Ferguson Solidarity March in downtown SLO

Anti-police brutality protests sweeping the nation in the aftermath of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner Grand Jury decisions included downtown San Luis Obispo Friday night.

The protest rally and march through downtown San Luis Obispo was organized on Facebook and coincided with Friday night’s 39th annual Holiday Parade that attracted thousands of people to the downtown area.

Shouting the now familiar slogans of “hands up, don’t shoot”, “no justice, no peace” and “black lives matter too”, the protestors marched the parade route on Monterey and Higuera Streets.

The peaceful demonstration took place under the watchful eyes of San Luis Obispo Police and Holiday Parade organizers.

“Law enforcement has shown such lack of respect for people and specifically people of color, people are fed up with it”, said protest organizer Julian Trevizo, “people don’t want to show respect back if they are not getting respect in the first place.”

Initially about a dozen people showed up with protest signs and candles responding to a Facebook Events page that went up just a few days ago.

“An unarmed black man is killed by the police every 28 hours”, said protestor Zoe Rollison, “honestly if you don’t see a problem with that, then I have no respect for your apathy.”

“Rather than get caught up in a lot of the small details of the two cases we ought to be thinking about how police brutality and the criminal justice system has been discriminatory over the last couple of centuries”, added protestor Ryan Alaniz.

By the time the protest march had made its way back up the parade route, several dozens people had joined the demonstration, getting occasional cheers and applause from bystanders in the crowd.

“I think there are more of us than them and that people are awakening to government corruption, police brutality, and its time to end it”, said protestor Paulina Trockman.