Month: June 2020

The roving OB Rag reporter sent this brief pictorial in, with pics taken on Tuesday, June 2, the first day of sun-bathing and sitting on the beach.

He reported it was all chill.

“Groups of people were chillin’ and maintaining physical-distance between groups though some groups were probably not people from the same household.

Wednesday, June 3 was the sixth straight day of protests in San Diego County over the George Floyd murder. All were peaceful and all were respectful of this local and national moment of push for needed change.

The protests included a march from the Midway area into Ocean Beach, one in Mira Mesa, a vigil in Broadway Heights and a massive paddle-out at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.

A mostly young crowd rallied in the Midway Area for Black Lives Matter and several San Diego Police officers joined them in prayer; the crowd chanted, “SDPD! SDPD!” and the officers actually led the marchers through the area. The marchers continued into Ocean Beach and down several streets around Newport Avenue, past boarded up windows of businesses, some of whose owners sprayed supportive statements (some would call them “graffiti”) onto those boards.

The California National Guard deployed 200 troopers in San Diego County over the last 20 hours or so. One hundred are assigned to La Mesa and another hundred to the County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Bill Gore is the one that requested them. Governor Newsom authorized their deployment.

From my knowledge of San Diego history, this could be the very first time National Guard soldiers have been assigned to San Diego County. They weren’t deployed during the infamous San Diego Free Speech fight in 1912-1913, the labor strife during the thirties, nor were they deployed in San Diego during the social turbulence of the sixties and 1970s, and not during the May 1970 student rebellion, which in part shut down the gates to the Naval base on Catalina Boulevard.

So why are they here now?

The OB Mainstreet Association has been asked by the San Diego Police Department to cancel the Farmers Market scheduled for today, Wednesday, June 3.

Here is what we found on a facebook page:

No one knows anything about the protests. Don’t know who’s is planning it. Don’t know if it will even happen. But after all this hard word to reopen the market, now this.

Protests in San Diego for George Floyd continued for the fifth day in a row on Tuesday, June 2, with the largest demonstration in downtown San Diego.

Dozens of people had been protesting in the afternoon, then joined others for a short rally at Sixth and Laurel in Balboa Park. There they spread out on the grass and listened to a few speeches, keeping proper physical-social distance.

Around 6 pm the crowd marched into downtown, where they were joined by another group. After marching down Broadway and through downtown streets, the combined crowd of at least 500 then rallied at the County Administration Building. At one point on Broadway, the marchers were being pushed along by a phalanx of police SUVs. Participants said the crowd was larger than the day previous,

In all the initial stories and reports of what happened in La Mesa at the George Floyd protest in front of the police department, the subsequent bank burnings and lootings, and then the clean-up afterwards, a key story of a La Mesa grandmother almost being fatally injured or blinded by a police projectile wasn’t present.

Now, it has emerged. Leslie Furcron, a 59 La Mesa resident was hit between the eyes by a police rubber bullet and severely knocked momentarily unconscious. She was on her cellphone when the incident occurred and was not engaging in anything but peacefully protesting. Bystanders rushed her to the hospital where she was at first placed in an induced coma. Police did not call her an ambulance or otherwise respond to her injury

Furcon has now come out of the coma and her family called Tuesday for the officer involved to be publicly identified, fired and charged with attempted murder. There is a gruesome cell phone video

Tonight Wednesday, June 3, the Ocean Beach Planning Board is to review – as their top agenda item – something called “Complete Communities” – a controversial proposal put forth by Mayor Kevin Faulconer. The meeting will be held electronically via WebEX. In order to “participate” one needs to register for the meeting – here -and if one wishes to make a comment they need to email it to the Planning Board (email below). The meeting begins sharply at 6 pm.

You can find all the information about Complete Communities on the City’s website here and here.

Other items on the agenda includes a review and vote on the OBPB’s Annual Report for 2019-20 (see link), appointments to the Transportation Committee and the city will make a presentation on the Alvarado Second Pipeline extension and possible construction impacts to local residents and businesses.

About 6:30 pm ET yesterday, June 1, 2020, President Trump – speaking for the first time publicly about the George Floyd protests – and calling himself “the president of law and order,” threatened Americans with martial law. Trump said if the governors and mayors around the country couldn’t “dominate” the protesters – who Trump called “domestic terrorists” – that he would send in the US military into those states and cities.

Because “our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others,” and because “a number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents,” he would deploy the US military. “If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”

The San Diego Police Department announced Monday, June 1 that it is immediately ending its use of the chock-hold or carotid restraint, a move motivated by the George Floyd protests, both locally and nationally.

San Diego Sheriffs will continue to utilize it on suspects, as Sheriff Bill Gore told KUSI Tuesday.

The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted numerous elected officials and the police chief praising the decision. Mayor Kevin Faulconer, at a press conference Monday, stated SDPD officers “will be stopping the use of the carotid technique, effective immediately.”

by Joaquin Antique

Here comes another one, just like the other one. One day seems to morph into another. It’s almost like Groundhog Day all over again. Or it would be, except for the brutal murder of a young Minnesota man and the mainly righteous response it provoked.

It’s taken this OBcean to new levels of depression. Have we really made so little progress that such abuse has to occur again and again? How is it that when my son’s friends got busted smoking in the parking lot of the Christian Science church across from Point Loma High, all they got was a lecture and were not allowed to walk at graduation instead of ending up beaten, arrested, or killed like what could have happened if they were African-American kids in Minnesota, Georgia, or Florida. Or Oakland, California. Or on the sand in Ocean Beach.

I’m not even sure I should be posting another (hopefully) humorous Walkabout feature at a time like this.

Hugo’s Cocina
1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., Suite H
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-892-7882

By Judi Curry

With the advent of the COVID-19 virus, many restaurants are having to change their menus, eliminate their buffets, and still attract diners. There are some big changes coming to “Hugo’s”.

Before I begin with the changes, I want everyone to know that take out service, using the old menu, is still available. There is no more eating inside, but takeout is still available. I also want to let you know that they do not know for certain when the “new” restaurant will open. They are waiting for the health inspection giving them the “go-ahead.”

All the refrigerators and freezers are hooked up. Right now it is just a waiting game.

So for the changes: It will now be known as “La Fruteria Y Panaderia De Hugo’s Cocina.”

The “Panaderia” will be selling assorted Mexican Bread, cakes and slices of cake, (11 varieties!)