The Shifting Geography of Protest

Angel Jennings writes:

The violence that occurred after a jury acquitted four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King took decades for South L.A. to recover from, and some say the area has never fully healed. Vacant lots still dot the landscape, a painful reminder.

But this time around, South L.A. has largely been spared, as protests have erupted across the city to condemn the killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd.

Instead of South L.A. protesters in the Los Angeles area have taken to the streets in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the Fairfax District, for example. According to organizers cited in the article, the geography of the protests reflects deliberate choices, based on lessons learned from 1992. 

Melina Abdullah, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter, is paraphrased to say that the choice reflects a desire to send a message, not cause violence or destruction. 

The trend grew out of a crucial decision by Black Lives Matters organizers in the protests of 2013, after George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin under protection of the state's stand your ground law.

For additional, recommended reading, see an article for The New York Times by Emily Badger that expands the scope fo the discussion about the geography of protest to the 1960s and a much larger set of urban areas in the United States.