CHICO — Protesters have gravitated to the City Plaza all week long, and Friday night was no different with the largest crowd yet.
Beginning at 5 p.m. and lasting nearly four hours, the message was as clear as the last three days: Black lives matter and the years of injustices toward the black community will no longer be tolerated.
By far, the biggest crowd at the City Plaza all week. Likely doubling yesterday’s protest of 600 people. pic.twitter.com/U05maXCcoz
— Mathew Miranda (@mathewjmiranda) June 6, 2020
However, unlike prior protests, Friday’s gathering was spearheaded by two men. The three protests earlier in the week were intentional in making sure that a specific group of people did not take credit for organizing.
Friday’s two organizers Vince Haynie and Donell Briggs felt it was necessary to hold the protest which had been planned for the beginning the week before being canceled due to social media threats.
“I don’t have any fear,” Haynie said.
Both men used their experience as local pastors to draw the crowd to the main stage of the plaza, a method not used at the last three protests. Once at the stage, they energized attendees with an array of speakers, chants, kneeling for those killed, singing, dancing and rapping.
Around 7:10 p.m., protesters were led for a march through the streets of downtown.
Haynie said he also chose to communicate with some of the city’s leaders, including Mayor Ann Schwab and Chico Police Chief Michael O’Brien, whose last day before retiring as chief was Friday.
Schwab spoke briefly at the start of the protest.
Haynie added that during their one hour Friday morning conversation O’Brien also offered to speak at the protest.
“I told him this was not a good time,” he said.
Chico police were not visibly present in downtown during the protest for the third straight day.
Another change from the prior protests was the inclusion of religious leaders. In addition to Haynie and Briggs, seven more pastors were in the crowd Friday.
Haynie said he invited them through his group Chico Pastors together.
Fifty-year pastor and member of the group Gaylord Enns said he mostly attended “to listen and learn.”
“I grew up with white skin so I only know what I know. … There are many things we don’t understand and we have to begin to understand,” he said.
Haynie said he will be taking a couple days to rest but, after seeing the energy and attendance Friday, hopes to “keep the movement going.”
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