June 5, 2020

On what would have been Breonna Taylor's 27th birthday, Black Lives Matter: Long Beach (BLM LBC) organized the city’s fifth consecutive day of demonstration. This would be my first time attending a BLM protest. Even with COVID numbers still growing in the region it didn't deter people from coming together in support of human rights. This felt bigger than that. This was something to stand by and a time to be heard. We arrived at Harvey Milk Promenade Park around 5 p.m. to a diverse group a few hundred people. It wasn't long before that number grew to a couple of thousand. “This is the real fucking Long Beach. Asians, Filipinos, Cambodians, Mexicans, all representing for us. And we’d do the same for them,” one protester told the crowd.

Dawn Modkins, a community activist and BLM leader, went on stage and addressed the anti-police brutality protestors. Dawn called for the defunding of the LBPD and to reinvest that money into education, mental health care and after school programs for children. Another speaker Porter Gilbert, member of the Long Beach Citizen Police Complaint Commission, spoke to the crowd about the lack of accountability for police officers in Long Beach. “The commission is a farce,” Gilbert told us. “I have been on this commission for a year, I have been taking very detailed notes for a day like today so I can tell you what a farce and what a joke it is. There is no accountability for the police in Long Beach.” A few more speakers talked about their experiences and gave out resources so we can help continue to push for change locally and nationally.

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