Emeryville Home Depot Shut Down for Justice for Yuvette Henderson, 1/21/15: photos

[Photo: Home Depot shut down, with protest derrick and “Release the Tapes / #JusticeforYuvette” banner held aloft by balloon.]


Out of fear of evening protests, Home Depot chose to close their Emeryville store hours early every night the first week after Yuvette was killed. On Saturday, February 21, community activists locked down entrances to the store and effectively closed it for them for the entire day.

What became a five-hour non-violent civil disobedience shutdown of Home Depot began as a 10am rally at Emeryville police headquarters. Police set up metal barricades in front of their building while three officers stood on the roof to watch demonstration below, one recording video of protesters. Family members who have lost loved ones to police violence spoke, including the brother of Yuvette Henderson. Still distraught from the killing of his sister not three weeks earlier, he said that Emeryville authorities have expressed no sympathy to Yuvette’s family.

By 11am, the hundred or so demonstrators gathered at police headquarters began to march with signs and a mobile sound system. During the nearly 50-minute march to a destination that was not publicly announced, California Highway Patrol officers with riot helmets assembled at what they thought might be potential targets for the march, primarily freeway on ramps. CHP motorcycles attempted to stay ahead of the march. Numerous marked and unmarked Emeryville police vehicles paced the march, blocking opposing automobile traffic as the march progressed down Powell and Shellmound Streets past the Bay Street shopping area.

Shortly before the march reached the Home Depot, as marchers headed over the Shellmound Street bridge to 40th Street, another set of activists sprang into action at the Home Depot, locking down across three entrances to the store and setting up an alter for Yuvette, a 20-foot derrick, and hoisting aloft with a helium-filled balloon a huge banner that read “Release the Tapes”. Reportedly, store security freaked out at the time, running back and forth, not sure what to do until it was too late for them or anyone to prevent the lockdown of the store.

Cheers rang out once the march reached Home Depot and marchers saw what had been done prior to their arrival. The store was effectively closed to all new customers while Home Depot employees escorted those customers already in the store to the outdoor garden department exit. Store employees were sent home by management once it was clear that protesters were not going anywhere. Before long, the store was empty except for a few Emeryville police and security staff. Several Emeryville PD and CHP vehicles staged in the parking area behind the store throughout the day.

Organizers of the demonstration declared that because Yuvette Henderson was left to lie in the street dead for five hours after being shot, that Home Depot would remain locked down for five hours. Because the action was held on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, recordings of Malcolm X speeches were played over the sound system throughout the action in between live speakers, chants, and performances.

Most potential customers were understanding, some even supportive, but a few were threatening and physically hostile toward protesters. Largely, the most obnoxious ones were older white men with grey hair, although the worst was younger and, after trying to barge through a locked-down door with a wooden pallet and then asking Emeryville police to shoot all of the protesters, he attempted to goad demonstrators into physically assaulting him, which no one did despite his barely-veiled racist taunts. The two doors blocked by the Black Lives Matter contingent and the Bay Solidarity Action Team were closed behind them by Home Depot, so it was clear to potential customers that there would be no going in or out of the store through those doors. However, to door locked down by Asians for Black Lives remained open behind them and they took the brunt of the irate customers, although numerous people did stand guard throughout the day to prevent any contact or harm at this entrance as best they could, telling everyone approaching that the store was closed and stepping in front of anyone who still attempted to barge towards the locked-down-but-open doorway.

At about 4:45pm, five hours after the lockdown was in effect, the largest group of those gathered, near the alter and derrick, moved to the furthest Home Depot entrance to celebrate the unchaining of the Black Lives Matter activists holding that door with lockboxes. Activists unchained the ends of their lockbox line and moved eastward toward the next door held down by Bay Area Solidarity allies, who then unlocked the heavy chains around their waists. Finally, everyone returned to the main entrance held by the Asians for Black Lives contingent, cheering their commitment and stamina as they unchained themselves, leaving only APTP and ONYX organizer Cat Brooks to climb down from the protest derrick.

Demonstrators formed a huge circle to close the action, celebrating their success and speaking of work yet to be done in the fight for accountability and justice, then packed up, leaving of their own accord with no arrests. Since Home Depot had sent most of its employees home already, the store remained closed for the rest of the day. It is not known exactly what financial toll the action had on the store.




Anti Police-Terror Project Holds Rally and Vigil for Yuvette Henderson
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/20/18768819.php

Questions and Demands Surrounding the Police Killing of Yuvette Henderson, 2/10/15: photos
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/11/18768393.php

Statement on the Emeryville Police Department's Killing of Yuvette Henderson
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/10/18768335.php

Vigil for Yuvette Henderson, Gunned Down by Emeryville Police in Oakland, 2/3/15: photos
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/04/18768023.php