'This is how we feel every day' - protester compares violence in LA to racial inequality in society
"This is what it's like to walk down the streets. It's chaos. I'm afraid every time a police officer drives past me."
FAIRFAX DISTRICT, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Even after an 8 p.m. curfew was declared in many Los Angeles-area communities, many people remained out on the streets in places like the Fairfax district and in the city of Beverly Hills.
While there were fires set and looting of stores, some of those who remained on the street were there not for violence, but out of commitment to their original cause: protesting the death of George Floyd and police brutality in general.
One protester, who asked only to be identified as Jane Doe, spoke eloquently about the cause and the need to continue speaking out even as violence broke out around her and a curfew was declared.
"The message that I want to get out is there is a huge difference in America between white Americans and black Americans," the young woman told ABC7 reporter Leanne Suter. "They are treated very differently."
"Although I do not want white Americans to experience what we have experienced from the police, I want the police to come to an agreement with us to have the same opportunity to have the same protection from them that white Americans have."
Police brutality is out of control, she said, and she sees officers treat people of different races differently.
The violence of Saturday night's protests, she said, gives the rest of the world a sense of the fear that many people in her community feel every day.
"The damage tonight is necessary. You know why? Because this is how we feel every day walking down the street. We don't get to see the beautiful buildings that everybody else gets to see."
"We get to feel like we don't belong there. We get to feel like trash. We get to feel like garbage. We get to feel like we can't come here. But we came here today because we want to be a part of it."
"This is what it's like to walk down the streets. It's chaos. I'm afraid every time a police officer drives past me. I have a clean record, I have never committed a crime. Law-abiding citizen. I have gone to college. Yet I get pulled over every time I'm driving my car because it's a 2020."
To see the rest of her comments, watch the interview in the video above.
