A peaceful Black Lives Matter protest took place in Riverdale on Saturday, Jun. 6, 2020 as part of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the country following the death of George Floyd on March 25, 2020.

Approximately 200 protesters, made up of different races, and including members of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition started the day in Ewen Park and later proceeded through the Riverdale neighborhood to Van Cortlandt Park, gathering by the tortoise and hare statue where they sat, stood, and knelt down at various moments during the event.

Opec Vistle captured the protestors marching through Riverdale, posting the video to Twitter that day.

#BREAKING

Protest goes residential this morning, Riverdale in the Bronx pic.twitter.com/OersvyLxZg

— Opec Vistle (@opecvistleblow) June 6, 2020

Justin Pando spoke about the reasons why the group were joined together, later asking those present to kneel for eight and a half minutes of silence to reflect upon and recall George Floyd’s brutal assault and subsequent death.

Floyd was an unarmed African American man who was killed at the hands of Derek Chauvin, a now ex-police officer, in Minneapolis on May 25. The killing took place during the course of his arrest when Chauvin, a White police officer, knelt on Floyd’s back and neck for almost nine minutes while he was pinned face-down on the ground struggling to breathe.

Floyd is seen in a viral video of the incident, repeating the words, “I can’t breathe” to those around him, but was ignored. The Guardian has since reported that a judge set bail of $1.25m for Chauvin who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing.

At Saturday’s event, people carried various signs with the words, “In the Age of Information, Ignorance is not a Choice”, “Not a Riot, a Revolution”, “Being Black is Not a Crime; Black Lives Matter”, “Defund the Police”, “End Systemic Racism: BLM”, “Unity: BLM”, “If Not Now, When?”, “No Hate: Silence = Violence” and “Together We Rise, Love Lives Here, Black Lives Matter”.

Referring to the police, one speaker was heard saying, “Defund! We need to treat them like the criminals they are, and stop rewarding them, because until we do, we will forever have five-year-olds that have no trust, no faith, and nothing but fear in the system that we are supposed to have control over”.

He added, “We should not be scared of our government. We should not be scared of our system. Our system should be scared of us, and every single one of you has made this a little bit closer to being a possibility so give yourselves a round of applause”.

The speaker continued, “For those of you who know my name, you know my name, and for those of you who don’t know my name, I am George Floyd, I am Mike Brown, I am Breonna Taylor,” referring to Floyd and other African Americans who have been killed at the hands of police across the country. His remarks were met with applause and chants of, “Say their names! Say their names!”.

Other participants at Saturday’s event held signs advertising free snacks and drinks while others advertised, “Justice Cupcakes courtesy of Lloyd’s Carrot Cake”.

In reference to various reports, including reports by Norwood News, of police corralling and beating protestors at a prior Mott Haven protest in the Bronx on the evening of Thursday Jun. 4, New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said during a press conference on Jun. 5 that the actions taken by police were in response to some agitators who he said deliberately organized to injure police and cause chaos.

He said posters had been displayed in Mott Haven ahead of the Jun. 4 event indicating that demonstrators were going “to burn things down” and “cause mayhem”. Meanwhile, protestors said that the corralling by police was unprovoked and that the protest was peaceful.

Shea said that officers recovered firearms, gasoline and numerous other unspecified weapons at the Mott Haven protests on Jun. 4. Norwood News reported previously that criminal charges were brought against five individuals close to the vicinity of the end of the march route on the evening in question, though NYPD representatives did not comment as to whether the items recovered were from protestors or not.

Meanwhile, New York Police Benevolent Association (PBA) President Mike O’Meara spoke out on Jun. 9 against elected officials and the press for “vilifying” the NYPD. He condemned the killing of George Floyd, calling it “disgusting”, and separately said that police officers have 375 million interactions with the public each year with “overwhelmingly positive responses”.

“Nobody talks about the number of police officers that were killed in the last week across the United States of America, and there were a number of them,” he said, later adding, “Stop treating us like animals and thugs”.

NYPD has generally been critical of other police reform legislation which they say undoes much of their work. Pat Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association spoke out in February of this year after a number of police officers were killed in a 12-hour spate of gun violence targeting Bronx NYPD officers.

Lynch and others oppose the recent bail reform bill which they say, in some cases, allows dangerous criminals to walk free with no guarantee they will show up in court. They also say there is a parole problem.

Lynch was present at the press briefing on Jun. 9 also and addressed the public requests by protestors to defund the NYPD, among other topics. He said that in some cases, the NYPD received funding to cover work that other agencies had failed to complete in the past, such as overseeing street vending. He made it clear that the NYPD had no desire to cover such work.

Almost every 911 call we answer is a failure of another agency in NYC. They can cut funding from the NYPD, but @NYCMayor has mismanaged city finances and agencies his whole tenure. When they fail again, there will be a bigger mess for us to clean up pic.twitter.com/fUl1JQFgLP

— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) June 10, 2020

Amid ongoing, growing calls for police reform legislation, some laws are already in progress at City level as reported previously by Norwood News. Additionally, the 50-A reform bill has been passed in Albany. The bill refers to the reform of a section of the New York Civil Rights Law that designates the personnel records, including disciplinary records, of police officers, firefighters and corrections officers as confidential and not subject to inspection or review without the officer’s permission. 

Back at the Riverdale event, a White speaker also addressed the crowd saying, “Basically, we cannot just sit in the same life, and fail to stand up for those most affected by systemic racism. My responsibility, as well as all of you non-Black allies, is to stand here with our Black brothers and sisters whose lives have been taken away by the police”.

She added, “We can no longer stand for a racist and corrupt system that is anti-Black. Our legal system has failed us by not providing to Black communities […inaudible..] and it needs to change! It needs to change!”. She finished by asking those present to join her to honor those whose lives were taken at the hands of police.

As each member of the crowd took a knee, different speakers proceeded to read out the names and ages of the deceased, which included teens and both female and male victims. After each name, the crowd chanted, “Rest in Power”.

While most people were seen wearing masks at the event, it did not look like social distancing was in effect. Park police were on hand to distribute face masks.

Some protestors wore T–shirts which displayed the words, “No Justice, No Peace: Black Lives Matter”. Others carried signs displaying the names of victims who have been killed by police. Chants included, “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe!”

One sign included a picture of the actor, Jack Nicholson along with the quote from the movie, A Few Good Men, “You Can’t Handle the Truth”. The sign also included the words, “The truth is if you’re not supporting us, you are against us. The truth is your silence is killing us”.

Though there were about ten police officers present at the event, and about three patrol cars, only about two were circulating among the crowd and the others stayed by the sidewalk. The event passed without incident and the atmosphere was described as relaxed. Police were not dressed in riot gear but in regular police uniform.

Commending the various messages on the protest signs, another speaker warned the crowd via a loud speaker, “Do not leave here satisfied!”. He added, “This is not the end! Do not leave here satisfied! Do not! Do not!”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.