14 DECEMBER 24, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
What the protests against police
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Even during a global pandemic
already disproportionately affecting
Black, Brown and lowincome
communities, police brutality
remained one of the reasons those
same communities feared for their
lives. As a result, people took to the
streets to call for police accountability
and systemic change.
The brutal police killing of George
Floyd, a 46-year-old Minneapolis
man accused of using a fake $20 bill
who was, as a result of a 911 call, asphyxiated
by a policeman kneeling
on his neck for nearly nine minutes —
which millions watched aft er a video
recording by a passerby was shared
on social media — is widely considered
the impetus for the Black Lives
Matter (BLM) protests that erupted
nationally and globally.
But Floyd’s was far from the only
story of Black people having deadly
police encounters in the early months
of 2020. Breonna Taylor, a 26-yearold
essential worker in Kentucky,
was asleep in her home before police
executed a no-knock warrant and
killed her in March, and Ahmaud
Arbery, a 25-year-old man, was jogging
before two white men shot him
in a suburban Georgia neighborhood
in February.
As a result of inaction from the
police and judicial system, protests
calling for an end to police brutality
began to take place in New York City
at the end of May — and with it, an
aggressive police response including
mass arrests, and a short-lived curfew
instated by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
One of the fi rst protests in Queens
took place in Jackson Heights, where
thousands of people united to march
for police accountability. The demonstration
culminated in front of
the 115th Precinct, where community
members and some elected offi cials
also called for accountability from
all government structures.
In another early protest, a captain
took a knee with demonstrators in
Jamaica. The moment was captured
by Esther Lauren, a Queens nurse on
the front lines of COVID, who off ered
to help fellow protesters, should they
need it.
“I think people should be fi nding
their role and knowing how to play
it very well. I knew that I am a nurse,
and my role is to be a nurse at all
times,” Lauren told QNS.
For the rest of the summer,
barely a day went by without a
demonstration.
Demonstrations and vigils, most of
them non-violent, occurred in many
Photos by Dean Moses
neighborhoods across Queens, from
the Rockaways to Astoria. Many of
these demonstrations were organized
by mutual aid groups and individual
community members who came together
as a result of the unrest, such
as the Queens Liberation Project.
In June, hundreds joined a paddle
out in Rockaway Beach, organized
by the Black Surfi ng Association in
memory of Floyd an
In another instance at Rockaway
Beach, the Urban Youth Collaborative,
a grassroots coalition of students
fi ghting for transformative education
reform, arranged a banner that
read “Police Free Schools!” to fl y over
the beach.
In Ridgewood, two mothers organized
the “Kids Peace Movement,”
a day of socially distant talks and
a march that gave kids space to express
their own thoughts about the
civil unrest.
“Statistics state that one in 1,000
young Black males have died at the
hands of the police,” said Emmanuel
Gray, a 9-year-old who gave a speech
at the event. “This is scary to me
because I’ve always looked up to the
police as protectors and role models
in our community. But as I’m getting
older and older, it’s becoming more
confusing to me when I hear the stories
of Black males being harassed
and killed … just because our skin
color appears to be a threat.”
Hundreds marched toward the
Christopher Columbus statue on
Astoria Boulevard to demand its
removal, denouncing it for being
a “symbol of genocide,” with local
elected supporting the idea.
Later in the summer, artists gathered
for a more light-hearted yet emotional
event outside of the Queens
Museum to honor the lives of Taylor
and Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old
U.S. Army specialist based in Texas
who, aft er public and national outcry,
was found dead due to an attack from
a male soldier.
“We will breathe. We will dance.
We will continue to make art,” said
Manuela Agudelo, founder of Kaleidospace
and organizer of the event.
“Black and Brown people aren’t gonna
stop existing and we’re not gonna
stop being joyful in the face of injustice
and in the face of the people who
keep trying to harm us.”
Even high school students participated
in the racial reckoning.
At Archbishop Molloy High School,
current and former students called
on the school administrators to address
the BLM movement and make
improvements to their own reported
instances of racism. The school
responded with the creation of a
Council for Diversity and Inclusion.
The protests in Queens weren’t
nearly as violent as those that took
place in Manhattan and Brooklyn,
with barely any reported instances
of looting — an attempted looting
at the Queens Mall was stopped by
police and a false alarm in Corona
caused local offi cials to regret their
approach.
As weeks of protest went on, a
wave of pro-police, or “Back the Blue”
rallies, emerged in several neighborhoods,
including in Middle Village,
Woodside and Bayside.
“The police are necessary and part
of being in a city that’s safe,” said a
couple marching at a “Blue Lives Matter”
rally in Woodside. “We feel the
rhetoric and the message has been
lost.”
While non-violent demonstrations
2020 YEAR IN REVIEW
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