On Wednesday afternoon, peaceful protesters came out to the corners of Mt Vernon Avenue and Barton Road in Grand Terrace to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement and voice the unjust killing of George Floyd.
Standing on each corner of the intersections, mainly young protestors stood with their signs and chanted, “Black lives matter,” “No justice no peace, no racist police,” “Say his name, George Floyd,” and “Say her name, Breonna Taylor.”
The protesters occasionally walked together to cross over to each side of the intersection, only keeping their gathering to this location. In addition to holding signs and chanting, the protestors also took a knee for a nine-minute moment of silence to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other victims.
“I wanted to get the point across that we matter,” said 18-year-old Aaron Kearns of Redlands.
Kearns attended Grand Terrace High School and wanted to show up in the community he grew up in and make sure the gathering was a peaceful one.
Other protesters were long-time residents of Grand Terrace wanting to show up in their own city to spread awareness to their community.
“I’m tired of police brutality and wanted to come to the city that I grew up in to spread awareness; most people want to turn a blind eye, but they have to see,” said Grand Terrace resident Karina Castarena.
The afternoon was at above-normal temperatures reaching the high 90’s and even triple digits around 2 pm, but the protesters remained at the intersections and passing cars honked their horns in support.
Most vehicles that drove through the intersection rolled down their windows and expressed their own support by either joining in with the protesters’ chants or holding their right arms up with their fists in the air.
Some residents and supporters of the protesters brought cases of water and asked if the group needed anything like blankets to kneel on.
Despite the hot temperature, one young protester explained that “you have to do what you can to spread awareness, you can do something about it.”
A Caucasian couple, Joe and Maria Notarangelo, residents of Grand Terrace and Maria, who has lived in Grand Terrace her whole life, held up a sign directed to Baby Boomers of the City, asking them to take action.
“Sometimes people older at my age don’t want to listen,” Joe said. “I thought we’d be further than we have been.”
The couple were both proud of the youth that came out and proud of the young leaders who kept the protest civil and peaceful.
As the day went on, some protesters left, and others came to join at the well-known and busy intersection to continue to spread awareness trying to reach as many people of their community as they could to produce real change.
“Just because we have attention now, doesn’t mean we should stop, it needs to continue, there needs to be fundamental change,” Maria said.