Bridgewater, New Jersey - William Stroock: Yesterday we attended a protest at the Bridgewater Municipal Complex. The crowd was protesting the incident at the Bridgewater Mall earlier in the week in which police broke up a fight and handcuffed 14-year-old Z'kye Husain, but not the white kid with whom he was fighting.
The protest was sponsored by the People's Organization for Progress, a Newark based activist organization. We'd describe them as a black liberation group.
Above is the 91-year-old Reverend Daughtry, we were told, a longtime civil rights activist from NYC.
We'd say a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty people attended. The crowd was overwhelmingly African American. The majority were not from Bridgewater. We know this because organizers talked about bringing people over from Newark and few of the speakers were locals. Neither Z'Kye Hussain nor his mother attended the protest, though an aunt was present. Police not only kept their distance, they stayed inside their HQ.
There were several speakers, mostly professional activist types, though a few 'civilians' and a lawyer spoke too, as did Z'Kye's aunt. The speakers and speeches struck as generally amiable and positive. The atmosphere was friendly, joyous even. There was plenty of call and response from speakers and crowd. We heard plenty of 'that's right' and 'amen' etc.
We didn't hear a whole lot with which to disagree, at least in the macro. Who's against African Americans doing better? One speaker pointed out that Democrats control New Jersey but seemingly do nothing for African Americans. We were sorely tempted take the mic and ask, 'Why not vote Republican? What do you have to lose?' But we weren't there to be part of the story.
Readers may want to click on the Patch story to see what Bridgewater locals think of the story, incident and protest. Spoiler, not much.
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