Fueled by continued outrage over the death of George Floyd, tens of thousands of people spilled onto the streets of Hollywood on Sunday evening.
Sunday’s crowds were downright massive, showing something far from a let-up in the most widespread national protests in the United States in generations.
One estimate in Hollywood was placed at 10,000 people. But others estimated it at 20,000 to 30,000 — possibly surpassing the size of day-long protests that weaved through Hollywood streets earlier in the week. The gathering tied up multiple city blocks until well into the evening.
“You have to (keep demonstrating). We don’t want you to get tired. We don’t want you to stop listening. Once you stop doing it, they’ll stop listening. So we’re really trying to make a big statement,” said a demonstrator in Hollywood who identified herself as Kia.
She said she had participated in multiple protests, and the momentum, she said, is building off the energy of the larger and larger crowds.
YG leading Black Lives Matter protest in Hollywood. #FTP #BlackLivesMatter #RosecransAve pic.twitter.com/nRupHVh6Oe
— LA's illest Avenue (@RosecransAvenue) June 8, 2020
Yes, “It’s a little more peaceful,” she said. “But that energy is still there, though.”
The protest was planned to begin in the late afternoon, but it wasn’t long before the throng gre exponentially.
In the shadow of the landmark Capitol Records Building, at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, the massive demonstration organized by Black Lives Matter, stopped traffic on streets filled with people. Public buses were stopped.
Here with @pixxxiestick, who has been to protests here and in Long Beach. pic.twitter.com/g3yDp3cEym
— Josh Rosen (@tweetjoshrosen) June 8, 2020
Many of the protesters were young. But there were older faces in the crowd as they marched along Hollywood streets — determined but peaceful.
Many held up signs with what have become several-day’s worth of imagery designed to send the message that a moment as arrived in American history to end historic disparities.
“No More Silence.”
“BLM.”
“Say Her Name” — referring to Breonna Taylor, the medical worker in Kentucky who was killed by police during a search.
And the memory of Floyd — the black man who died on Memorial Day after a Minnesota police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several months — only swelled on the streets of Hollywood.
By 8 p.m., a vigil had been set up at in the middle of the intersection of Hollywood and Highland, with candles on the pavement and a crowd encircling them in memory of Floyd.
They prayed. They chanted. The broke into a rendition of “We Gon’ Be Alright.”
In Downtown L.A., a demonstration at City Hall was joined nearby when a caravan of vehicles, also a form of protest, rolled into Hollywood. That crowd, by evening, had thinned out, but about 200-300 remained during the early evening.
No arrests had been reported as of early evening, as the crowd headed west, passing Hollywood landmarks and boarded up businesses. At one point, it appeared it broke up into patches in in the midst of what became a somewhat fistive vibe, even as the focus stayed on the message.
The presence of police appeared minimal, even though overhead news images from KNBC-TV showed a smaller group of protesters that had made it to the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, where they were met with a line of deputies in riot gear.
Street vendors, who struggled while streets were abandoned during the pandemic-spurred “Safer at Home” orders, sold bacon-wrapped hot dogs to hungry throngs.
Bars and restaurants served customers inside, a new sight since the health orders restricting in-person dining were eased in the county, even as outside their doors thousands of marchers were chanting.
Protest leaders scrambled atop cars and trucks to lead the crowd in chants and cheers.
The giant crowd emerged rapidly late Sunday afternoon after a day of peaceful and smaller crowds but at cities and towns all over the region.
Pasadena, Glendale, Pomona, Compton, among others all saw protests. But the mammoth Hollywood crowd had some speculating it was the largest one yet in a week’s worth of major protests.
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