They tried to keep it cool, but considering how much of a fight some of them wanted with black people and the white people who endorsed their concerns, that was going to be a tall order.
One People’s Project
PHILADELPHIA, PA – For the most part what was billed as the “1st Annual Mayfair Rally To Support Our Police” was about what organizers wanted it to be, one “to show support for our police and NOT making any statements about any incidents or cases pending,” as their Facebook page stated. But being that the rally was organized as a response to the weeks of protests around the world condemning police violence after the recent killings of black persons by police officers, and with the racial tensions that were coming from those incidents, hostile feelings from the mostly white crowd still came to the surface.
According to Philly.com, over 400 persons, a far cry from the 2000 that were expected, came out to the square on Frankford and Cottman Aves. in the Mayfair neighborhood to participate in the rally organized by resident Donald Garvey via a Facebook event page just a few days ago. With the exception of some radio promotion by radio show host and supporter Dom Giordano, very little advertising was done for it beforehand. Most of the signs displayed simply thanked the police or paid tribute to family members who were police officers. Still others waved signs saying “#BlueLivesMatter, a counter to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag that became popular after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY.
The protestors stood along Frankford Ave. encouraging those driving by to honk their horns in support and many did, but one car with a group of young Black men and women stopped at the intersection prompted a loud exchange between those in the car and the protestors, with one woman with a Blue Lives Matter sign screaming at them “Yeah, bro. Blue Lives Matter!”
Most of those who addressed the crowd stayed with the theme of the event, showing support for police officers that do their job with no controversy. Still, Dom Giordano, who on the Monday following the verdict clearing George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin last year, brought Bell Curve author Charles Murray onto his show to talk about American exceptionalism in regards to that case, opened the event with remarks attacking anti-police violence protestors as “a bunch of spoiled brats”. Later, city worker Brian Tait complained about the media coverage given to the shooting of Brandon Tate-Brown, a 26-year-old black man, by a Philadelphia police officer during a traffic stop Monday not too far from where the rally was being held on Frankford Avenue. He also attacked those who protested that shooting and other police violence, saying, “We don’t block streets, and we don’t loot.” Ironically part of adjacent Ryan St. was blocked off for the rally, and there has been no looting reported in Philadelphia. Organizers of the rally express concern about Tait’s remarks as they felt they were not what the rally was about.
In addition to the rally in Philadelphia, there was another rally held the same evening in New York City at City Hall that saw those supporting the police clashing with counter-demonstrators, according to CBS News.
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