Active Protest In Manhattan Beach By BLM And Anti-Racist Movement

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — A protest is being held at Manhattan Beach City Hall by Anti-Racist Movements (ARMs) Around the South Bay in partnership with Black Lives Matter, according to a news release sent 30 minutes before its start time of 11 a.m. today. The protest is being held "to raise awareness of the racist underpinnings of the Manhattan Beach community and call for specific actions to initiate change."

Said ARMs Co-founder Kavon Ward in the release, "This is the first time in history that our society may have finally evolved enough to begin to broadly look at racial injustice with clear eyes. So this is the first time that there is some hope that Manhattan Beach will choose to make changes that finally put them on the right side of history.”

ARMs says it has identified three core demands to drive anti-racist improvements in Manhattan Beach:

• the resignation of Manhattan Beach Mayor Pro Tem Suzanne Hadley
• the defunding of the Manhattan Beach Police Department
• restoration and retribution for the Bruce family which was unjustly forced out of their land and business.

“This community is actively hostile to Black people.” said Ward. “An absence of diversity to the degree we see in Manhattan Beach doesn’t happen by chance.”

ARMs, which formed early this summer, calls their actions a "hyper-local approach to anti-racist work." The group has been working to sound "an alarm around the state of racism in Manhattan Beach and the surrounding South Bay area," says the news release. "Several Manhattan Beach residents and politicians have rebutted that Manhattan Beach is not a racist city, however, the city’s less than 1% Black population tells a different story," they contend.

ARMs says it hyper-local approach "to social justice work complements the national-level dialogue and initiatives driven by organizations like Black Lives Matter... This approach provides a way for area citizens to take action that directly impacts the everyday experiences of their families, friends and neighbors."

ARMs says it "is an anti-racist community of likeminded individuals who are committed to taking action to drive local change and break the cycle of racism in their own families." It was founded in June 2020 by a small group of local moms living in the South Bay area of Los Angeles who were
called to address the racist underpinnings of their own community in the wake of the national
racial reckoning following the deaths of Americans like Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and
Breonna Taylor.

As of August 2020, the group reports it has grown to nearly 900 members and "is organized
into several committees that define and implement a hyper-local anti-racist agenda in matters
like Criminal Justice, Economic Equity, Education, Health & Wellness, Parental Engagement and Social Policy."

Manhattan Beach City Hall is at 1400 Highland Avenue.