Students protest police shooting on steps of San Francisco City Hall
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - Hundreds of high-schools students in San Francisco walked out of class Friday to protest the recent shooting of Mario Woods.
Woods was shot and killed by police on Dec. 2 on a street in San Francisco’s Bay View district. The shooting was captured on video by several different witnesses.
Students from Lincoln, June Jordan, Mission, Balboa, and Galileo schools gathered on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall. Many carried signs that said 'Black Lives Matter' as they chanted “Who’s next”, “Don’t shoot" and “No justice, no peace. No racist police.”
“Police are shooting people of color like we don’t matter,” said Jazmine Thorne, a protester. “I feel like all lives should matter. We’re here to demand justice for all lives.”
The protesters tried repeatedly to enter City Hall to no avail, but Supervisor David Campos came out to speak with the group.
“We have lost trust in our police department. We need fundamental change. We need systemic change and it’s not enough for them to simply justify what happened within the rules, because if what happened is within the rules then the rules need to change.”
When more students arrived on City Halls steps, the crowd tripled and they took to the streets. They marched eastward down Market Street, blocking streets along the way, but received police escorts. Cable cars in Union Square came to a halt and a U.S. Postal Service truck was momentarily stopped.
By 2 p.m. they marched to the SFPD Tenderloin Station, momentarily blocking Eddy and Jones streets. Heavy police presence could be seen standing outside the station, standing guard and directing traffic while protesters continued their chants of "Where is Greg Suhr?" referring to the SFPD Chief, "SFPD, take responsibility" and "Hands up, don't shoot."
Two more female students said, "We're just hurt right now. That's why we're out here. We're doing this out of anger and aggression. We just want to get everything sorted out. Make a change. Protocols should change. Cause they said it was legal what they did, we don't think it should be legal."
The closest thing to a clash with police that happened was when students surrounded a police car on Market. Officers pushed the students back to get the car out of the scrum.
The protestors wrapped up and headed home about three and a half hours after they started.
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