Juneteenth 2020

San Francisco Black Lives Matter protests, marches, and rallies have been passing under my apartment at Franklin and McAllister for weeks.

Yesterday morning, Juneteenth was being celebrated, and a honking line of cars with signage on windshields and hoods drove by in a circling route through Civic Center.

In the afternoon, the sound of motorcycles filled the neighborhood.

Nine SFPD motorcycle cops were monitoring a student march up Franklin Street to the SF Unified School District building.

The huge DEFUND SFPD signage carried by marchers was pointedly provocative.

The SF Police Department has nobody to blame for the sentiment but themselves. The SFPOA (San Francisco Police Officers Association) is one of many police unions across the United States that vigorously defend murderous, racist, psychopathic members in their ranks while ensuring the brutal status quo remains the same.

There were loudspeakers on trucks that were part of the march and a teach-in happened on the street. If you would like to get educated yourself, click here for a good Juneteenth website charting the history of the celebration that began in Texas in the 19th century, sputtered out in the first half of the 20th century but revived in the second half.

After the consciousness raising session we have all been through over the last month, thanks to the videotaped murder of George Floyd and his brethren and the outrageously violent response by police to protests, it looks like Juneteenth could eventually become a national holiday. I only heard about it in the early 1990s while on a gay softball team coached by Phred, a black man from Texas who would host a fabulous BBQ party in his Haight-Ashbury backyard every year.

After about an hour, the loudspeakers played music and the event turned into an impromptu dance party. The superfluous, unloved motorcycle police shrugged their shoulders and drove off.