'Take A Knee!' Protesters In Jersey City Scream At Police. Few Do

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Hundreds gathered Tuesday in front of Jersey City City Hall on Tuesday, calling for an end to police brutality and marching in the name of George Floyd. Members of the Jersey City Police Department and Public Safety Director James Shea stood in front of City Hall. Some police officers knelt, obliging protesters who called for them to do so.

The protesters, estimated to be 1,000 in number, screamed Floyd's name and then knelt for eight minutes, to symbolize the eight minutes now-fired police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his back, causing him to lose oxygen and die, according to prosecutors who charged Chauvin with homicide.

"Take a knee!" the protesters screamed at the police. A few police officers complied, but most remained silently standing, adding to protesters' growing fury.

Nonetheless, several people in the crowd said they viewed it as a successful protest.

"It was very successful, one of the best protests I've been to," said Siyah Denmark, 19, who was born and raised in the historically black section of Jersey City, Greenville, and is a student at Hudson County Community College. "To even get one officer to take a knee is why we are here. To me, to get one officer to take a knee is worth everything we are doing. It makes me happy to know this wasn’t a waste of time."

Denmark said she went to the Newark protest this past weekend and will be in Hoboken later this week.

"We are here to end racism," she said. "This is history in the making. I'm going to tell my kids and my grand kids I was here. I'm proud of how Jersey City and Newark represented. We stated our voice and what mattered: Black lives matter."

The protesters listened to local black leaders speak and then marched to the pedestrian mall on Newark Avenue. An even larger crowd was expected to assemble at Berry Lane Park.

Tuesday's Jersey City protests are organized by the Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition.

As Patch reported, on Monday, an estimated 600 people marched up MLK Drive in the Greenville section of Jersey City, and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop was in the crowd. There were reports of some police officers marching with them, according to NorthJersey.com.

The protesters rallied outside the South Precinct police headquarters, while heavily armed police officers guarded the door. But unlike in so many other U.S. cities, the protest remained civil and without violence.

Jersey City Protesters Rally At South Precinct, Mayor In Crowd

The scene in Jersey City on Monday: