6 AUGUST 27, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter raise
Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter protesters clashed in Woodside’s Sabba Park on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. Photos by Dean Moses
BY JACOB KAYE
JKAYE@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
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 pro-police
supporters on what over-policing 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 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
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