#HandsUpWalkOut protests involving hundreds of protesters occurred throughout California Monday, as activists nationwide continued to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in the shooting death of Ferguson, Missouri resident Michael Brown. Walkouts were called for throughout the country and started at 10:01 am PST, 1:01 EST, relating to the time of Brown’s death.
Monday’s round of protests appeared to concentrate largely on college campuses.
Protesters gathered outside Los Angeles Police Department’s Newton Division blocked traffic and marched to 65th and Broadway, the reported site of the Ezell Ford shooting. ABC 7 reported that 30 people blocked that intersection, one protester was arrested and another detained during the march. NBC Los Angeles reported some confusion and dissention among protesters as they reached a mural for Ford. Some protesters were seen holding signs that referenced revcom.us, the website for the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. The same signs were seen at the UCLA protest. The event was posted to the Ferguson National Response Network (FNRN) events Tumblr webpage.
An online event posting for the planned protest at University of California Davis marked the campus Memorial Union as its meeting place. Photos posted to the event page from UC Davis included a photo of approximately 26 participants in front of the UC Davis Health System Education Building, and more at what appeared to be the main protest site with over 30 visible. A Twitter account for Ferguson Action also tweeted out the event with a link to the online event posting for UC Davis. The event was also posted to the FNRN webpage.
Hundreds of Stanford University students joined in the #HandUpWalkOut protest march Monday. The Stanford Black Students Union tweeted “Stanford students just shut down the California 82″ at 12:10 pm. They posted a video to Instagram of the protest as well with students chanting, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.”
Other photos showed students shutting down El Camino and Page Mill roads in Palo Alto. Photos of the event posted online show hundreds gathering and marching for the walk out. The San Francisco Chronicle reported those that shut down the street were in the dozens and remained peaceful.
Brief video of the march was posted on Vimeo:
“Black Lives Matter” #handsupwalkout at Stanford from Alexandedr Key on Vimeo.
Elsewhere, Berkeley Law School protesters posed for a photo posted online in which approximately 25 participants held up signs, one reading “Berkeley Law #HandsUpWalkOut.” The event was also posted to the FNRN webpage.
ABC 7 News mentioned Santa Clara University as one of the protest locations, though little else was reported on any protest there. That location was among those posted to the FNRN page as well.
Little was seen in regards to protest action at University of California Santa Barbara, where one of the protest locations was set to occur. A few online posts were made in regards to the event, including one that read, “Got to hear some amazing people speak at the UCSB ?#HandsUpWalkout protest,” but information on the day’s event was scarce. It was however, posted to the FNRN site.
A few people tweeted out messages and a photo for a rally at Cal State Los Angeles. A flyer for the event posted online marked The Golden Eagle Statue as the meeting place for the 10:01 am rally, the same location marked on the FNRN site.
UCLA students numbered a total of nine in a photo posted online stating it came from their protest. All participants in the photo held signs reading, “Ferguson is Everywhere, Police Brutality and Murder MUST STOP! revcom.us.” The event was repeatedly promoted on social media for the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN).
SMIN promotes itself as a project of the Alliance for Global Justice and as a response to a call from Cornel West and Carl Dix. Carl Dix is a representative for the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. His profile can be found on the group’s website revcom.us, the website displayed on the student’s signs. The UCLA walkout was yet another posted to the FNRN webpage.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
Photo: Twitter
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