March for “no justice, no peace” in Salinas Sunday

Organizers called it a “march for peace” on Sunday, but was it? The last 10 days saw two officer involved shooting deaths and another deadly shooting at a rally Wednesday night. That rally sent one police officer to the hospital after being hit in the head with a bottle.

“There are no winners in the last couple of weeks, everybody is hurt by it and this is a step towards a healing process that reaffirms our commitment to peace and dialogue,” said State Senator Bill Monning.

With chants of “no justice, no peace,” the march grew to nearly 600 people at one point representing a microcosm of the opinions heard this past week.

“The police have to pay for what they’ve done,” said Josie Rosales.

She’s the sister-in-law of Angel Ruiz, the man who was first accused of “brake checking” a California Highway Patrol, then shot and killed later by police at the Wing Stop in Salinas last March.

Margaret Bonetti said, “Are we to worry that we may get shot in our yards, if we decide to go out and prune the hedge?”

Bonetti is the spokeswoman for the family of Carlos Mejia, the man who was shot and killed by officers Tuesday for allegedly pivoting toward them with a pair of gardening shears.

There were some that came from out of town to rally against police departments in general.

The rally started at Closter Park and headed toward Del Monte and Sanborn in East Salinas, the location of one of the officer-involved shootings. From there they marched to Mi Pueblo the site of another officer-involved shooting.

When they reached the Mi Pueblo, employees handed out water to marchers as cars stopped at the intersection honking in solidarity.

No Salinas Police officers were seen along the route.