Protest and Reconciliation: BLM Marches in NE Philly and Montco

“There has been too much bloodshed and too much pain in the streets of America, and we are tired of it,” said Melissa Robbins to the crowd gathered at the intersections of Oxford, Rising Sun and Cottman Avenues on June 9th. At the intersection known locally as Five Points, more than a hundred protestors came to show their support for the Black Lives Matter Movement.

30 minutes earlier, gathered at Fox Chase Elementary, organizers of the protest handed out bottles of water and individually wrapped snacks to participants. The crowd was representative of the Northeast as a whole, multi-racial and multi-ethnic, but certainly majority white.

Dozens of Philadelphia Police stood guard on the periphery of the school, communicating briefly with the organizers in the moments before the protest was scheduled to begin.

As the march began, protestors were met by a handful of counter-demonstrators who shouted at the crowd but were quickly drowned out by chants of “black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace.” Continuing down Rhawn Street, residents came out of their homes to record the protest, or to show their support for the demonstrators.

When the caravan turned on to Veree Road, more residents came outside, most to show their support but a few were vocally disapproving. Some families joined in the chants as the protestors passed by. One homeowner drew particular ire from the march as she sat on her front step beside a sign meant to mock the movement.

In the days that preceded the march, the Official Fox Chase Community Watch Page was host to several posts concerning the safety of residents and businesses in the neighborhood during the demonstration. One member asked “for neighbors to stand up n protect our business a!long the march 2morrow”[sic] while another claimed that the protest was “doomed from the start when it portrayed the neighborhood in a negative way.”

Protests and demonstrations for Black Lives Matter have been taking place throughout Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northeast Philadelphia in the weeks following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer.

On June 3rd, a crowd of hundreds marched from Jenkintown High School to the Abington Township Police Department. At the municipal offices of the township’s police, protestors listened to speeches from community leaders, including one from Abington Chief of Police Patrick Molloy, who encouraged the crowd he addressed, saying that the demonstration was what “makes our community great.”

Six days later, as the Fox Chase protest convened at Five Points, Melissa Robbins was shouted at by a man who had made his way to the front of the crowd mere minutes into her speech. After hearing what the man had to say for a few seconds, Melissa asked for the police to remove the counter-demonstrator, but they remained on the outskirts of the crowd.

As the man continued to disrupt the demonstration, a woman in the crowd commented “This is why the police need to be defunded, all y’all get to stand around and watch the rally… and none of them are doing anything” eliciting a few cheers and claps.

In 90 degree weather, protestors waited for Melissa to finish her speech before handing the microphone over to the president of the Fox Chase Homeowner’s Association, George Bezanis. George, a white man, called on those present from the community to be anti-racist, saying that it was “not enough to be not racist” in an era where people of color are murdered by police across the country.

In total, the demonstration lasted an hour and a half that evening. No damage to the community was reported following the protest.