Community members in San Luis Obispo joined protesters from around the country in solidarity Saturday morning to protest the death of George Floyd.
“I was really physically disgusted that someone could kill someone with their bare hands,” said one protester, Sidda Todd.
Another protester, Grace Stephenson who grew up in Minneapolis and is now a resident of the Central Coast said she decided to join Saturday's protest after watching the stories unfolding in her hometown.
Stephenson added that she is not pleased with having just one out of four officers involved in Floyd's death arrested. She said she was also shocked to hear the third degree murder charge for former police officer Derick Chauvin.
“It was clearly intentional. If you’ve seen the video, you saw his knee of his neck, so it is clear he knew what he was doing and I also want the other three officers to be charged," said Stephenson.
Jennifer Bauer, a San Luis Obispo resident, said she joined Saturday's gathering to show her solidarity with the African-American community.
“We need to take a stand and say, we cannot have a society that does things like this anymore. I come from a place of white privilege and I don’t have to worry about going out and going for a run or going to a store and being stopped because of the color of my skin,” said Bauer.
Bauer adds that she believes the best place to start is moving conversations forward regarding racial inequality and injustice.
“A lot of people think that because they are not blatantly racist that they are not racist, but really we have to look at our biases and educate ourselves, as a society we have to do better than what we are doing right now,” said Bauer.
There are at least two other local protests planned for Sunday afternoon.
RACE Matters - SLO County is organizing an event at Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo that starts at 1 p.m.
A protest in Santa Maria will be held also at 1 p.m. outside of Santa Maria City Hall.
