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'Defund police' rally clash with All Lives Matter Protesters in Lodi

Protesters demanding to defund Lodi Police Department came face to face with an All Lives Matter counter-protest on Saturday.

Protesters who supported Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter marched through a Lodi neighborhood near American Legion Park with two different messages.

Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter's debate came face to face on Saturday with a police line dividing protesters from merging into either side.

Empact Founder Leia Schenk said All Lives Matter does not include black lives.

"All lives matter is just another racist way of saying your life doesn't matter because all lives can't matter until black lives matter," Schenk said. 

A world without racism is not the reality for one Lodi man who wanted to stay anonymous. He doesn't feel like his life matters when he turns on the TV and continuously sees Black people dying by police.

"It's very frustrating when we are trying to come out and make the demands to proceed with reform and we are met with huge resistance," said the Black Lives Matter protester.

Clint O'Connor, a Lodi resident, said he protested with All Lives Matter to protect his town. He says social media led him to believe that things could get out of hand.

"It's 2020, racism is done," O'Connor said. "People need to realize racism is done. Let's just be done with it everybody get along." 

The protest came the same week Rochester Police released bodycam footage of an incident in March where officers placed a spit hood on Daniel Prude after his family called 911 to report he was having a mental health episode. 

One officer said they placed the hood on his head because he was spitting in their direction they were concerned about coronavirus. Prude died in the hospital a week later. 

A medical examiner said that Prude's death was a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.”

Among the chanting, two men, one from each side of the aisle, crossed over to talk about building a bridge between the two sides.

"Let's get a venue to where we can have four chairs and have people actually talk and have your words heard and our words heard and we can come together because we are not that far apart," Joshua Barrington, an All Lives Matter protester told a Black Lives Matter protester as the two shook hands.

   

WATCH MORE: Sacramento police chief responds to criticism of not being tough enough against protesters

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