by police officers in Louisville, Ky. after a no-knock warrant break-in at her apartment on March 13. On Friday, the day of the BLM protest in Arcadia, Breonna Taylor would have turned 27 years young. 

Many young students were given the opportunity to speak about their determination to end racism in America, to remember the victims killed by police officers and strongly advised the large crowd of protestors to exercise their right to vote nationally and locally.

These young voices encouraged adults to step forward to share their personal experiences with racism in their own neighborhood.

A long-term Arcadia resident stepped forward to speak about her own experience with racism in her community for being Asian. She shared that she is a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan.

A woman with a megaphone, who refused to lower her mask because she said she promised her children she would not take it off, described how painful it is to feel you are a constant target of racism because of your race and said she could relate to the issues causing BLM protests. She also shared that she has become less afraid of speaking up against racial injustice due to all the BLM protests happening every day for the last week.

(Hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased since the rise of the pandemic, according to a CBS Los Angeles news article published recently. Reports of Asian Americans being verbally attacked with racial slurs and being blamed for spreading COVID-19 in public seem to be rising but officials say the increase of hate crimes against Asian American people may be a lot higher than what recent surveys indicate due to many people not reporting the incidents immediately.)

Although the protest was peaceful, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department seemed fully prepared to step in as a large number of sheriff’s vehicles and deputies were on standby on each side of the park.

Tensions seemed to rise for a short moment between protestors and the sheriffs when the large crowd turned to deputies standing by and shouted their message: “No justice, no peace! No racist police!”

When the protest at Arcadia County Park ended, some participants walked up Santa Anita Avenue causing a bit of traffic jam as vehicles tried to make their way north towards Colorado Boulevard.

At the intersection of Santa Anita Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, people in their vehicles were stopped and redirected to continue their commute on Santa Anita Avenue by people participating in the protest. Protestors did not block the intersection for long as Arcadia police soon arrived at the location. Shortly after the police arrived at the scene, the protest moved to the side of the road and continued along Santa Anita Avenue.

No arrests have been reported to the public due to this incident by the Arcadia Police Department, as of yet.

The momentum behind the BLM movement appears to be far from fading as protests continue across the nation and around the globe.

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