Five years after riots, La Mesa reflects on the unrest and resilient recovery

LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — On this day, five years ago, peaceful protests following the death of George Floyd and violent arrest of Amaurie Johnson devolved into destructive riots in the city of La Mesa.

The riots on May 30, 2020 became a local flash point in the wider reckoning around policing and criminal justice reform, leading law enforcement agencies to end the use of chokeholds as a form of restraint and put a greater emphasis on community-police relations.

Hundreds of protestors flooded the streets, eventually making their way onto Interstate 8. When they arrived in La Mesa, the demonstrators were met with police, who fired tear gas and bean bag rounds among other projectiles towards them in an effort to disperse the crowd.

Hours later, the city's downtown area was ablaze. A bank and several cars were burned. Grocery stores and local businesses were vandalized and looted. Some were even left disabled by injuries sustained in the chaos. The next morning, La Mesa residents were left to pick up the pieces.

While most of the physical remnants of the protests have long since been repaired, the memory of the day lives on for those who lived through it.

Pierre Farhat, who owns Pierre's Jewelry on La Mesa Boulevard, saw the events in downtown La Mesa unfold. He remembers seeing people clad in black break into his store, as the small city center descended into what he described as a war zone.

"That night when it happened, I thought I'm done. I'm not gonna come back," he said. "I had people come in the next day, people wanted to help, wanted to clean, they boarded the windows. Some customers wanted to give me money to help me out. It was amazing."

Craig Maxwell, owner of Maxwell's House of Books, similarly recalls being heartened by how the community came together after the events of that fateful night, even though he remains on edge about law enforcement activity again getting out of hand.

"We all did what we had to do to protect each other and ourselves that night and subsequently rebuild our businesses. It was all on our own," he said. "I'm very proud of everybody here. We all pulled together well."

KUSI's Dan Plante contributed to this report.