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QUEENS WEEKLY, JUNE 7, 2020
‘Menacing’ attacker threatens
peaceful protest in Whitestone
BY JACOB KAYE
Peaceful protests calling
for justice for George Floyd
in Whitestone were met with
racist and menacing attacks
from anti-protesters earlier
this week.
For the past three days,
protesters hung signs in the
neighborhood in support of
the Black Lives Matter movement,
only to see them torn
down again and again by anti
protesters. But the attacks
didn’t stop there — at one
point, a man with a sharp object
drove up to the protesters
on the Cross Island Parkway
overpass on Clintonville
Street and threatened to kill
them for protesting in the
neighborhood.
The saga began on Monday,
June 2, when M.A. —
who has requested his full
name not be used — began
hanging signs in support of
the Black Lives Matter movement
in Whitestone, where
he lives.
“I just wanted to bring
awareness to the cause I care
about,” M.A. said. “I just felt
like it needed to be said.”
Soon after he began hanging
the signs, he noticed they
were being torn down. He
posted videos about the incident
to social media and soon
a handful of people showed
up to support the cause. New
signs were hung, and the
protest grew.
Later Monday afternoon,
a man identified as Anthony
Abicca by various people on
Twitter, showed up to the location
and began to rip down
the signs.
“You’re racist,” one of the
protesters can be heard saying
on the video.
“Yeah, and?” Abicca replied.
In a video posted to Twitter,
Abicca chronicled his
trip towards the protest, in
which he espoused a handful
of racial slurs and said
that “today’s episode is going
to be on direct action,”
and calls Whitestone a “nice
little white town.”
After posting the video
online, various Twitter users
found that Abicca was a
student attending Queens
College. In response to the
incident, Queens College released
a statement.
“Thank you to all expressing
concern about social
media postings of videos
of racist remarks by an individual
identified as a Queens
College student,” the statement
read. “The racism and
bigotry expressed does not
in any way represent Queens
College; we condemn racism
and bigotry of any kind. We
reaffirm our enduring commitment
to diversity and respect
so that all members of
our community may pursue
their goals in a safe and supportive
environment.”
Abicca could not be
reached for comment.
Following the clash with
Abicca, M.A. and his fellow
protesters re-hung signs and
posted about the incident to
social media, which, in turn,
encouraged more protesters
to show up.
On Monday night, Chris
Melegos, a 20-year-old who
lives in the area, came by to
show his support. Melegos
began hanging signs in the
neighborhood around 6:30
p.m.
“We put them all around,
everything was ‘RIP George
Floyd,’ and ‘Black Lives Matter,’
very peaceful stuff,” Melegos
said. “They were taken
down in five minutes.”
The relatively small
protest began to die down
around 8 p.m., but the next
morning, M.A. returned to
find that the signs had been
taken down once again. But
this time, they had been replaced
with new signs and a
lot more people.
“Before you knew it the
whole block was filled,” M.A.
said. “It felt so good to see
that.”
But with the increased
numbers of protesters came
a menacing backlash from
one man who claims protesters
had attacked his car on
Tuesday.
Around 3:15 p.m., on Tuesday,
an unknown man drove
his car directly in front of
the protesters on the Cross
Island Parkway and Clintonville
Street. He quickly
jumped out of the car, brandishing
several sharp objects
attached to his hand, according
to the NYPD.
The man, who drove a
gray Mercury SUV, waved
the weapon in the direction
of the protesters before getting
back into his car and
driving away, police say. According
to witnesses at the
protest, the man drove off
in the direction of the protesters
and nearly ran them
down.
No arrests have been
made and the investigation
is ongoing, police said.
In one video posted to social
media, the man can be
heard saying, “This is the
wrong neighborhood,” before
driving off.
“It was scary seeing that,”
M.A. said. “That menacing
look in his face.”
Despite the aggression
against them, M.A. has encouraged
his fellow protesters
to remain peaceful.
“The main thing I’ve
been saying to people who
show up to this block is that
we have to stay peaceful,” he
said. “Being violent discredits
the whole movement.”
M.A. and his fellow
protesters returned to the
Cross Island Parkway overpass
on Wednesday, June
3, to find that despite the
backlash, the Whitestone
community also was filled
with supporters.
Flowers, and boxes of
water, juice and pizza lined
the sidewalk to aid the protesters
as the call for justice
and an end to police violence
against Black people
continued.
Photo by Dominick Totino Photography
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