FIREWORKS explode behind Santa Ana police during a protest Saturday night over the death of George Lloyd in Minneapolis (Photo by Gaston Castellanos/Special to The Tribune).
Will Sunday, the day of rest, finally bring peace? Will the new week show people showing restraint, or giving in to their baser instincts?
Orange County joined the rest of the nation on Saturday in seeing protests – largely peaceful – over the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The demonstrations that were accompanied by violence there soon spread across the country, and on Saturday in the OC, a generally milder form surfaced in what used to be a bastion of conservatism.
Here is some coverage of the situation as far as Orange County is concerned.
- A peaceful protest was held Saturday afternoon in Orange’s downtown, with marchers parading first north on Glassell Street and then following in a circle around the Orange Plaza park at Chapman Avenue. Roughly 100 persons participated, carrying signs and chanting.
- In Fullerton, a crowd of about 125 people assembled at the Transportation Center in the area of Commonwealth Avenue and Highland Avenue, near Harbor Boulevard on Saturday afternoon. Police say that some blocked traffic. Two arrests were made, one for vandalism of a passing vehicle’s windshield and one for failure to disperse after an unlawful assembly was declared. The arrestees were a 24-year-old woman from Placentia and a 41-year-old Anaheim man, according to police.
- Santa Ana was the scene of the most violent local demonstration. While most people there were peaceful, some shot fireworks at police and threw other objects in the area of Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue Saturday night. One person pushed a shopping cart with flaming debris at a line of police officers. A news photographer was struck by a rubber bullet fired by officers seeking to control the crowd. There was scattered vandalism.
- Target has announced it would temporarily close dozens of stores in Southern California, including three in Orange County. They are: in East Orange, the store at 2620 E. Chapman Ave.; in Santa Ana, the store at 1441 W. 17th St., and also in Santa Ana, the store at 1330 17th St. (across from Santa Ana College).
- A protest over the death of Floyd has been announced for Garden Grove on Wednesday afternoon near the City Hall, others today (Sunday) in Huntington Beach and Cypress on Thursday.
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