A call for justice in San Mateo

Wednesday night’s student-led protest attracted a young crowd as noted by a series of speakers including local activists and politicians such as San Mateo Mayor Joe Goethals, former mayor Claire Mack, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and the Rev. Dr. Lorrie Owens, president of the San Mateo chapter of the NAACP. Students like Sophia Heath, president of a local chapter of the national youth organization Coalition Z, began organizing the event after news broke of the police killing of an unarmed black Minneapolis man, George Floyd. 

Similar to a Redwood City demonstration held a day earlier, speakers called for structural change to the justice system and denounced the militarization of police units seen clashing with protesters nationally. 

Jaron Lazar, a self-proclaimed fed-up black man, called police brutality the “sidekick to mass incarceration” and called for the end to accepting the violence perpetrated on the black community. 

“We must face the narrative today that it is everyone versus racism. ...We need police to protect us in times like this but instead they’re deployed on the front lines to strike fear and strike war in our hearts and we’re deemed still the thugs and attackers,” he said. 

He left the crowd with a final statement on the impact he believes the movement will have on those unengaged. 

“All we’re asking is to be treated fairly and that is even seen like a threat. ...Those who refuse to hear must feel, and our pain, our passion, our voice will be felt,” he said. 

Former San Mateo mayor Claire Mack addressed the crowd with a candid story of the racism her father experienced as the first black city employee working at the San Mateo dump in the ’40s. 

“To be an American black is to be schizophrenic. Part of my life is fabulous, the other part has been lived in hell,” she said. “Who would have thought the man who ran the dump would have a kid who ended up being the mayor of one of the best cities?” 

She also expressed pride in today’s youth who have been galvanized to join the Black Lives Matter movement and the push against systemic racism.

“I’m loving what you youngsters are doing,” she said. “This is homegrown. This comes from the roots. ... Stay within the law, raise hell.” 

Shara Watkins, a member of the San Mateo-Foster City School Board of Trustees, emphasized by pushing for change in the criminal justice system the public also needs to address the racial bias present in the national education system. 

“Like our justice system, our education system was designed to do exactly what it’s doing. To produce the inequities that we see across our classrooms, schools, districts, all over our country, to fail black and brown students, to silence black and brown families, to discriminate against black and brown staff,” she said. 

Watkins localized her point by highlighting trends of inequalities within the San Mateo-Foster City school district and called for the public to make space for black and brown people in positions of power. 

“This past school year there were black students in our elementary schools being called n—s by other students. Preschool teachers teaching low-income students were making less money than teachers teaching our affluent students until last year,” she said. “How can we be better? Don’t sit in your privilege and comfort. ... Sit down so others can stand up. Stop taking up space. Stop feeling like you have to say something to make yourself feel better. Listen.” 

Following Watkins’ speech, demonstrators flooded into the streets for a police-led march to 200 Franklin Parkway where the local police station sits. 

A three-minute moment of silence was shared amongst the demonstrators as reference to a statistic stating African Americans are three times as likely to be killed by the police compared to white people, said Heath.

An 8:30 p.m. curfew which went into effect Tuesday evening and applied to Wednesday as well expires at 5 a.m. Thursday. The purpose of the curfew was to protect residents and prevent looting based on specific threats, according to a county press release sent out Tuesday.