Cold weather and irrepressible holiday cheer kept “Black Lives Matter” protests small at New Year’s Eve celebrations across campus on Wednesday evening. Organizers across California contented themselves with the fact that they had staged demonstrations at all on an evening when many residents huddled indoors and when police had already planned to deploy to keep festivities in order.
In Los Angeles, dozens of demonstrators chalked sidewalks, marched through the downtown area and caused minor disruption to the city’s New Year’s Eve concert. One participant lauded the efforts of a “small dedicated group.”
Never underestimate the power of a small dedicated group to change the world. It’s the only thing that ever has. pic.twitter.com/ivNTH1ZoUZ
— PMbeers (@PMbeers) January 1, 2015
In Oakland, the city that has been the site of the most vociferous and violent protests in California, turnout was higher but still small, with sporadic arrests. Demonstrators carried banners reading “Black Resistance Matters” and made noise, attracting what appeared to be more police than supporters.
Of course Oakland is the only city sticking to plans to protest on #NYE2015 #BlackLivesMatter http://t.co/wM79bgWq1t pic.twitter.com/gHKHge7Qo8 — ReallyRick (@TheReallyRick) January 1, 2015
Elsewhere in the Bay Area, San Francisco featured a small protest, and San Jose remained calm despite threats that New Year’s Eve would be “kill a pig” night.
In the end, some protestors chose traditional New Year’s Eve revelry rather than anti-police revolution:
Had to leave the protest. Going to a real NYE party for the first time in like 4 years. ❤️❤️ I need booze.
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) January 1, 2015
Image: @Cassandra / Twitter
Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak edits Breitbart California and is the author of the new ebook, Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party, available for Amazon Kindle.
Follow Joel on Twitter: @joelpollak
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