The demonstrations were part of a massive, nationwide “No Kings Day of Defiance” protest targeting the Trump administration that capped a week of unrest in the region stemming from immigration raids and coincided with a military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.

Saturday morning, cowbells rang out from a busy corner in downtown Redlands, the site of one of the earliest demonstrations planned for the day.

Protesters were lined up along Orange Street and Redlands Boulevard by 9:50 a.m. Before the crowd dispersed around noon, it had swelled to more than 1,000 protesters, some waving American flags while others carried signs with sharp words directed at the president.

“I’m here because we can’t allow this to happen … one man cannot dictate,” protester Tim Clark, a 74-year-old Army veteran, said as he carried a sign reading “No bogus bone spurs here. Proud veteran against Trump.”

“We have to stand up for what’s right,” Clark said. “We have the Constitution, we have the rule of law … not what one king, Donald Trump, wants to do.”

Seventeen protests were planned for the Inland Empire on Flag Day, and more than two dozen more were planned throughout Southern California.

Locally, protests were scheduled in Beaumont, Big Bear Lake, Cathedral City, Claremont, Corona, Fontana, Hemet, Idyllwild, Joshua Tree, Menifee, Palm Springs, Rancho Cucamonga, Rancho Mirage, Redlands, Riverside, Temecula and Victorville.

Demonstrations held early Saturday in the Inland Empire were largely peaceful, with little to no visible police presence. Protests were planned into the evening in some cities.

Police in helicopters circled sections of Sierra Avenue in Fontana, where more than 1,000 protesters marched midday as the temperatures climbed into the high 80s. Police announced they “respect and support” everyone’s right to protest, but asked protesters to get out of the street.

Most complied, continuing their march as some played mariachi music on boom boxes and motorists drove by honking their horns support. Signs carried by protesters made clear their support for the Latino community and their objection to recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Priscilla Gonzalez, 23, from Corona, joined the Fontana protest with friends Fatima Cabrera, 24, of Eastvale, and Ariel Sanchez, 25, of Hesperia, carrying a sign reading “California melts ICE.”

“We are not afraid to stand behind what we believe in,” Gonzalez said, “and we believe that the administration is abusing its power and it’s forgetting that we have a Constitution, not a king.”

In Claremont, more than 1,000 protesters gathered at Foothill and Indian Hill boulevards in the early afternoon Saturday.

Upland resident Miguel Castellanos said he joined the Claremont protest in support of his mother, who worked on farms as a child, and his father, a Vietnam veteran.

“I am allowed to do this, and I want to do this,” he said. “This is human power.”

More than 1,500 “No Kings” demonstrations were planned across the U.S. after progressive organizations Indivisible, 50501 and a coalition of like-minded groups announced them on May 6.

The protests coincided with a military parade the Trump administration organized in Washington, D.C., to mark the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. June 14 is also Trump’s 79th birthday.

There were no “No Kings” protests scheduled for Washington, D.C. on Saturday. Organizers had said they wanted to shift the focus of the world away from Trump and to the rest of the United States.

The “No Kings” protests bookend a week of rising tensions in the country. Protesters have taken to the streets in communities across Southern California and beyond in response to federal immigration efforts in the Los Angeles area that started June 6 and were followed by Trump deploying the California National Guard — over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom — and the U.S. Marines to the city to support those efforts.

In Riverside, several thousand protesters began gathering at 5 p.m. at Market Street and University Avenue. A woman blew bubbles as a way to spread joy, and two men riding horses held a U.S. Marine Corps flag as car horns blared in support of protesters. The group marched on Market while chanting “The people united will not be divided.”

Protesters made their way to the Riverside Historic Courthouse, their chants keeping time with a drumline before Dez Manuel, a United Automobile Workers member, called out to the crowd.

“We got a warmonger as a president who said the criminals are our neighbors, the criminals are our mothers,” Manuel said, calling out Trump for the detainment and deportation of women and children.

“When we fight back they tell us that we are criminals. Trump is trying to send in the National Guard to intimidate our people,” Manuel said.

“Are we afraid?” he asked. The crowd shouted “no.”

Elsewhere, protests in Los Angeles, Long Beach and other cities drew massive crowds.

By 9:50 a.m. at Grand Park in LA, just before the protest’s scheduled start time, the crowd had grown significantly — thousands filled the park and spilled out onto both sides of North Spring Street.

Around 4 p.m., the rally – with an estimated 200,000 protesters – switched from peaceful to chaotic, as some people reportedly threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at police. Officers issued a dispersal order and unleashed flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the crowd.

Confusion broke out as police on horseback pushed people away from an area near the 101 Freeway and traffic was diverted on city streets. Protesters ran past businesses that had been boarded up ahead of the demonstration. Reporting from a KTLA helicopter showed people were trying to rush away from the rubber bullets and horses but did not know exactly where to go.

Up until that point, the downtown LA rally had been peaceful. The 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for a one-square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles after a week of protests against federal immigration raids remained in place Saturday night, officials previously announced.

Among the demonstrators in LA was Alicia Bleier, a retired business owner from Silver Lake, who said she joined out of “outrage at how the federal government is overstepping their bounds and politicizing what shouldn’t be politicized.”

“This is not who we are,” said Bleier, who held a sign reading, “Immigrants are the backbone of American exceptionalism.” She added, “Everyone here — unless they’re American Indian — is an immigrant. Immigrants built this country.”

A planned protest in Huntington Beach drew a heavy presence of Trump supporters Saturday morning, an hour before the scheduled noon start time.

By 11 a.m., dozens of vehicles flying Trump 2024 flags had lined the streets near the pier, with supporters waving flags, honking horns and walking down Main and PCH. The counter-presence appeared to outnumber early arrivals for the protest.

Trump supporters shouted “USA! USA! USA!” The smaller group of protesters shot back with “No kings!”

By 1 p.m., the line of “No Kings” protesters – thousands of them, by some estimates – stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions from the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Back in Redlands, recent University of Redlands graduate Vivian Reukauf wore a T-shirt saying “The only dangerous minority is the rich” and carried a sign reading “Nazis, I hate those guys.”

“I’m feeling very safe and feeling like I’m protecting our democracy,” she said from a shaded sidewalk as temperatures began to climb.

Andres Montalvo, 29, who traveled from San Bernardino to Redlands to join the protest, draped an American flag over his shoulders and carried a sign reading “No hate in our state.”

“I’m here standing up not only for my parents but for a long of people that come here to this country looking for a better opportunity,” said Montalvo, whose parents immigrated from Mexico.

“I’m fortunate enough to be an American. A lot of people don’t have that,” Montalvo added. “But we’re all human beings and we need to get treated like a decent person. I know there’s people that are here that aren’t doing the right thing but you can’t use some people’s actions and justify (taking action against) everyone else.”

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RIVERSIDE, CA — Students at UC Riverside established an encampment in the middle of campus to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza, joining nearly a dozen universities across California and numerous nationwide to demand the school end “all investments and endowments” benefiting the Jewish state.

“We are joining the student movement, the student Intifada,” according to an unnamed spokeswoman for Students for Justice in Palestine, UCR chapter. “We are not leaving this encampment day and night until the university complies and meets with us to discuss our demands.”

The encampment was set up Monday, with several dozen tents placed on the green adjacent to the campus Bell Tower, recognized as the center of UCR.

Campus administrators did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The specific number of students participating in the peaceful campus demonstration could not be confirmed. On Wednesday, a group of students staged a midday walkout from classes and held a rally at the tower, chanting “Israel is a racist state!” and “Free, free, free Palestine!”

There was no obvious law enforcement presence, and no campus buildings appeared to be obstructed.

The “demands” issued by the SJP UCR chapter included “a full transparent disclosure of all investments and endowments in weapons manufactures and the Israeli genocidal machine,” as well as a “full divestment from weapons manufacturers and any corporations that either fund or profit off the genocidal machine.”

The SJP-UCR representative noted there is no “standing university in Gaza” due to the unabated bombing campaign since early October conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces using U.S.-supplied drones and fighter-bombers.

The chapter spokeswoman alleged American “universities are complicit in the genocide,” and the protests at UCR and other campuses are intended to “condemn war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Messages taped to the large UCR sign underneath the Bell Tower included “Stop the U.S.-funded Genocide” “End the Occupation Now” and “Ceasefire Now!”

Estimates on the number of campuses where anti-war movements have surfaced over the last month vary, but according to the nonprofit National Students for Justice in Palestine, “solidarity encampments” numbered just over 70 as of May 1.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the International Committee of Red Cross-affiliated Palestine Red Crescent Society, nearly 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza — over 14,500 of them children — since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into Israel, culminating in the IDF’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The number of injuries is in excess of 77,000, according to published reports.

Israel’s official casualty rate for the duration of hostilities is 8,730, of which just over 1,000 have been fatalities.

Along with universities, hospitals, refugee camps and residential complexes in Gaza have been targeted, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, according to reports from the region.

Human Rights Watch has alleged Israel “is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip,” and according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the humanitarian crisis caused by the bombardments on the Strip’s infrastructure has resulted in almost 500,000 “displaced persons” requiring shelter and other assistance.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday that of the 97 reporters killed in hostilities since early October, 92 have been Palestinian. Others have been assaulted, injured and arrested.

The CPJ said the current “war … has led to the deadliest period for journalists since we began gathering data in 1992.”

Aid workers have also been killed. The United Nations has estimated the number at 220, including seven World Central Kitchen volunteers whose vehicle took a direct hit on April 1 during an IDF drone strike on a convoy.

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Even though only a small percentage of Walt Disney Co. workers participated in a walkout Tuesday, organizers felt they had won a moral victory with the company issuing a statement denouncing the anti-LGBTQ legislation that sparked employee outrage.

Throughout the day, pockets of employees staged demonstrations at various sites across the country, including near Orlando’s Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Animation Studios in California. According to a Disney official, there had been no interruptions in any operations.

Disney employed 190,000 workers last October, with roughly three-quarters working in its theme parks division.

The debate forced the company into a balancing act between the expectations of a diverse workforce and demands from an increasingly polarized, politicized marketplace.

On one side are LGBTQ advocates and Disney employees calling for the walkout in protest of CEO Bob Chapek’s slow response in publicly criticizing Florida legislation that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The legislation awaiting the governor’s signature bars instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

On the other side are politicians like Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who accuse the entertainment conglomerate of bending to woke politics. Earlier this month, the company decided to temporarily suspend political contributions in Florida. DeSantis, who has been tacking toward the Republican base on culture war issues, is seen as a 2024 presidential hopeful.

Union leaders for the tens of thousands of unionized workers at Disney theme parks in Florida and California said they saw no walkout momentum among their members, advising them not to do so because it would defy contractual obligations.

Evan Power, Leon County’s Republican Party chairman, said he believes a strident minority of Disney employees are pushing the issue, and DeSantis has more to gain by taking the side of parents who want more control over education and “sexual conversations” in early grades at school.

In a Tuesday Facebook post, Disney wrote that the company opposes “any legislation that infringes on basic human rights” and stands “in solidarity” with LGBTQ employees “who make their voices heard today and every day.”

A half-dozen Disney workers gathered Tuesday morning at an Orlando LGBTQ center to write letters in support of queer students. “You’re Amazing. You Matter and We Care” and “It Gets Better,” they read, next to a drawing of a rainbow.

“We are creators, and we felt that we could be creative and productive and write letters of encouragement to LGBTQ youth,” said Gabe, a Walt Disney World product development manager who didn’t want his last name used for fear of having his privacy invaded.

Scores of Disney workers marched outside the company’s Burbank, California, studios, including one carrying rainbow-colored Mickey Mouse doll and chanting, “Say gay!”

“We had a great group out here just to show our support for our queer employees and their families,” said Nora Rogers, a production supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Disney, whose movies and properties shaped generations of children around the world, has spoken out several times in recent years about contentious social and political situations.

In January 2021, it said it would suspend political donations to lawmakers who voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. It also threatened to pull business from Georgia — a favorite of movie and TV studios — following a 2016 anti-gay bill, which was ultimately vetoed by the then-governor.

Chapek, who became CEO in 2020, has now drawn fire for speaking out about the gender identity bill only after it passed the Florida Legislature.

Republican lawmakers pushing the Florida legislation argued that parents, not teachers, should be the ones talking to their children about gender issues during their early formative years. The legislation attracted scrutiny from Democrats including Biden, who called it “hateful.” It has been sent to DeSantis, who is expected to sign it into law.

Chapek has apologized for not coming out more forcefully and publicly against the bill, saying Disney officials worked behind the scenes to stop it. Chapek also announced a pause to political donations in Florida and support for advocacy groups fighting similar legislation in other states, reiterating those points during a company-wide discussion Monday.

Outside Walt Disney World’s property, Disney employee Nicholas Maldonado was a lone protester Tuesday, wearing a rainbow flag and holding a sign reading, “Trans rights are human rights” and “#DisneyDoBetter.”

“Where was Chapek when the bill was introduced?” said Maldonado, who had a day off from his merchandising job at an Orlando Disney store and, while disappointed with Chapek’s initial response, said he felt Disney’s leaders were beginning to hear the concerns of the company’s workers.

Disney has long been influential in Florida politics, tending to support Republicans who have been in control of Tallahassee, the state capital, for two decades, but also being more open on social issues, said Patricia Campos-Medina, co-director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University. “That’s why people felt surprised that they wanted to stay quiet on this issue,” she said.

Walkout organizers maintain that withholding political contributions isn’t enough.

The group of employees calling for the walkout said on its website that, until the legislation is repealed, Disney leaders need to stop investments in Florida, including the relocation of 2,000 mostly professional jobs from its California headquarters to Orlando. They also say Disney needs to develop an LGBTQ brand similar to the Onyx Collective, an initiative aimed at developing content by and for people of color.

About 20 Disney workers gathered at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, birthplace of the gay rights movement, to write letters in support of families affected by the Florida legislation.

Jonathan Shutt, a senior product manager for Disney Streaming Services, said he was aware that not every worker who wanted to participate could do so and that the company “just needs to do better.”

“There are many of us who are privileged enough to be able to do this, to be able to walk out and stand up for people,” Shutt said.

Cynthia Cooley, an enterprise program senior manager at Disney Streaming Services, said there was an unspoken signal among workers who decided to walk out, with participating employees putting a rainbow flag next to their names in the Slack messaging app.

“We don’t talk about Bruno,” she cracked, referring to the catchy song from the Disney movie “Encanto.”

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WINDSOR, Ontario (AP) — The busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing was open Monday after protesters demonstrating against COVID-19 measures blocked it for nearly a week, but a larger protest in the capital, Ottawa, persisted as city residents seethed over authorities’ inability to reclaim the streets.

Demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions and other issues have blocked several crossings along the U.S.-Canada border and hurt the economies of both nations. They also inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that truck convoys may be in the works in the United States.

Police in Windsor, Ontario, arrested 25 to 30 protesters and towed several vehicles Sunday near the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor — and numerous Canadian automotive plants — with Detroit. The bridge reopened to traffic late Sunday night, a spokeswoman for bridge owner Detroit International Bridge Co. confirmed. Canada Border Services also confirmed that the bridge is open.

After protesters began blocking bridge access Feb. 7, automakers began shutting down or reducing production — at a time when the industry is already struggling with pandemic-induced shortages of computer chips and other supply-chain disruptions. The crossing sees 25% of all trade between the two countries.

“Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end,” said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. “Border crossings will reopen when it is safe to do so and I defer to police and border agencies to make that determination.”

About 470 miles (750 kilometers) northeast of Windsor, the protest in Ottawa has paralyzed downtown, infuriated residents who are fed up with police inaction and turned up pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A senior government official said Trudeau will meet virtually with the leaders of Canada’s provinces on Monday morning. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The city had appeared to have reached a deal in which protesters, who have jammed downtown streets for more than two weeks, would move out of residential areas, but those prospects soon faded.

Mayor Jim Watson said Sunday that he agreed to meet with demonstrators if they confined their protest to an area around Parliament Hill and moved their trucks and other vehicles out of residential neighborhoods by noon Monday. He shared a letter from one of the protest’s organizers, Tamara Lich, in which she said demonstrators “agree with your request” to focus activities at Parliament Hill.

But Lich later denied there was an agreement, saying in a tweet: “No deal has been made. End the mandates, end the passports. That is why we are here.”

In a letter Watson wrote to protesters, he said residents are “exhausted″ and “on edge” due to the demonstrations, and he warned that some businesses are teetering on the brink of permanent closure because of the disruptions.

In Surrey, British Columbia, police arrested four demonstrators Sunday, and officers in Alberta said they intercepted and disabled three excavators that were being brought to a border blockade in the town of Coutts.

While the protesters are decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 restrictions, many of Canada’s public health measures, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants and theaters, are already falling away as the omicron surge levels off.

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. The vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated, and the COVID-19 death rate is one-third that of the United States.

A judge on Friday ordered an end to the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency allowing for fines of 100,000 Canadian dollars and up to one year in jail for anyone illegally blocking roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Sunday acknowledged the resolution to the bridge demonstration, which it said had “widespread damaging impacts” on the “lives and livelihoods of people” on both sides of the border.

The Windsor protest began to dwindle Saturday after police persuaded many protesters to remove vehicles blocking the road to the bridge. But in Ottawa, Saturday’s crowd swelled to what police said were 4,000 demonstrators, and a counter-protest of frustrated Ottawa residents attempting to block the convoy of trucks from entering downtown emerged Sunday.

Clayton Goodwin, a 45-year-old military veteran who was among the counterprotesters, said it was time for residents to stand up against the protesters.

“I’m horrified that other veterans would be down there co-opting my flag, co-opting my service,” said Goodwin, who is the CEO of the Veterans Accountability Commission, a nonprofit advocacy group. “It’s a grift. The city was free. We’re 92% vaccinated. We’re ready to support our businesses.”

Colleen Sinclair, another counterprotester, said the demonstrators have had their say and need to move on — with police force, if necessary.

“They’re occupiers,” she said. “This is domestic terrorism and we want you out of our city. Go home.”

Trudeau has so far rejected calls to use the military, but has said “all options are on the table” to end the protests. Trudeau has called the protesters a “fringe” of Canadian society. Both federal and provincial politicians have said they can’t order police what to do.

Major-General Steve Boivin, commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, said Sunday that two of his special forces soldiers were supporting the protests in Ottawa and were in the “process of being released” from service. Boivin said the activity goes against the military’s values and ethics.

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The vitriol of some of Donald Trump’s supporters was put on display in downtown Riverside when Black Lives Matter activists responded to a rally in favor of the president Oct. 18.

At one point, Black Lives Matter activists Junior Vilchiz, Azley Tellez Rivera and Kai King walked over to the pro-Trump demonstration and were met by police who urged them to stay on their side of the street.

The activists continued through the Trump rally as officers stood by. An unidentified man and a pro-Trump demonstrator began pushing each other, but police quickly intervened. 

A Viewpoints photographer was shoved by a pro-Trump demonstrator during the altercation. 

Trump supporters, who refused to identify themselves, became increasingly hostile toward Viewpoints reporters as the Black Lives Matter activists reached the southern end of the rally.

“Your professors are pieces of s—,” they angrily and repeatedly told Viewpoints reporters. “You guys are indoctrinated. Got enough photos for your lying a– newspaper?”

Some also said BLM stands for “Black Lazy Morons.”

Police presence dwindled as the Black Lives Matter supporters returned to their side of the street.

The two groups met at the intersection of Market and Third streets. A few dozen demonstrators lined each side of Market Street carrying Black Lives Matter, F— Trump and Trump 2020 flags.

“F— Donald Trump,” a song by rapper YG, blasted on the Black Lives Matter side as demonstrators echoed the lyrics. 

“F— Black Lives Matter,” the Trump supporters responded.

Vilchiz noted that the Black Lives Matter protest was there to stand for Black and indigenous people.

“All power to the people,” Vilchiz said. “Since 1492, indigenous and Black people have been through so much pain. We’re tired of this corrupt system. We want equal rights for Brown and Black people.”

Vanessa Bramlage, 55, of Riverside, said she helped organize the Trump rally to support police as well as the president.  

“They’re under the possibility of being defunded,” she said about law enforcement. “They need our support too. It’s not just about Trump. We want freedom of speech, freedom of religion. We believe all lives matter, including Black lives.”

Bramlage maintained that she does not have a problem with the opinions of Black Lives Matter activists, but that she wishes demonstrators on her side would not be targeted. She alleged they have had water bottles thrown at them by passing vehicles and been approached with weapons at past rallies.

The two groups first met at a demonstration at the intersection of Tyler Street and Magnolia Avenue on Oct. 11. Black Lives Matter activists alleged that, at that rally, Trump supporters yelled racial slurs at them, including the n-word.

Bramlage admitted that some on the Trump side hurled racial slurs that day, although she argued both groups were disruptive.

“Yes, there were racial slurs,” she said. “Last weekend, both sides were out of hand.”

After walking through the Trump rally Oct. 18, King said the president’s supporters were unwilling to engage in productive conversation.

“These people are disillusioned,” he said. “Every time we go over there, we’re greeted by slurs. They need to look in the mirror. When we went to the other side, we were peaceful.”

Rivera, like Bramlage, maintained that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but urged participation in the upcoming election.

“It’s time for unity,” she said. “This election is like none other. We have an opportunity to make life for the next generation better than ours. If Trump wins, God help us.”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — An organizer of a Southern California demonstration against racism was in jail Sunday on suspicion of attempted murder after authorities say she drove through a crowd and struck two counterprotesters.

Tatiana Turner, 40, was arrested Saturday in Yorba Linda after speeding from a parking lot when her car was surrounded by shouting counterprotesters.

Demonstrators on both sides who had clashed on a sidewalk earlier had been ordered by police to leave the area at the time and an angry mob had surrounded Turner’s car and wouldn’t let her drive away, said Anthony Bryson, who helped plan the event for the Urban Organizers Coalition.

“People had broken her windshield,” Bryson told The Associated Press. “She was trying to leave. She was in fear for her life.”

Several dozen people in Turner’s group had been preparing to march against police brutality and systemic racism at the Yorba Linda library about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles when a group of people, many hoisting American flags and Trump 2020 banners, grew on the other side of Imperial Highway.

The two groups initially stayed apart, as authorities requested, but a group of men crossed the six-lane highway and confronted the racial justice group in a series of angry exchanges.

As the confrontation grew and became heated, the Orange County Sheriff‘s Department declared an unlawful assembly and told the groups, estimated at 250 people total, to leave after fights were reported and some people were said to be carrying weapons. One person pepper-sprayed another protester and one man was arrested for disobeying the order to leave, police said.

Video of Turner shows a crowd of people standing around her car as she accelerates forward. Her rear window shatters as she drives away. The car lurches upward and then continues forward. More than a dozen people gave chase.

A man with a broken leg and a woman with moderate injuries were hospitalized, authorities said.

Turner is being held on $1 million bail and expected to appear in court Tuesday, according to a county website.

The city of Yorba Linda does not require a permit to demonstrate for crowds smaller than 500 people and neither group had a permit, sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Braun said.

Bryson said the group had been in discussions with police and the Yorba Linda mayor in advance. He said the police had failed to intervene.

Braun defended the police response, saying officers attempted to keep people apart and took action when there were altercations.

The Urban Organizers Coalition issued a statement expressing its “heartfelt sympathies” for those injured.

The protest came three days after an Orange County deputy in San Clemente shot and killed a Black homeless man. The sheriff released a video that he said showed the man grabbing for the officer’s weapon.

Several drivers have recently collided with protesters across the country, including at a gathering Thursday in Los Angeles.

A woman protesting police brutality was struck by a pickup truck during a march in Hollywood and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Los Angeles police said Friday the preliminary investigation found that the driver was attempting to maneuver through the crowd when protesters began beating the vehicle with sticks.

The driver stopped several blocks away and cooperated with officers. He was released pending the outcome of the investigation.

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The arrest and subsequent death of George Floyd was universally denounced as being reprehensible. As we saw, this incident sparked protests across our nation. However, the violent riots that accompanied those protests were equally reprehensible and should be denounced by all.

Some are saying that these were peaceful protests but the pictures of broken windows, looting, and fires burning are proof enough that property was deliberately stolen and destroyed all of which are lawless acts that go against human decency. Such acts of violence only undermine any attempt to make our society more fair and equal.

Then we have those who, for political gain, say that if we only had another person in the White House, all would be well. Actually, the current challenger said to a black interviewer on May 22, 2020, If you have trouble figuring out whether you are for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” How is that not racist?

The phrase Black Lives Matter is currently popular, but in his recent column, Rusty Strait said it best, “All lives matter.” Well-intended programs such as Affirmative Action, where one group is favored over another, is in itself discriminatory and often contributes to racial inequality. Our founders got it right when they said in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The Bible says something similar where it states that we should treat our neighbor as we would like to be treated. In another place, it says that we should love our enemies.

We are all painfully aware that the recent George Floyd incident violated the principles listed above, but we each have a choice to make. We can dwell on this and allow it to become hate for others, or we can choose to admit that we ourselves are not perfect and, with divine help, we will treat each other as equals in our Creator’s sight.

By extending a helping hand to our neighbor, we can stand side by side with them, proudly facing a future where equal justice for all is a reality.

-Dale Dieleman

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Prosecutors are charging a Minneapolis police officer accused of pressing his knee against George Floyd’s neck with second-degree murder, and for the first time will level charges against three other officers at the scene, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Widely seen bystander video showing Floyd’s May 25 death has sparked sometimes violent protests nationwide and around the world. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired May 26 and initially charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers involved were also fired but were not immediately charged.

The Star Tribune reported reported that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison would be upgrading the charge against Chauvin while also charging Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. The newspaper cited multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the case that spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earl Gray, who represents Lane, told The Associated Press that the report “is accurate” before ending the call.

Widely seen bystander video showing Floyd’s death has sparked sometimes violent protests around the world against police brutality and discrimination.

Floyd’s family and protesters have repeatedly called for criminal charges against all four officers as well as more serious charges for Chauvin, who held his knee to Floyd’s neck, despite his protests that he couldn’t breathe, and stayed there even after Floyd stopped moving. Floyd, a black man, was in handcuffs when he died with his face pressed to the street.

Earlier Wednesday, the Floyd family’s attorney demanded that all four officers be charged.

“He died because he was starving for air,” Ben Crump said. “He needed a breath. So we are demanding justice. We expect all of the police officers to be arrested before we have the memorial here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, tomorrow.”

Crump said the other officers failed to protect a man who was pleading for help and said he couldn’t breathe.

Crump pointed to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, which said that while Floyd was complaining he couldn’t breathe, Lane asked Chauvin twice if they should roll him on his side. Chauvin said they should keep him on his stomach.

“To us that is intent,” Crump said. And he said the other officers were complicit because they failed to take action.

“We are expecting these officers to be charged as accomplices,” Crump said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on a National Governors Association call that state Attorney General Keith Ellison, now leading prosecutions in the Floyd case, would make an announcement later Wednesday on the other officers. Ellison spokesman John Stiles confirmed that Ellison would give an update but would not provide any details.

Personnel records released by the city show Chauvin served as a military policeman in the U.S. Army in the late 1990s. Since being hired as a police officer in 2001, he has been awarded two medals of valor: One for being part of a group of officers who opened fire on a stabbing suspect after the man pointed a shotgun at them in 2006, and one for apprehending another man in a domestic incident in 2008. In the latter incident, Chauvin broke down a bathroom door and shot the man in the stomach.

Chauvin was reprimanded in 2008 for pulling a woman out of her car in 2007, frisking her and placing her in his squad car after he stopped her for speeding 10 miles per hour over the limit. His dashboard camera was not activated and a report said he could have interviewed the woman while standing outside her car.

Lane, 37, and Kueng both joined the department in February 2019 and neither have any complaints on their files.

Lane previously worked as a correctional officer at the Hennepin County juvenile jail and as a probation officer at a residential treatment facility for adolescent boys.

Kueng was a 2018 graduate of the University of Minnesota where he worked part-time on campus security. He also worked as a theft-prevention officer at Macy’s in downtown Minneapolis while he was in college.

Tou Thao, a native Hmong speaker, joined the police force as a part-time community service officer in 2008 and was promoted to police officer in 2009. He was laid off later that year due to budget cuts and rehired in 2012.

Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights on Tuesday launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department and its history of racial discrimination, in hopes of forcing widespread change.

The official autopsy by the county medical examiner concluded that Floyd’s death was caused by cardiac arrest as police restrained him and compressed his neck. The medical examiner also listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, but not as the cause of death.

Crump and the Floyd family commissioned a separate autopsy that concluded he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression due to Chauvin’s knee on his neck and other responding officers’ knees in his back, which made it impossible for him to breathe.

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As Ahmaud Arbery fell to the ground, the sound of the gunshot that took his life echoed loudly throughout his Georgia neighborhood.

I rewound the video of his killing. Each time I viewed it, I was drawn first to the young black jogger’s seemingly carefree stride, which was halted by two white men in a white pickup truck.

Then I peered at Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, who confronted Arbery in their suburban community.

I knew that the McMichaels told authorities that they suspected Arbery of robbing a nearby home in the neighborhood. They were performing a citizen’s arrest, they said.

The video shows Arbery jogging down the street and the McMichaels blocking his path with their vehicle. First, a scuffle. Then, gunshots at point-blank range from Travis McMichael’s weapon.

My eyes traveled to the towering trees onscreen, which might have been the last things that Arbery saw. How many of those same trees, I wondered, had witnessed similar lynchings? And how many of those lynchings had been photographed, to offer a final blow of humiliation to the dying?

A series of modern lynchings

It may be jarring to see that word – lynching – used to describe Arbery’s Feb. 23, 2020, killing. But many black people have shared with me that his death – followed in rapid succession by Breonna Taylor’s and now George Floyd’s officer-involved murders – hearkens back to a long tradition of killing black people without repercussion.

Perhaps even more traumatizing is the ease with which some of these deaths can be viewed online. In my new book, “Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism,” I call for Americans to stop viewing footage of black people dying so casually.

Instead, cellphone videos of vigilante violence and fatal police encounters should be viewed like lynching photographs – with solemn reserve and careful circulation. To understand this shift in viewing context, I believe it is useful to explore how people became so comfortable viewing black people’s dying moments in the first place.

Images of black people’s deaths pervasive

Every major era of domestic terror against African Americans – slavery, lynching and police brutality – has an accompanying iconic photograph.

The most familiar image of slavery is the 1863 picture of “Whipped Peter,” whose back bears an intricate cross-section of scars.

Famous images of lynchings include the 1930 photograph of the mob who murdered Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. A wild-eyed white man appears at the bottom of the frame, pointing upward to the black men’s hanged bodies. The image inspired Abel Meeropol to write the poem “Strange Fruit,” which was later turned into a song that blues singer Billie Holiday sang around the world.

Twenty-five years later, the 1955 photos of Emmett Till’s maimed body became a new generation’s cultural touchstone. The 14-year-old black boy was beaten, shot and thrown into a local river by white men after a white woman accused him of whistling at her. She later admitted that she lied.

Throughout the 1900s, and until today, police brutality against black people has been immortalized by the media too. Americans have watched government officials open firehoses on young civil rights protesters, unleash German shepherds and wield billy clubs against peaceful marchers, and shoot and tase today’s black men, women and children – first on the televised evening news, and, eventually, on cellphones that could distribute the footage online.

When I conducted the interviews for my book, many black people told me that they carry this historical reel of violence against their ancestors in their heads. That’s why, for them, watching modern versions of these hate crimes is too painful to bear.

Still, there are other groups of black people who believe that the videos do serve a purpose, to educate the masses about race relations in the U.S. I believe these tragic videos can serve both purposes, but it will take effort.

Reviving the ‘shadow archive’

In the early 1900s, when the news of a lynching was fresh, some of the nation’s first civil rights organizations circulated any available images of the lynching widely, to raise awareness of the atrocity. They did this by publishing the images in black magazines and newspapers.

After that image reached peak circulation, it was typically removed from public view and placed into a “shadow archive,” within a newsroom, library or museum. Reducing the circulation of the image was intended to make the public’s gaze more somber and respectful.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, known popularly as the NAACP, often used this technique. In 1916, for example, the group published a horrific photograph of Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old boy who was hanged and burned in Waco, Texas, in its flagship magazine, “The Crisis.”

Memberships in the civil rights organization skyrocketed as a result. Blacks and whites wanted to know how to help. The NAACP used the money to push for anti-lynching legislation. It purchased a series of costly full-page ads in The New York Times to lobby leading politicians.

Though the NAACP endures today, neither its website nor its Instagram page bears casual images of lynching victims. Even when the organization issued a statement about the Arbery killing, it refrained from reposting the chilling video within its missive. That restraint shows a degree of respect that not all news outlets and social media users have used.

A curious double standard

Critics of the shadow archive may argue that once a photograph reaches the internet, it is very difficult to pull back from future news reports.

This is, however, simply not true.

Images of white people’s deaths are removed from news coverage all the time.

It is difficult to find online, for example, imagery from any of the numerous mass shootings that have affected scores of white victims. Those murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of 2012, or at the Las Vegas music festival of 2017, are most often remembered in endearing portraits instead.

In my view, cellphone videos of black people being killed should be given this same consideration. Just as past generations of activists used these images briefly – and only in the context of social justice efforts – so, too, should today’s imagery retreat from view quickly.

The suspects in Arbery’s killing have been arrested. The Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired and placed under investigation. The videos of their deaths have served the purpose of attracting public outrage.

To me, airing the tragic footage on TV, in auto-play videos on websites and social media is no longer serving its social justice purpose, and is now simply exploitative.

Likening the fatal footage of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd to lynching photographs invites us to treat them more thoughtfully. We can respect these images. We can handle them with care. In the quiet, final frames, we can share their last moments with them, if we choose to. We do not let them die alone. We do not let them disappear into the hush of knowing trees.

[Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter.]

Allissa V. Richardson, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan left an immigration policy conference Monday without speaking after protesters shouted him down.

McAleenan was scheduled as the keynote speaker at Georgetown University Law Center during an annual immigration law and policy conference held by the nonprofit immigration think tank Migration Policy Institute. He was expected to take questions from the audience, made up mostly of immigration policy experts, lawyers and advocates.

As he took the stage, a handful of protesters made up of law school students and activists stood up and held large black banners, one read “Hate is Not Normal,” and shouted out that children were under attack. They also began yelling the names of children who had died after they were in immigration custody.

Homeland Security is the department that manages immigration enforcement and is largely responsible for meting out many of the massive changes pushed by the Trump administration that has restricting asylum, forced more than 50,000 migrants to wait in Mexico and added hurdles for those seeking green cards. Since December, at least seven children have died after they were taken into immigration custody, and officials have been grappling with a massive influx of migrants that vastly strained the system.

McAleenan, a longtime civil servant who was the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection before he was tapped to lead DHS, started off saying that he was a longtime law enforcement officer and believed in free speech, but said that public engagement was important.

The department released a statement later Monday lamenting the chance to engage in discussion and provided a copy of McAleenan’s prepared remarks that discussed ongoing challenges and efforts by his department to reduce the flow of migrants illegally crossing the border.

“Going forward, we need a higher-minded dialogue on immigration,” he said in his prepared remarks. “In our media, in Congress, and with legal experts. This year marked the third crisis surge in 5 years. We have taken key actions to address it.”

During the conference, come in the audience shouted at the protesters to sit down so they could hear him speak. Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute who was the head of the agency that preceded Customs and Border protection, was to moderate the Q&A, and told the protesters they were robbing the audience of their ability to engage in a meaningful dialogue on a contentious and important topic.

McAleenan tried to speak at least three times, but eventually left, shaking hands with Meissner and others on stage. Some in the audience cheered when he left.

As Meissner moved on to the next panel, she questioned whether the protesters planned to stay for the whole conference and asked them to take their seats. They obeyed, but many left shortly after.

Migration Policy Institute President Andrew Selee said he regretted the speech was disrupted.

“In a democracy, it is important to hear from all sides on public policy issues, including from those who are instrumental in developing and implementing policy, whether or not we agree with them,” he said, in a statement.

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