'A Pandemic Of Racism': Hundreds Protest On Long Island Streets

RIVERHEAD, NY — Hundreds of peaceful protesters took to the streets of Riverhead Sunday, holding signs high that read "I Can't Breathe!", "Not One More," and "White Silence is Violence." They chanted "No justice, no peace — no racist police" as they cried out against the killing of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis in police custody.

The first protest took place at Stotzky Park; the event was organized by Eric Williams to raise funds for the Floyd family. Next, the "Say Their Names: #BlackLivesMatter" event, which drew hundreds who filled the streets of Riverhead as they marched to gather outside the police station, was organized by Anubia Exum, 18, of Flanders, who brought her sister, 15, and led the group in a passionate outcry.

At Williams' event, he began by addressing the crowd. "Enough is enough," he said. "I have had enough personally, we have had enough as whole. I have a 10-year old son and an 8-year old daughter, and it's so sad that they are not here today because I did not know if it would be violent or not."

Williams carried a sign that read: "Who do you call when the murderer wears a badge?"

Williams said he believes education for police should begin at basic training. "They need to understand the consequences of their behavior. If you kill someone, it's 25 years to life you could face — and they need to all be held to that standard. And if you commit a crime with me and I do it and you're there, you're just as guilty for not doing anything to stop it. So they have to expect their jail time, as well."

Racism, Williams said, is a "poison" that sweeps across all demographics and skin colors, and accountability, he said, is critical.

At the Black Lives Matter protest, hundreds marched from the park by the Peconic riverfront, to the Riverside traffic circle, and then headed en masse down Main Street to the Riverhead police station, where they gathered peacefully at the gazebo and spoke about the need for change without violence.

Police confirmed after the event that there were no incidents to report and the event was peaceful.

"I don't tell you to forget 9/11 or the Holocaust," Exum said. "Don't tell us to forget slavery."

She added, "If you're silent, shame on you. I shouldn't have to be doing this today with my 15-year old sister, fighting for my life. We are black — and we are dying."

Larry Street, new president of the eastern Long Island branch of the NAACP, also spoke at Stotzky Park. He's 66 and said "excessive force and police brutality" are not new. He has seen years of police abuse, he said. "Cops are told to keep check on black people and when they are getting out of hand, kill them." He added that slavery has been used to black people under control as a way to "manage the n------."

The protests, he said, were about finding a peaceful solution to the problem. "We don't need the violence," he said. "The only way we can make a difference is, we need to vote."

'This is a pandemic of racism'

"Black lives matter . . . stop the killing," Marilyn Banks-Winter said at the first event, reciting the names of lives lost. "Enough is enough." Speaking of how Floyd cried out in his last moments for his mother, she said, "I think of those mothers. Stop killing our babies. Our husbands, our sons. This is a pandemic of racism. It has gone on for generations and in 2020 we say, 'Enough.'"

Present at the event were members of the Riverhead town board, including Catherine Kent, Jodi Giglio, Frank Beyrodt, and former Riverhead Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith, currently running for a seat on the New York State Assembly. Members of the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force were also at the protest.

"The past few weeks in America have been heart-wrenching," Kent said. "But this chapter in our nation's history is by no means new. The ugly truth is that racism has existed in America and the time has come to acknowledge that. We cannot begin healing unless we honestly face our problems. The virus and economic crisis have hit hard on a community that was already struggling on issues of inequality."

Discussing the "deeply painful video" of Floyd's death, she said, "You want to look away but even if you turn your head, the images and sounds continue to haunt and play, over and over."

Kent discussed the lives lost to acts of racism. "As a mother of two sons, I did not have to worry if my sons simply went out for a walk, pulled out their cell phone or walked into a store, while black mothers must prepare for the day when they have to talk with their sons about how the mere pigment of their skin will make others think that they are a threat."

She urged all to come to Town Hall, to vote, to take their "seats at the table" and work together with "compassion, not hate and division."

Arthor L. Faber, who has a ministry in Riverhead, described an incident when he was a DJ and, at 14, had just gotten a call about a job. He was headed to the deli for an egg sandwich to celebrate when he was stopped, he said, by a sheriff, who made him sit on the curb and dumped his can of Arizona iced tea. "I'm not Mr. Floyd, because I'm still here," Faber said. "But as a 14-year old, I was violated, humiliated." He was scared because he'd seen the Rodney King incident on television. "It's an issue of humanity," he said.

When he told his mother what had happened, she told him, "'Don't say anything,'" Farber said. Now, he added, "The time for us to remain silent is over."

Some people, Farber said, won't understand what it's like to be a black person and have a police car pull up behind you, lights on. "You don't need to experience that for you to be our advocate," he said. "And we need to advocate for ourselves. How will it ever stop until we, together, demand it to stop?"

Tia Fulford, founder of the Butterfly Effect Project, an organization that empowers young girls, spoke with deep emotion.

"I don't know how to fight this war by myself. I don't know how to preach the good word. I don't know how to tell my 5-foot, 10-and-a-half, 220 lb. son that even though you’re my teddy bear, somebody's going to see you and they may kill you because you smiled," she said. "Because I didn't raise my son to sit down, not to any man. My son is a young man, he is not going to be anybody's boy. What is justice?"

She added that she's fearful of her younger son heading to college, where she can't protect him because he is the "Butterfly lady's son."

Fulford added: "There is no black side, no white side. There is only one side. Your silence is deafening."

Rather than anger, people need to turn out at school board and town board meetings, she said. Individuals need to think less about making money and "not investing in your kids' future? What is justice? Where are my Sunday school teachers? My teachers? What is justice?"

The late Rev. Marvin Dozier's granddaughter Arianna Dozier also spoke. "The system was never built for us. It's not broken. It was just never built for black people in general," she said. "They're not for us."

Talking about Floyd, she said: "My brother is 13 years old. He's a black man in America and he has a chance of getting shot one day. For no reason. He doesn't have to do anything. He can go on the street and just get shot for, literally, nothing. And the fact that our world is like this, is not okay. And they're going to listen to us this time. They have to listen to us. Because our youth are scared. We're scared. There's no way I should be scared to walk outside and see a cop and expect him to do something to me, say something to me."

Donald Owen, who is white, said his kids are black. "I have a 33-year old son. When he leaves New York, he rides with his wallet, insurance card, registration on the passenger seat." Looking around the crowd, he said: "There's a lot of white people here. When your son or daughter gets pulled over by the cops, what's the first thing they ask for? License, registration, insurance card. They can reach into the glove compartment or the center console. Not my son. He leaves it on the passenger seat so he doesn't get his head blown off for reaching. His hands stay on the wheel. I worry about my 33-year old son, every day he leaves, praying that he comes back. Because it's not guaranteed."

The words echoed as mothers stood up to share their pain: "I"m here for my sons, 24 and 14," another woman said, describing how it felt to have to tell them, at 10 or 12 years old, about "how to act" if stopped by a police officer, the fear of having her son leave on his bike with friends to go to the store, with a backpack. "That's my son," she said. "Don't shoot!"

Malyk Leonard, who said he graduated Riverhead High School in 2011, urged those who see inequality in education to run for the school board, those who want to make a difference, to run for office; those who want to build a business, he said, should invest in the community — and in real estate. And above all, he said, "Vote. "

He added: "When we all stand together, the community cannot divide us."

Masks were worn and distributed at both events.