August 30, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PAGE 11
Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives
Matter protesters meet in Woodside
BY JACOB KAYE
Sabba Park in Woodside was
home to a tense but peaceful
standoff between Black Lives
Matter and Blue Lives Matter
protesters on Saturday, Aug. 22.
About 100 Black Lives Matter
demonstrators gathered in John
Vincent Daniels Jr. Square, below
the 52 Street – Lincoln Avenue
subway station along the
7 train line, around 10 a.m. The
demonstration was assembled
after organizers heard about
the pro-police march, which
was scheduled to gather at 39th
Street and Greenpoint Avenue
at 11 a.m.
Black Lives Matter protesters
and Blue Lives Matter protesters
have clashed several times
in Queens over the past several
months. On July 12, a pro-police
group and a Black Lives Matter
group met violently in Crocheron
Park. In addition to trading
verbal insults, an assault, in
which a pro-police protester hit
a Black Lives Matter supporter,
was captured on video. Saturday’s
meeting of the groups
in Woodside, though tense at
times, did not turn violent and
no arrests were made.
For the Black Lives Matter
organizers, Saturday’s demonstration
was about education.
“We want to educate propolice
supporters on what overpolicing
is, on what the policies
are,” said Jessica, a Black Lives
Matter organizer who requested
her last name be withheld for
safety reasons. “I think it’s a
great attempt. I really hope it
has some sort of bearing on the
crowd that’s coming.”
Grace Frutos, a Black Lives
Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter protesters clashed in Woodside’s Sabba Park on Saturday, Aug. 22,
2020. Photos by Dean Moses
Matter organizer from Sunnyside,
said her hope was to not
necessarily change the minds
of her ideological opponents but
to instead “plant the seed,” and
encourage them to do research
on their own.
“Our group is moving from
protesting every day in all the
five boroughs, to more community
workshop kind of events
with the understanding that
it’s really about educating the
community,” Frutos said. “Once
they realize what sort of oppressive
system they’re supporting,
we know they’ll come to our
side.”
About a mile away, around
100 Blue Lives Matter demonstrators
lined the sidewalk of
Greenpoint Avenue near the
intersection of Greenpoint and
39th Street.
While many demonstrators
had come out on the late summer
weekend to show support
for the 108th Precinct, others
were there to see how the clash
would play out.
“It’s in my neighborhood. It’s
Saturday,” said Jay Gold, who
marched with the Blue Lives
Matter group. Gold added that
he believed that defunding the
police, a major tenet of the Black
Lives Matter movement, is “absolutely
ridiculous.”
A couple marching with
the group who requested their
names be withheld for safety
reasons, agreed.
“The police are necessary
and part of being in a city that’s
safe,” they said. “We feel the
rhetoric and the message has
been lost.”
Flanked by countless police
officers and trailed by at
least eight police cars, the Blue
Lives Matter group, which was
primarily comprised of older,
white people, began to march
northeast around 11:05 a.m.
As the Blue Lives Matter
group marched, Sunnyside residents
shared mixed reactions to
the demonstration.
“People have freedom of
speech,” said Marconi Alexandria,
who watched the march
from the sidewalk. “I actually
thought there would be more
people.”
Others found the march offensive,
including two women
eating lunch outdoors as the
marchers walked by.
“It’s embarrassing,” said
June Choi. “There are a lot of
minorities in the neighborhood
and this march is so disrespectful.”
The Blue Lives Matter march
arrived at Sabba Park around
11:30 a.m., to find the Black
Lives Matter group, which was a
younger, more diverse coalition
of supporters, already there and
assembled.
Sitting on the ground, blocking
the most direct route to the
center of the park, demonstrators
held signs reading “Please
Google ‘over-policing’” and
“Black people are saying stop
killing us, y’all saying, ‘but.’”
For about a minute, the two
groups stood opposed to each
other in silence. Slowly, pro-police
demonstrations began walking
on the outskirts of the park,
an area that Black Lives Matter
protesters had not blocked.
The two groups silently
melded into one in the center of
Sabba Park a few minutes later.
Black Lives Matter protesters
stood next to Blue Lives Matter
protesters until leaders of
the pro-police group began to
speak.
“My wish today is that you
see some of these officers protecting
both sides, see them for
who they are,” one of the pro-police
organizers said. “I hope that
both sides realize that we’re all
human.”
All was calm until Councilman
Robert Holden, who voted
against the city’s June budget
because of cuts made to the
NYPD, took the mic.
A Black Lives Matter protester
blasted a police siren through
their bullhorn when Holden began
his remarks.
“The Black Lives Matter protesters
haven’t lived through
the bad times of New York City,”
Holden said. “We have and we
have to back the blue.”
Read more on QNS.com.
Vol. 98 No. 35 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
/QNS.com
/QNS.COM
