Photo: Group Protests Outside Santa Monica Police Department

SANTA MONICA, CA — Protests continued outside Santa Monica Police Department Wednesday evening with a group of people calling on police reform and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

People chanted "divest in the police, invest in your communities," while drivers honked and cheered from their cars.

The ongoing action is led by Santa Monicans for Democracy. The group is demanding accountability and change from local police following the events on May 31.

They meet each week at 5 p.m. outside the police station, 333 Olympic Drive, right next to the 10 Freeway onramp and offramp.

Bardo Lopez is a student at Santa Monica College and helps organize the event.

"We want to amplify Black voices and the Black Lives Matter movement," Lopez told Patch earlier this month. "The African American population is small in Santa Monica but we're here to remind people it's not over. We want to hold our city accountable."

Lopez criticized police for their response to people protesting, describing the use of force during the arrests on May 31 and June 1, including tear gas and rubber bullets fired on people. Two reporters from KPCC who were reporting on the protests had weapons drawn on them by both Santa Monica and Los Angeles police officers that day.

I just finished telling @KPCC’s @AirTalk how the police today in Santa Monica have been cooperative with us, but one officer just pointed a gun at us as we yelled “press! We are reporters!”
— Emily Guerin (@guerinemily) June 1, 2020

Ok and another set of police just trained their rifles on us and other people out on the street. We put our hands up and backed away.
— Emily Guerin (@guerinemily) June 1, 2020

At Fairfax and Beverly, LAPD appears to fire blanks into crowd. Forgive the shaky video, it was really unnerving. pic.twitter.com/KtWEJx9kcX
— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) May 30, 2020

Lopez wants to remind people of that day, and that police don't hurt people who assemble to protest.

"We want to make sure they apologize for what happened," Lopez told Patch.

Police fired rubber bullets at a group of several hundred people protesting near the Santa Monica Pier on May 31, while several blocks away, mass looting and destruction left some businesses in disrepair and others destroyed. People at the protests were walking away from the area where looting happened, heading south toward Ocean Park, were critical that police officers were attacking a peaceful protest while looters were attacking businesses near downtown Santa Monica. Later that night, the National Guard arrived, stationed around the Santa Monica Mall and the Third Street Promenade area.

"We want to make sure we ban the use of tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters," Lopez said. "There's no need for that. People are upset and they're protesting."

More than 400 people were arrested in Santa Monica following the unrest from May 31 to June 1, according to Santa Monica police Chief Cynthia Renaud. A majority of the people arrested were not Santa Monica residents, Renaud said, and they were arrested on suspicion of looting, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon. The city later said they would not press charges against peaceful protesters.

Some locals have been critical of local law enforcement for their responses to protests and have called on the Santa Monica police chief to resign in the wake of the events on May 31, saying that police did not act to protect people and local businesses and appeared to be caught by surprise by the events of that day. As of Wednesday, more than 65,834 people have signed a change.org petition calling for Renaud's resignation.

"After seeing the widespread looting and vandalism of our city and local businesses, we can do better," according to the statement on change.org. "After seeing our brave law enforcement officers stand by without strong leadership or overarching strategy to protect themselves, our city, and its citizens, we have to do better."

Following community outcry, Councilmember Sue Himmelrich requested that Santa Monica Police Department conduct an after-action review of the events of May 31 to be reviewed by the city's Office of Independent Review, a third party.

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