Cancelled: Latest George Floyd Demonstration Scheduled for Monday on Sunset

EDITOR’S NOTE: The organizers of the protest mentioned below have announced that they are cancelling it in response to threats of violence and fear that others might take advantage of the event to loot nearby buildings.

Two men have taken to social media to announce that there will be another George Floyd protest Monday at 4 p.m. on Sunset Boulevard.

The “sit in” protest will involve people sitting on Sunset at intersection of Crescent Heights Boulevard near Laurel Canyon and blocking traffic.

“As a major intersection in LA, the purpose of blocking its pathway is to immediately congest the flow of the city and to upset the way of living for those privileged enough to live in the Laurel and Sunset Blvd. canyons,” says the social media post by Luke Austin (@lukeaustinphoto) and Brandon Mathis (@bmvthis). 

“This standstill will symbolize the immediate feelings of African Americans not being able to go about our lives on a day to day basis without there being an obstacle of some sort.”

The protest will be the latest of many that began in Los Angeles on Saturday and brought thousands of people West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the Fairfax District, and downtown Los Angeles.

The protests against the death of George Floyd and other acts of violence against African-Americans by law enforcement officers have prompted West Hollywood and now Los Angeles County to declare curfews to keep people at home and off the streets.  While the marches have largely been peaceful, they have been followed by robberies of a number of small businesses in the Fairfax District and on Melrose Avenue. A few in West Hollywood, notably the MedMen cannabis retailer on Santa Monica Boulevard, also have been broken into.

George Floyd died on May 25 after an altercation in Minneapolis with a police officer who kneeled on his neck while Floyd, who was handcuffed, screamed that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd had been arrested for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to make a purchase at a deli. A video of the incident went viral and has sparked protests across the nation. Several Los Angeles Police Department officers have been injured in the protests as have protestors who have been hit by rubber bullets and beaten and thrown to the grown.

“While this protest is for black people, the voices and faces we need to see present the most are from our allies,” said the call for participation in the demonstration. “Any one of my non black friends who said in response to my video that you see me, you hear me, and you are with me, I need you to actually e with me on Monday. I need you to bring your non-black friends and family and those who would like to help. I need you to be the ones forming groups and brings people who may not have come. We need you to pull up.

“They can’t go through us, they will have to go around us. And they will have to acknowledge us. We are an immovable force. And when we stand together, as a whole, we bring awareness.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story failed to identify the men promoting this demonstration. This protest is being organized by Luke Austin (@lukeaustinphoto) and Brandon Mathis (@bmvthis) and the story had been updated to note that.