After a Night of Looting, Long Beach Residents Clean Up

1 Jun

After the peaceful protest across the street of the Long Beach Police Department in the afternoon the day before, followed by looting, Long Beach residents, on Monday, June 1, cleaned up the aftermath.

After looting the night before, Charlie Lee (right) and Adam Rhodes (left) clean, on Monday, June 1, a traffic signal on the southwest corner of Long Beach Boulevard and 4th Street; photo by Barry Saks

Long Beach Mayor Garcia, according to an email the same day from his office, estimated “thousands of residents” cleaned up and repaired the City and said, “We had no loss of life last night, no major injuries of police officers or firefighters, and only one major structure fire.”

On the corner of the Pacific Avenue and 4th Street cleaning up were Callie Black, 26, and her friend Lauren Clinton, who is also 26.

Black said, “We are here because we love this city, because this city is our home…. (W)e support the Black Lives Matter movement and we support this community.  We were out here marching yesterday with our neighbors and it was a beautiful, peaceful protest.  Everyone came together.  We saw no violence, just a shared common goal.”  Black added she thought some of the looters had their own agenda and had heard at the protest some white supremacists who were showing up and do the looting, “trying to make the movement look bad.”

Clinton said she was there cleaning up and viewed it as an extension of the protest.  She characterized herself and her friend Black as “vehemently supporting” BLM.

After the looting the night before, volunteers cleaning up the small business, Luxury Perfumes, 100 4th St., Long Beach, Calif.; photo by Barry Saks

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Amen Jhawar, who had been at the protest earlier, said about 5 p.m., he was walking his dog and witnessed, near 5th Street and the Promenade, looters using crowbars to break into some stores on 5th Street.

The Mayor, in the same email, also announced the City of Long Beach ordered a curfew at 1 p.m. in the business districts and 4 p.m. citywide, which would end in the morning.  

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