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 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 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
Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter protesters clashed in Woodside’s Sabba Park on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020.
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.
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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.”
At one point, Black Lives Matter
demonstrators began to play speeches
by famous Black racial justice fighters,
including Malcom X.
Photos by Dean Moses
As a Blue Lives Matter demonstrator
spoke about the dangers of defunding
the police, a recording of Gil
Scott-Heron could be heard asking,
“Who will survive in America?” The
competing speeches drowned each
other out.
About 40 minutes after arriving,
pro-police supporters began to leave.
The NYPD officers who had escorted
them to Sabba Park remained, as did
the Black Lives Matter protesters.
Once the park was theirs, Black
Lives Matter protesters began to chant,
give speeches and hold a four-minute
meditation. With about 30 police officers
lined on the outside of the park,
organizers asked them their reason for
being there.
“If you’re going to keep us in this
park, at least learn what we are fighting
for,” one of the organizers said
through a bullhorn.
Around 1:15 p.m., Black Lives Matter
protesters departed Sabba Park
to head back to John Vincent Daniels
Jr. Square where the demonstration
would end.
Sabba Park was nearly empty by
1:30 p.m., save for three Black Lives
Matter organizers and an NYPD community
affairs officer from the 108th
Precinct. They had all stayed behind to
share what brought them to the park on
Saturday, what they were fighting for.
As people from the neighborhood returned
to the park to eat their lunches
and spend time outside, the four men
continued their conversation.
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