Elmwood Park Black Lives Matter Protest Will Start In Fair Lawn

FAIR LAWN, NJ — An Elmwood Park Black Lives Matter protest is scheduled to start just over the Fair Lawn line on Thursday.

Organized by 4change Bergen County, a county-wide anti-racist activist group, the protest will begin at 6 p.m. at the Broadway Train Station in Fair Lawn, according to an event flyer.

In early August, Fair Lawn played home to contentious dueling protests between pro-police and Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Some pro-police demonstrators wore or displayed symbols of groups tied to the militia movement and white nationalism.

The organizers ask that, if attending, fellow protesters wear a mask and implement social distancing.

4change Bergen County is one of a number of groups throughout northern New Jersey that began organizing amid a summer of protest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

In addition to protests, the group has also organized an art show and open mic in Teaneck, as well as a clean-up and can drive in Ridgefield Park following tropical storm Isaias.

Though the protest was announced before a police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday, this protest now joins a number of others around the country.

Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, went into surgery Tuesday, but attorney Ben Crump said he is paralyzed after bullets from the officer's gun severed his spinal cord and shattered his vertebrae, according to the Associated Press.

"It’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again," said Crump, who also represents the family of George Floyd.

Related: 'It Hurts': Neighbors Recount Jacob Blake Kenosha Police Shooting