The moment over 100 lawyers, law students, and law professors united in Los Angeles to protest the inhumane treatment of African Americans by law enforcement was powerful. Lawyers held law enforcement accountable for upholding the law instead of breaking it. Lawyers demonstrated to let officers know they are not above the law and will not continue to get away with murder by continuously unlawfully taking the lives of black men and women.

These protestors laid on the steps of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, in the rain, blocking the entrance. Some even trickled into the street blocking one lane of traffic.

“The issue of police brutality is not about any single officer or victim, nor is it about good people versus bad people,” a law professor, Priscilla Ocen, affirmed over a bullhorn. “The number of unjustified homicides is a result of an entire system left too long without the legitimate checks necessary to ensure accountability and justice.”

“As legal actors, we are sworn to uphold and enforce the law, so we have a responsibility to condemn the racist criminal justice system of which we are a part,” Ocen said. “Today we must challenge this structure and take a stand against it.”

What stood out most to me about this protest is the fact that the vast majority of the protestors were non-black. When it’s just us demanding justice and protesting no one listens. When other ethnic groups and races acknowledge the injustice and actually speak out some people begin to listen. But this was two years ago. And now we are still waiting for officers to be held accountable for shooting first and asking questions later in the black community, but always finding a way to take down a white gunman without incident.

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” It is so mind blowing that we are forced to fight the same fight Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and Huey P. Newton were fighting. Although the demonstration was heartfelt and sincere, it clearly didn’t work. So what will the next steps be? Do we expect to see the officers involved in the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile convicted of murder?