Dozens of protesters, drawing on Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of equality, marched the streets in City Heights on Monday afternoon in a "Black Lives Matter" protest.
“We can’t stop. We won’t stop. Until killing cops are in cell blocks,” the crowd shouted at a rally that preceded the march. They held signs that read: “Black Lives Matter,” “Indict the System” and “Liberty and Justice For All.”
The march was organized by the United Against Police Terror San Diego branch and was among several across the country on Monday.
After meeting at the Weingart Library in City Heights, they marched four miles while shouting: “Hands up. Don’t shoot.”
Prior to the march, one of the organizers, Cathy Mendonca, said protesters were seizing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and his message of equality to continue the protests against officers’ use of force.
We’re here “continuing his purpose and commemorating the lives that have been taken from us,” Mendonca said. “We’re going to march for these victims who are no longer with us.”
Countless protests have sparked across the country since the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri, exonerating a police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager.
Local
Protests were refueled by the grand jury decision in New York in December, clearing an officer who killed an unarmed man by performing a choke hold.
Many of the marches locally originated in City Heights.
