File this one under karma, baby. The rich and famous are all about protesting and declaring themselves down with the struggle until protesters forget their place and invade residential areas of Beverly Hills. Then the masks drop.
It’s the ultimate Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) – the City of Beverly Hills issued an emergency order Saturday night that bans public gatherings of more than 10 people in residential areas between 9 PM and 8 AM. What brought this on? Well, it seems a group calling themselves “Occupy” disrupted the beauty sleep of locals in their posh neighborhood on June 12 between the hours of 10 PM until 1 AM. The group used bullhorns and “amplified music”. The residents want their tranquility back. The emergency order remains in effect until further notice.
To preserve the peace and tranquility of residential neighborhoods, effective tonight and until further notice, no more than 10 people shall gather in an assembly in a public right of way in a residential area between the hours of 9 p.m. – 8 a.m. More: https://t.co/EVjLWqWgE5
— CityofBeverlyHills (@CityofBevHills) June 14, 2020
Silent gatherings are allowed, but anything other than a candlelight vigil or a private event can result in arrests.
This follows other protests in the Los Angeles area and the looting that often broke out, including on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills on May 30. At that time the City of Beverly Hills had enacted an earlier curfew than the rest of Los Angeles. The hypocrisy is par for the course these days. Take, for example, pop star Ariana Grande. She posted on social media about protesting on May 31 in L.A. and in Beverly Hills and voiced her disappointment that the press wasn’t covering the story enough for her virtue-signaling ego.
Ariana protested in Los Angeles on May 31 and shared her experience on Twitter writing, “Hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage. All throughout Beverly Hills and West Hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along. We were passionate, we were loud, we were loving. Cover this too please.”
hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage.
all throughout beverly hills and west hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along.
we were passionate, we were loud, we were loving.
cover this too please. #BLACKLIVESMATTER https://t.co/vD90CEtF94 pic.twitter.com/GZ6uKDfPM7— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) May 31, 2020
Ariana Grande is one of the biggest artists in the world. Not only did she use her platform to express her anger and pain towards what’s going on she also participated in the streets with the rest of the protesters 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/XWgayEgfTV
— anth (@anthspears) May 31, 2020
The point is that the protests she attended are ones that she calls peaceful. Even she, though, admits those protests were loud and “passionate”. We know what happens with many of those passionate protests, though, right? Agitators infiltrate and the next thing you know, Gucci and Dior are being looted on Rodeo Drive.
As a preemptive measure, Rodeo Drive was shut down to traffic to help prevent the possibility of violence and looting taking place in the luxury shopping area located nearby in Beverly Hills. However, protesters were still able to make their way inside on foot. Videos shared on social media showed protesters chanting, “No Justice, No Peace,” “Eat the Rich” and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.”
Following the outbreak of violence, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that he would be implementing a curfew on Saturday afternoon. He tweeted, “We will always protect free speech and Angelenos’ right to live without fear of violence or vandalism. To increase safety for demonstrators, law enforcement, and all citizens of Los Angeles, we are putting a curfew in place from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.”
However, before the curfew kicked in, the rally in Beverly Hills turned violent.
Just before 7 p.m. local time, the Gucci store on Rodeo Drive was looted. High-end stores up and down the street were vandalized.
BREAKING: Large group of protrsters just returned to Rodeo Drive. I just saw these two masked white guys deflate the tires on several police vehicles, then the female in all black pulled a metal tool from her coat and tried to do the same. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/zSsoOiU25J
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 31, 2020
Looting on Rodeo Drive now too. Gucci broken into. pic.twitter.com/1qbHnkfqA3
— Perez (@ThePerezHilton) May 31, 2020
So, no doubt that when a group calling themselves “Occupy”, (how very 2010 of them) shows up and gets loud until the wee hours of the morning, the owners of those big mansions and pricey properties got concerned that their property could be next for looters and bad actors. I can’t imagine that the City of Beverly Hills acted on its own in issuing an emergency order after the protest on June 12. Homeowners surely called city officials and demanded the local governing body do something. Can’t we all just get along?
Jeremy Meeks, a 36-year-old model, brought along his 11-year-old son and documented their marching through Beverly Hills on Instagram.
Jeremy documented his time at protests in Beverly Hills on Instagram and shared footage of him and his son passionately chanting, ‘Black Lives Matter here’, as they made their way through the streets. He captioned his video: ‘No justice, no peace.’
Jeremy has been attending organised protests over the last few days over in LA and had shared a video of him addressing some of the rioting and looting that has also been going on. He said: ‘I’m seeing so many videos of white rioters kicking up so much dust. Listen, I’m not gonna sit and act like we’re not kicking up dust. ‘We are pissed and frustrated and kicking s*** up.’
‘But I’m telling you right now, little white kids, they’re looting just as much as we are. And we’re gonna get the blame, not them. It’s the way of the world.’
Hmm. “Kicking s*** up” doesn’t sound so peaceful, does it? Sleep tight, Beverly Hills homeowners. I’m sure that paper the director of emergency services signed will protect you from the angry mob when it comes for your neighborhood.
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