Dozens of people gathered this afternoon on the steps at San Bernardino City Hall to protest violence against people of color before taking to city streets and Inland Center Mall.
The protest began and ended with a prayer, and was emphatic but peaceful.
The group grew steadily to about 60 people who marched from City Hall down the center of E Street and Inland Center Drive to Inland Center mall, as police mostly kept a few hundred yards away and watched traffic.
“The cops that helped us make sure we didn’t get hit and we could walk down the street and have our voices heard shows that not all cops are bad,” said Isaac Moultrie, who helped organize the protest.
Moultrie plans a series of protests, with the next coming on Riverside Avenue at the 210 Freeway in Rialto at 5 p.m.Tuesday.
Protesters’ anger was directed at law enforcement officers across the country who have been involved in controversial shootings, but also at killers at home.
VIDEO: Black Lives Matter protestors chant, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” in San Bernardino
“Not only do black lives matter when they’re taken by police, they matter when we fight each other over the color of a rag,” said Kiyandra Griffin, a San Bernardino resident whose cousin Calvin Boykins was the city’s 32nd homicide victim this year. “We need to take them all seriously.”
People need to put pressure on political leaders, said Gabriel Peters, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga.
“Why are they killing us?” Peters said, wondering about the effectiveness of some commonly suggested solutions. “People are being killed even though police wear body cameras. We need... better police.”
The group chanted loudly for most of the two-hour protest — “Hands up, don’t shoot!” “Keep the peace!” — but went silent as they walked through Inland Center.
Signs reading “Please stop killing us” and “You still want to know the source of our anger?” among others made the point clear.
Some of the mall’s customers raised their fists in solidarity with the movement, but others were skeptical.
David Stover, a San Bernardino man eating with his family as protesters marched by, said it was “racist” to protest only the killing of black people.
