In a strange confluence of sights and sounds, demonstrators chanted for the rights of black men as White Christmas wafted from the Green on Saturday.
“I can’t breathe!” protesters shouted in unison as they marched around Morristown’s historic square, while an electric choo-choo full of giddy children circled the Santa House at its center.
The phrase echoed the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after being placed in an illegal choke-hold by Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island last summer. Grand juries declined to indict that officer, or the officer who fatally shot another black man, Michael Brown, in a confrontation in Ferguson, Mo.
Video: Black Lives Matter in Morristown, Dec. 13, 2014:
Morristown clergy members called for unity and justice, on a raw, grey day that saw thousands join similar rallies in New York and Washington DC.
“I am terrified that I live in a country where they would rather put a man behind bars for killing a dog than they would for killing my son,” said Danielle Williams, a Drew University seminarian who is African American, from the lawn of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown.
The Morristown event was organized by the Black Lives Matter Action Committee of Morris County, led by members of Morristown’s Calvary Baptist Church.
“There are so many tales that we know of, and so many countless other tales that we don’t know of” involving police violence against blacks, said Mike Harris, one of the organizers.
Participants sang a song, No Weapon (Shall Prosper), and read aloud the last words of black men killed in confrontations with police around the country.
A few names were from Morris County, dating back two- and three decades, said the Rev. Wesley Marrow, president of the county NAACP chapter.
“We don’t take the position that all cops are bad. But we are mad as hell that the ones that molested authority then get exonerated for blatant abuse that would have sent others of us to prison,” Marrow told the crowd, which included a mix of blacks, whites and Latinos.
Morristown police maintained a visible presence, stopping traffic so demonstrators could cross safely between the Green and the church.
More scenes from Saturday’s rally.
Clergy from many area houses of worship attended, as did Mayor Tim Dougherty, Council President Rebecca Feldman and Councilman Stefan Armington.
Representing the Morris Area Clergy Council, the Rev. Janet Broderick, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, related discrimination that she witnessed towards a black boy she dated as a teenager in New York.
She denounced the “insidiousness” of a culture of fear that drives people to terrible acts including murder, and said the only answer is frank and open dialogue.
“We’ve got to learn each other’s phone numbers, and we’ve got to able to text each other,” Broderick said.
Earlier in the week, students at Drew University in Madison staged a “die-in,” symbolizing the shooting of Michael Brown.
Organizers had hoped to stage Saturday’s rally on the Morristown Green. But it’s a privately owned space that was booked for the annual Christmas festival.
So plans shifted to Pioneer Park at Headquarters Plaza. But insurance issues prompted a last-minute switch to the lawn of the Presbyterian Church, with a march around the sidewalk perimeter of the Green.
The Rev. David Smazik, pastor of the church, said he polled his board and a majority of members were happy to host the rally.
Quoting Martin Luther King Jr., Smazik told participants: “The ultimate measure of a person is where you stand at times of challenge and at times of controversy.”
I’ll see everyone when the march for the two police officers comes to Morristown. Don’t worry I won’t hold my breath. Good job media and ignorant society. You should all feel the burden of these unjust killings. Rally for dead criminals…..now rise up for the people who defend you!
Can we at least put the proper phrasing out there so we don’t show the reporting as so one sided. It was not an “illegal” choke hold. It is against department policy, not illegal. Illegal was what the men who died had done previous to them passing away. What was illegal is resisting arrest and strong arm theft of a business minutes before attacking an officer in a patrol car. Let’s give all the facts not just the ones that get you more reads. What do you think of that maybe some actual reporting of facts! Eric Garner did NOT die from being strangled to death. Choke hold or not, Eric Garner would of passed away from overexerting himself while RESISTING ARREST. Reporting like this is going to get innocent people and good cops killed.
It was nice to see that white people were actually in the majority at the demonstration. Solidarity is a healthy thing for the community.
I only wish more people had come so we could build a community of people who want things to change.