Super Bowl fans get dose of reality

On Saturday, Feb. 6, travelers to the San Francisco airport arriving to see the Super Bowl were welcomed to the Bay Area in an unexpected way. The Anti Police-Terror Project organized a protest to point out the contradictions between the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on this sports spectacle versus the ongoing killings of Black and Brown people by the police and the ever-increasing gentrification of San Francisco and Oakland.

Holding a banner saying “Welcome to the Bay Area Where Black, Brown and Poor People Are No Longer Welcome,” the protesters “mic checked” their message to the arriving passengers, backed up by a brochure they distributed. They chanted the names of over 50 Black and Brown people who have been killed by Bay Area police.

The demonstrators moved through the airport, stopping in each terminal to repeat their message. Their demands were 1) The immediate resignations of Mayors Ed Lee (San Francisco) and Libby Schaaf (Oakland); 2) the immediate terminations of (police) Chiefs Sean Whent (Oakland) and Greg Suhr (San Francisco); and 3) the immediate reallocation of city budgets to reduce police spending and allocate funds toward affordable housing.