Dozens of self-identifying Stanford students were arrested on Monday night after they shut down the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge in a “#blacklivesmatter” protest against alleged police brutality and oppression. The protesters stopped traffic for nearly two hours on both sides for commuters heading to and from work in what they dubbed #SiliconShutdown.
After they closed off the bridge, the protesters pulled out a giant Palestinian flag and draped it across multiple lanes.
“We chose to inconvenience the weekend commute because the status quo is deadly to the black and brown peoples of this country and can no longer be tolerated,” said Stanford class of 2017 participant Maria Diaz, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The protest coincided with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and started around 4:50 p.m., ending at approximately 6:50 p.m. The California Highway Patrol reportedly arrested 68 people on suspicion of disorderly conduct and for blocking access to public land, notes the Times.
The bridge shutdown came on the heels of a weekend filled with protests throughout the Golden State from rallies in support of law enforcement to demonstrations citing concerns over supposed racial divisions within San Francisco’s LGBT communities.
Photo: File
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter: @AdelleNaz.