George Floyd Protest Scheduled For Friday In Teaneck

TEANECK, NJ — Teaneck Deputy Mayor Elie Y. Katz confirms that a march has been scheduled for Friday, as residents will demonstrate "in response to the George Floyd tragedy," he said.

In his "Tid-Bits" newsletter, Katz stated that the march, scheduled for 12 p.m. on June 5, was organized by Teaneck High School graduates and residents. It will begin at Teaneck Road and Intervale, proceeding down Teaneck Road and onto Cedar Lane.

The march, he said, will conclude in Hackensack.

According to Katz, both Police Chief Glenn O'Reilly and Township Manager Dean Kazinci have been in contact with the organizers of the march, and have even reviewed the plans. "It is something they feel comfortable with," Katz wrote.

Kazinci, along with members of the police and fire departments, will join in the march.

Katz, who writes that community members have expressed concern over the safety of the event, said he expects the march to be peaceful, and provide a chance for the community to exercise their right to free speech.

To those who have preemptively tried to compare this march to the Teaneck riots of 1990, Katz called it a "faulty comparison".

"Since 1990 there have been dozens of protests and marches in Teaneck. All without incident and there is no need to fear that this March will be any different," he wrote.

The 1990 riots happened followed the death of 16-year-old Phillip Pannell, who was black, after he was shot by white officer Gary Spath.

Katz was on the Teaneck Ambulance Corps that night, he said.

A wide swath of Teaneck officials were quick to condemn the actions taken by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on the neck of George Floyd, 46, for nearly nine minutes.

Today, two Teaneck councilmen joined Katz, Kazinci, O'Reilly and more in speaking out against the act, which was recorded, and went viral on social media.

"America 2020 needs to take a look back into the nations’ history and decide whether or not it wants to live up to the promise of “Liberty and Justice for All”. There are too many incidents in our history that mitigate against this as a serious objective," said Councilman Henry Pruitt.

Pruitt, who called the recent deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor "tragic", also spoke in opposition to rioting and looting across the country.

"It appears that peaceful protests are a thing of the past. Negative forces have infiltrated the protests to destroy private and public property and to set fires and other activities changing protests into riots. Many people will be injured and some will be killed," he said.

Councilman Keith Kaplan said he struggled to find words equal to the "shocking horror" Americans saw in the video of George Floyd's death.

"The shocking indifference to human life, captured as George Floyd was murdered by an agent of the State, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. As an elected representative, I must also call out violence borne from racism, as offensive to the oath we take and the pledge we make to our residents," said Kaplan.

On Monday, an independent autopsy revealed Floyd's cause of death to be asphyxia due to sustained forceful pressure. Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson, who performed the autopsy, ruled his death a homicide.

The third-degree murder charge against Chauvin was elevated to a second-degree murder yesterday, and the other three officers present at the time of Floyd's death — Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao — have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, according to court records.