BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Protesters from East Palo Alto walked, biked, skateboarded and drove throughout their town, and made forays into Palo Alto and Menlo Park last night, both times related to Facebook.
Residents were protesting police brutality, as many across the nation are, and later in the night, Facebook’s presence in the area.
The protest began in East Palo Alto, with police calling for backup from the Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City and San Mateo County Sheriff’s offices when protesters began walking down University Avenue toward 141 Demeter St., the East Palo Alto Police Station.
Protesters were met with a police blockade at Bay Road and Clarke Avenue, where they chanted slogans such as “no justice, no peace” and said the names of black men and women killed by police, most prominently George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis spurred the protests spanning the country.
Protesters also took a knee and encouraged police officers to do so as well, cheering when East Palo Alto Cmdr. Jeff Liu joined them. A Menlo Park officer and an East Palo Alto officer also joined them.
“We could have had a big a** riot, but we are out here trying to do this right,” an organizer said, later adding that everyone wouldn’t have to be out if cops did their jobs right.
After that, the protest headed toward Facebook’s headquarters on the Bayfront Expressway, and for a time paused at Bayfront and Willow Road, according to police radio.
Protesters then went back into East Palo Alto and ended up crossing the Newell Road Bridge onto Edgewood Road, where Mark Zuckerberg lives.
According to a live stream of the protest, the group decided to head down Edgewood to show their unhappiness with Facebook’s funding of a unit of the Menlo Park police.
In 2017, the Menlo Park Police Department wanted to add six officers to patrol the east side of town, and the first five years of funding for the unit came from Facebook.
After going past Zuckerberg’s house at 11 p.m., the protest slowly dissipated.
There were no reports of looting in East Palo Alto, with police letting the security guard at Target at the Ravenswood Shopping Center know where the protesters were periodically.
However, there were some mishaps with fireworks. At least one bottle rocket hit a police car, and some firecrackers set a small fire on the cloverleaf near the Chevron on University Ave.
Protesters quickly hopped the fence and put the fire out.
Last night’s protest was just one of many scheduled in the area this week. Today, a large crowd is expected to gather in downtown Redwood City at 4 p.m.
The protesters say they’re not looters. I’ll believe them when they realize that their protests give the looters cover, and cancel future protests to stop the looting. Until they do that, they’re just a bunch of liars.
Your post is irrelevant and has nothing to do with the issue at hand. Unless you’re willing to talk about Zuckerberg’s double-standards, go away.
I disagree STRONGLY! Angry white men who don’t understand the reality of the world they live in are exactly how we got into this method. “Darwin”‘s idiocy is incredibly relevant … if we’re ever going to progress as a society, we need to learn how to explain to people as ignorant as them exactly how ignorant they are being.
*”mess” instead of “method”
Clearly the best way to exercise the American value of free speech is to surrender it the moment there is a risk of somebody else causing property damage.
Shows what we really value in this country, doesn’t it?
Being that Mark Zuckerberg looks upon himself as the righteous Chosen One who has God’s ear and who’s also a billionaire, I wouldn’t expect him to do the right thing.
Darwin, this might not affect you because you obviously don’t care about people of color. You are fine looking at men and women get killed by insane cops. If you stay silence, you become part of the structured and systematic racism and genocide.
Does Sandra know Darwin? How does she know his opinion about people of color? Seems like Sandra is the prejudiced one.
I’d guess Sandra can surmise that Darwin doesn’t value people of color based on his statement that avoiding potential property damage is more important than addressing decades-long problems of systemic abuse and extrajudicial killings by police.
Mark Zuckerberg is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. He is part of the problem. Taking over an area full of low income people not offering them jobs but false promising. He has forced so many families that live in that area away. I hope Facebook crumbles.
I agree East Palo Alto has slowly been gentrifying and money people are forced to move out due to the high prices. I hoped that the government listens to us but ow trump just gave authorization to the forces to shoot us.
This article is a beautiful display of UNITY, between protesters and our local law enforcement. Our local community has set an excellent example of a “peaceful demonstration” despite the current chaos. Let us focus on the positive steps being taken from both sides so we can reach a solution. I’m very proud of my EPA community members and officers.
Happy Zuckerberg is cleaning up the area, raising prices keeps problem people out of the neighborhood. What is the reason for setting off fireworks all hours of the day and night?
You say nobody cares about black people? It’s not because you’re black. Why do we need to care about anyone? Give us a reason to care.
Stop behaving like victims, contribute to society, nobody likes your disruption to the community, it doesn’t make anyone like you more.