Opinions & observations: Protesting the demonstrators: Conflict in the streets over support of police
This past Sunday evening (7/12), a pro-police march and rally took place along Fourth Avenue from 75th Street to 65th Street. At the same time, a counter-protest demonstration by the group known as Black Lives Matter had approximately 300 participants. During the first outing, the paths of the two groups didn’t cross one another. Then the BLM protesters unexpectedly crashed the pro-police rally under the shadow of the Bay Ridge Towers, at 65th Street and 4th Avenue. While the police struggled to keep the protesters from infiltrating and interfering with the rally, they were clearly outnumbered.
The national BLM movement reportedly advocates for non-violent civil disobedience but that is no excuse for the malicious behavior of about two dozen members of the regional BLM group that helped turn a peaceful protest march into a mob scene. As NYPD officers stood shoulder to shoulder, the misguided literally got into their faces, less than six inches apart jeered and taunted them. One of the female protesters had a small toy pink pig she kept squeezing for the squealing sound it made. Led by one of the female organizers shouting through a bullhorn, she had her followers calling out repeatedly to the cops, “F (bombing) bastards.” To add insult to injury and to show how radical this regional BLM group was, they burned an American Flag!
I am a born and lifelong resident of Bay Ridge and have never seen this community torn apart and divided as today. Years ago elected officials like former city Councilmembers like Angelo Arculeo (R) Sal Albanese (D) and Vinny Gentile (D) and State Senators Bill Conklin (R), Chris Mega (R), Joe Montalto (D) Bob DiCarlo (R) and Marty Golden (R) improved the quality of life here and were strong defenders of the NYPD and even occasionally gave them discretionary funds for bulletproof vests and scooters. They never voted for defunding the NYPD like our current councilmember, nor did they condone or encourage the type of protests like we are seeing today.
