Activists throughout the Bay Area will be holding a series of protests through Monday as part of a campaign to "reclaim" Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "radical legacy."
The second annual "96 Hours of Direct Action" have been going on throughout the Bay Area since Friday, with the stated goal of highlighting the high rate of African-Americans being incarcerated, gentrification, police brutality, and racial injustice across the area. On Saturday morning protestors gathered at Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's house to "#CallOutLibby." Organized by the Bay Area chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice, they wrote in the description of the event:
Since Mayor Schaaf took office in January 2015, at least 8 Black men have been murdered at the hands of Oakland Police. At the same time, Schaaf and other civic officials have encouraged massive increases in commercial development that is resulting in the traumatic displacement of Black, Brown and working class folks across Oakland. Mayor Schaaf has made it clear that Black lives are less important to her than white and blue lives. Now we're coming to make it clear we see her complicity in Oakland's racial injustice as violent and grounds for her to RESIGN.
We #CallOutLibby to tell her that #BlackLivesMatter
#ReclaimMLK #96hours pic.twitter.com/VguUfadAZj
— SURJ Bay Area (@surjbayarea) January 16, 2016
"Given what is at stake, as a community we have an obligation to acknowledge and work to correct the wrongs of the past and the legacy they have left behind," Schaaf said in an email to ABC 7, in response to the protest. "At the same time we must resist the urge to judge every new set of circumstances on anything other than the facts at hand."
Previous protests from this weekend include a demonstration against an Oakland Sprouts supermarket on Friday afternoon, which organizers say is emblematic of gentrification, and a panel at the San Francisco Public Library against the SFPD's desire to equip officers with Tasers.
Demonstrations continue today, with a march in downtown San Francisco at 4:30, which organizers describe as "an opportunity to open connections between tech equity, diversity, and investing in our communities." Several more are planned for tonight and Monday, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
Click here for more information on the events, including a Google Calendar with the schedule and details.