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More than 100 Del Norters cared enough about ending racial injustice to show up at a second rally in Crescent City on Sunday.

“I think this is an effing turning point,” Gasquet resident Nancy Powers said.

Powers said the rallies, demonstrations and protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd represents the same thing protesters demanded in the 1960s when she marched with Cesar Chavez and against the Vietnam War in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.

However, Powers said, she thinks the COVID-19 pandemic may have created a tipping point prompting those in rural communities to take a stand against police brutality and racial injustice.

“More and more people have time on their hands and they’ve seen that the system is not sustainable,” she said. “I think this is the perfect storm for a general strike. People already have time on their hands and are struggling as it is.

Shawn Dean, a former college advisor at Del Norte High School and a member of the NAACP, said the fact that the pandemic means people have more time on their hands may be a reason for the large turnout at a rally against racial injustice in tiny Crescent City.

But, he said, he thinks they have always opposed racial injustice and police brutality.

At this second demonstration, Dean said the NAACP chapter from Humboldt County had given him permission to distribute information on how to be a member and how they can donate. Dean, who is working with the NAACP and black student unions in Humboldt County, said at this point, people are looking to take steps to change things.

In Del Norte County, this includes True North Organizing Network’s campaign against bullying, Dean said. Other clubs at the grade-school level such as the Gay-Straight Alliance and the indigenous peoples clubs are an avenue for “taking the next step.”

“If we’re asking students or people to be more inclusive, that has to be taught,” he said.

Del Norte County’s first demonstration against racial injustice was an impromptu rally organized by Nicole Suetos, said fifth-grade teacher Paige Thompson. Her colleague Sarah Elston organized the second rally to give others a chance to participate.

“I wanted to lend my voice to the global cry for systemic change,” Elston told the Wild Rivers Outpost. “There’s a shift coming and I want to be part of it.”

Though she wasn’t ready to go into detail, Thompson said she, Elston and other demonstrators plan to go to the Crescent City Council and the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees with proposed policy changes.

Change is already happening, though it took an order from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who Friday ordered the carotid hold — also known as the chokehold — to be removed from state law enforcement training curriculum, said Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin.

As of Friday evening, Griffin said, he removed the use of the chokehold out of his department’s policies. Though he knows the police department has used the chokehold before, he doesn’t remember the last time it was deployed.

“I’ve never used it in my 15 years here,” he told the Outpost.
Addressing the crowd on Sunday, Griffin assured them that he and his officers supported their cause.

“We’re here with you,” he said. “We serve you. We understand our oath to you and we want a change too.”

About halfway into the demonstration, Ana Escarcega showed up with snacks and water for the protesters. With everyone masked, she said, she wanted to make sure they had breakfast and something to drink.

“I know how dry your mouth gets in those masks,” she said.

For Escarcega, providing refreshment to the demonstrators was also her way of showing solidarity.

“Seeing all the social injustices going on for centuries is devastating,” she said. “This is the land of the free and not everyone is truly free.”

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