Months that have led and culminated in this tension boiling over. And we saw what happened in minnesota, in minneapolis. Unfortunate unrest. But today were seeing what appears to be a largely peaceful statement and demonstration playing out right now on 101 in san jose. My partner dan ashley joins me here now for abc7 news at 4 00. Dan . Kristen, good to be with you. Remarkable to see whats happening on 101, southbound 101. We can only hope that it will continue to end as peacefully as it looks like it has begun, to end, but with some of the protesters leaving the freeway, we dont know to where they have proceeded, but there are probably still a good 100 on the freeway. And you mentioned something interesting, kristen, that id like to chime in on with the charges now facing dee inderek youve seen on video choking george floyd, charged with thirddegree murder. A lot of people are wondering what charge. We hear so often about manslaughter, firstdegree murder, seconddegree murder. What is thirddegree murder . Thats a category defined in the laws of three states, florida, pennsylvania, and minnesota. So that explains why that charge in minnesota is one of three states that has a thirddegree murder charge in that state that that Police Officer is now facing after being arrested today. But as we watch these protests live from sky 7, its been mostly peaceful for the past hour or so. A few broken windows on at least a couple of cars, maybe three. And knowing more violent than that. A little bit of shouting, but for the most part very peaceful. You see at some point a digit advertised area on your screen, which we blocked out because someone scrawled an obscenity on the freeway, and we dont want to show that to you if we can avoid it. But again, kristen, looks like probably 100 or so protesters still in the middle of southbound 101. This is in the alum rock road area. The backup significant, although far less than it would normally be if we were not in a shelterinplace order. That is correct. Just to remind our viewers, of course, they have probably seen the video because it went viral. Police officer, four officers that were involved in the incident, one in particular seen on the video putting his knee the whole time on george floyd, and floyd was later killed. Derek shoefs you mentioned was the first one and only one charged so far with thirddegree murder and manslaughter, although prosecutors made clear that more charges may be coming. There are a lot of people who are calling for the other three officers who have all since been fired to be charged with the same. So well see what happens there. But this is one of many protests that have erupted around the country. This one in san jose thats been going on since about 3 00, just past 3 00 this afternoon, blocking traffic, bringing it to a stand still at alum rock. So if youre headed south, that is where the protesters are making their stand, although you can see police have also closed off the northbound lanes at the moment as they negotiate the exit of the protesters. And dan, as you mentioned just in the last ten minutes or so, weve seen about two third of them leave the scene. We did. Which is interesting. Well be interested to know why they were convinced or decided on their own to move elsewhere. Perhaps theyre going to rally at a different location. Perhaps they had made their point and wanted to move on. There you see that digit advertised area were blocking out a swear word. So we dont know where those folks have left. Adds you said, kristen, about twothirds of the original gathering. And over the past hour, that number did grow until it seemed to sort of peak the last 15 minutes or so in terms of the numbers. And two third of them left the freeway just a few minutes ago. And you mentioned the officer charged today with thirddegree murder and three other officers may face charges as well. Prosecutors acting fairly rapidly in terms of the Justice System tends to work in the last couple of days to charge Derek Chauvin. That was probably a more easier arrest and charge to make because he was the one seen on video with his knee on george floyd for eight minutes as he begged for help and pleaded that he could not breathe. The investigation into the other officers actions or nonactions probably more complex and will take more time as they try to piece together what they did and what they did not do during that unfortunate awful incident that we all saw on video. This again one of the protests around the country today. They protested peacefully in oakland yesterday and a protest in oakland is planned for tonight at i believe about 8 00 this evening. With any luck, that will also remain peaceful. But of course, all of this reflects the great and growing frustration of not just the African American community. Largely, of course, the African American community, but of all people of conference who have reached a boiling point and are tired of seeing incidents like we saw in minneapolis the other day on video. It just reflects a sense of injustice and enough is enough. Back in february, there was the death of ahmaud arbery, a black man who was jogging, a 25yearold jogging through a georgia neighborhood when he was also shot to death. And three white men, a father and a son and also a neighbor now charged in that case. That one, of course, getting a lot of attention. And then earlier this week, of course, no death that resulted, but we saw a video coming out of central park in new york in which a white woman was heard and seen calling the police repeatedly emphasizing to the police and saying she was being threatened, her life was being threatened by an African American man who was peacefully just letting her know that she should leash up her dog. That was on video. She has since been fired there have been a lot of incidents coupled with the fact that people have been sheltering in place for three months during the coronavirus, and many people losing their livelihoods and their jobs, it is ripe, if you will, all the ingredients are in place for the kind of tension to build and for people to explode in a way with raw emotions and frustrations coming out. Yeah. Very well said, kristen. And i think its so heart rending in some respects in the last couple of months. We as a nation seem so united in resolve to beat the coronavirus. And suddenly here we are, a reminder that there are great divides and great divisions in the country. On the phone with us now, Adrian Monroy who is in one of the cars behind the protesters stuck in traffic on 101. Adrian, can you hear me . Yes, i can. Thank you for coming on. Dan ashley, kristen sze with you. Tell me how close you are to the protesters, first, adrian. How close . Yeah, how close are you . Can you repeat that . How close to the protesters is your car . Okay, adrian, well try to come back to you. No, i can hear you. How close . Youre in traffic, correct . Yes, im right here, right off of 680. I cant really see the protesters, to be honest. There is a lot of cars in the way. Okay. How long have you been there . Ive been there like since 3 40. So about half an hour. What are your thoughts . Youve probably seen the video that is sparking the protest that you are now in the middle of . What are your thoughts as you sit in traffic in terms of what is happening in the country and what is happening where you are now with the protesters . What is going through your mind . Yeah, i just im getting tired of it as well. Killing minorities, and yeah, people are arguing people have been arguing. Minneapolis, peacefully and police still dont listen. Maybe this way they will listen more. And right now i dont care what the protests do, as totally fine, i just need to use the rest room as soon as possible. But im okay with protesting. Adrian is saying he understands the frustration. He is okay with the protests. He understands why theyre happening and hopes that they stay peaceful, but he is okay with whats going on here and around the country. He just hopes he can get to a rest room soon because he has been stuck on the freeway. Youre probably not alone in that wish. Adrian, thanks very much for coming on. Stay safe. We appreciate it very much. Again, kristen, as we look now, we have some live pictures on the left, ground level shots of the protest. And on the right, we have obviously a fire that is burning. Were going get you more information on that. But with regard to Public Comments and sentiments on this, what adrian said im seeing echoed in a lot of the Facebook Comments as we stream this live on facebook. A lot of people saying that this is a small inconvenience, and they respect their right to make the statements. And, you know, we were talking about unit. And i just saw earlier there was a flag of mexico out there, and i saw under the mask, you can see there are people of all races out there as well. So there is a sense of unity amongst the protesters. There you can see the flag. And there are signs that say black lives matter. But lets be clear. Black, brown, yellow, white, there are all types of people out there making the statement against what happened in minnesota and the death of george floyd when a Police Officer who has now been charged has his knee on his neck for over eight minutes as he pleaded and said i cant breathe. So most people are, dan, very understanding in saying this is peaceful. Just be safe. But there are a few that are saying some unkind things that suggest, you know, they were in a car stuck there, they might not just sit there and wait. They might just drive on through. There is always somebody talking tough when theyre not there, i suppose. Always somebody mouthing off. But i think most people can understand the frustration and appreciate this public display of outrage. When it tends to turn, as weve seen many, many times, kristen, is when things become unnecessarily violent and there is a lot of vandalism or people and property getting hurt. Thats when you tend to lose a lot of people in terms of support for civil disobediencdi. But these peaceful protests that weve seen here, and in many other parts of the country that have not gotten out of control in any way have certainly raised awareness once again of a very serious divide and a very serious issue in this country. And to your point, kristen, very interesting. Very really uplifting and encouraging in many respects to see a quite diverse crowd there on the street, as you point out. Plenty of white people, African Americans, people of hispanic descent. All groups being represented standing there on highway 101 at the moment. Yes. I would like to think that it is the bay area, although i know that might be a bit simplistic. But the unity is encouraging to see. Joining us by phone right now is wi tran. And he is someone stuck in this for a while. Thanks for calling. In. Hi. I appreciate the chance to share my perspective. Yeah, please give us your perspective. How close are you to this . Are you near the protesters . That line they formed, that blockade . I was there for a while, but i kept a distance because im close to people who have compromised immune systems and i wanted to minimize any risk of exposure. But i was in the march from the start. You know, i mean, seeing the diversity of the people here, i wanted to show my support for the black community. And everybody coming together in this way i think showed the impact of the death of george floyd along with Breonna Taylor and all the others. Yes. It seems like this is a turning point right now. Hey, so are you now past that area . Yeah. I took a step back just because at some point i was trying to continue to a live feed, but the signal died. So trying to get away to a place where i can actually hear and see better. Kristen, we have proernts the move now, as you can see live. It looks like exiting the freeway en masse again. This is about the third, about the final third of the group that was there originally about 20 minutes ago. It looks like they are leaving the freeway, most of them now. They have jumped across the Center Divide and crossed to the northbound side, and it does appear to be that they are exiting the freeway and southbound traffic looks to be resuming there, dan. Finally on cars are able to move again. The chp said out to get the protesters to leave in a safe manner, and it appears they have successfully done so. Thus far, which is wonderful to see. We dont know, really, how they persuaded them to do that, but well find that out. Or if the protesters decided they made their point and it was time to move on, because we dont see Significant Police presence there at all. They are keeping their distance, of course, as most Police Departments around the country face these protests with the heat focused squarely on the actions of police in minneapolis. Law enforcement very cautious not to throw gas lean on the fire and provoke an already very tense situation. Yep. And you see the folks walking in a big group, maybe 100 people there. And theyre still carrying their signs, but they do appear to feel that they made their statement, that their blockade of traffic on 101 appears to be over, and of course that offramp that theyre currently on, you can still see cars, that white car driving very slowly to make sure that they dont hit anybody as they exit the freeway there. And they have to go down this offramp. There is no way. They have to get down to surface streets to get out of the way completely. It will be interesting to sow when they get to the exit here exactly what they do, if they block traffic there or move on. So, you know, dan, because weve been watching this for the past hour, we can say for the most part what we saw was unity. You saw people even waving, some of them. There you see the large police. Thats right. You saw a lot of that. But there were one or two window that we saw that were broken. I saw at least two, maybe a third. I couldnt quite tell. There you see where police have sort of staged and to deal with this crowd, trying to take the next steps to keep deescalating the situation and let everyone have their say and make their point. And one hopes move on without causing any further problem. Yes. But oh, and you can see the protesters forming a line there, standing, some of them with arms locked, and others carrying signs. But officers clearly still not feeling like the situation has completely deescalated. Just look at the semicircle formation they have there, dan. That is sort of the ready position, if you will in these types of situations in which you are ready for anything that may come your way. So it is still tense out there, even though so far what were seeing is a fairly peaceful statement being made by taking over shutting down highway 101, but expressing their strong feelings in the death of george floyd in minnesota. And remember, they are exercising that Great American right of free speech and the right to assemble and to make your point. And so far doing so peacefully. It may be inconvenient for those drivers, maybe even a little intimidating as they watch crowds of people stand around or come by their cars. But with only a couple of exceptions weve seen, no one has been bothered. A couple of windows, rear windows of vehicles smashed out. We dont know the circumstance to that. But thats all that weve seen thus far. And from everything weve seen here, these protesters came out to protest, make their point, and did not come to cause chaos. Their behaviors that been one of protest. Yes. And dan, we are looking at sort of the overpass now, if you will, where some of the protesters are after exiting the freeway. But throughout this event, there were people on the overpass also with signs and being very visible to drivers and of course choppers overhead, making their statement. It is a powerful statement. The death of george floyd bringing out such strong emotions for people across the country, and at least hundreds of people out to san jose this afternoon on a friday afternoon. We saw people taking a knee, dan. We saw people, you know, showing signs of solidarity by locking arms. There were drivers who drove past that honked in a gesture of support to the protesters, but there were those isolated individual incidents, maybe two or three in which windows were smashed. And then they drove on by after that. And they did allow the protesters, i dont know what the drivers said to let them know hey, ive really got to get going if i can. They let a number of cars through, maybe they had something, an emergency or something. But the protesters showed some compassion to a handful of drivers to let them proceed. Whats interesting here is theyre gathered around these police cars. Clearly looks like some folks are chanting. Theyre trying to get some kind of a rallying cry going. But the police, it doesnt look overly tense. No one is threatening or menacing the police cars at this point. The police arent moving in on them. Theyre letting them be among them and around them. And so far nothing has happened to the police cars. It doesnt look like its about to explode with violence at least at this point. It doesnt. And we hope it stays that way. But with these types of situations, there is always the possibility. So the tension will remain high until the very end, until, you know, everybody is walking away feeling like their point has been made. But it is quite interesting to see all of those protesters just around the police cars, around them. Yeah. But dan, i have to say, when you see whats happening here versus whats happening in some other cities across the country, you do feel that this point was made with an emphasis on unity and with an emphasis on looking forward and fixing whatever is wrong. And if that is the message that they can demonstrate to the country, perhaps the bay area can once again lead the way. Well, its a great point, kristen. We have a long history in this community of standing up for causes and for people and protesting. Not all those protests have been peaceful. Many have not. But we have a really rich tradition of civil d disobedien and protest and expressing your view, and perhaps this will be something that the rest of the country will look to as an example of how to make your point, but not do it in a way that is destructive. I was thinking the other day, yesterday, actually, as we watch the protests and some vandalism and which often happens. And one can understand the frustration that sometimes bills over. But at the end of the day, after so many of these merchants and businesses and Business Owners have been devastated already by a shutdown thats lasted two months. And then to be have have vandals and thieves destroy some of their property. And here is a car being vandalized. Its a double blow for some of these businesses that have been affected. Yes. And, dan, we did get video as sky 7 has been up almost