MIDDLETOWN – At the Black Lives Matter rally Sunday, some expressed their anger. Some gathered across the street and voiced their opposition. But the overall tone of the event was that things can get better.
“I don’t know about you-all,” said the Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst, following the event at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, “but I’m feeling a whole lot more hopeful than I did a few hours ago.”
The church’s congregation, located at 1475 West Front St. in the township’s Lincroft section, had extended an invitation to the recently formed Asbury Park chapter of Black Lives Matter, as part of its effort to foster communication on race relations and hold discussions on controversial topics.
Amid a visible police presence, Sunday afternoon’s program, with more than 300 mostly white attendees, had a list of diverse speakers, including members of a civil rights group, law enforcement, social justice groups and the clergy. They all spoke about society’s role in addressing the ongoing events with white police officers shooting African-American men and the anger brewing in minority communities. They also discussed the role of Black Lives Matter and the controversy that has developed since the organization’s inception in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Florida in 2012.
“This is not the same United States for all,” said Jarocha-Ernst. There is a still apparent racial divide, with communities left in grief “and understandably angry,” she said.
Jennifer Lewinski, the founding member of Black Lives Matter’s Asbury Park chapter, insisted the debate going on in the country is about civil rights. “Human rights is the issue,” she maintained.
Lewinski described herself as bi-racial growing up in a comfortable white home in suburban Monmouth County. “I lived under this umbrella that I came to understand as white privilege.”
Now she is raising a son. She explained, “If you are the mother of a black son you live with terrorism every day…If he is outside he is in danger for no other reason than he is a black man.”
“Black Lives Matter is demanding equal representation, equal protection,” said Kerwin Webb, a minister with Pilgrim Baptist Church, Red Bank. “Some of us thought that we made it, that the fight is over.” It clearly isn’t, Webb said.
“The difference is now people are recording it,” he said. Posting videos of those confrontations on social media is making much of the country aware of what wasn’t so apparent to white America previously, he continued.
“Now that we see the problem, will we be part of the solution?” he asked.
For some the problem is Black Lives Matter. The organization has faced criticism from some who allege it advocates violence, especially against law enforcement—though Black Lives Matter organizers dispute that, saying it’s about solidarity for the victims of violence.
Across West Front Street, a group of six, some wearing “Blue Lives Matter” T-shirts, one waving a navy blue and white version of the American flag, and holding signs, voiced their objections to the organization during the rally.
Andrew Allen, who lives in the township’s Port Monmouth section, said he finds the organization “hateful” and hurting race relations.
“It’s a very militant agenda,” he said, adding “They take the worst part of organizations like the Black Panthers.”
“We’re out here just expressing our message that all lives matter,” said Ron Chesek.
Chesek, who had worked for 28 years as a Middletown police officer, said, “I’m getting fed up by all the violence this group is putting forth…I had enough of that.”
“Martin Luther King would be turning over in his grave,” given the group’s alleged actions, said Richard Yarczower, a retired New York State correction officer. He said the organization has “created more damage” in race relations.
Chesek pointed out that the current Middletown police chief, R. Craig Weber, was scheduled to speak to the congregation. “I’m sure he’ll say something politically correct,” Chesek said.
Weber, when he did address the congregation, acknowledged, “I’m the last one you expected to hear from today.” But he said this country, much like in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, is at a crossroad. While that event seemed to bring us together, “The division” we are experiencing “could pose a much deeper threat for our nation.”
“We need to find a cure,” he said, noting his outreach and work with various community groups since becoming chief approximately two years ago, including meeting with the local NAACP chapter and predominately African-American church groups, and working with youth organizations.
“Dialogue and mutual respect are the ways to improve the situation,” he said. And for police, “We have an obligation to uphold the highest standards of professionalism,” to work toward dismantling “the barriers of mistrust and suspicion.”
“I came to be inspired,” said Middletown resident and a member of the Unitarian congregation Barbara Vallin, “and I was.”
Richard Fuller, Hazlet, said he was particularly impressed by the police chief. “I really admire his community outreach,” Fuller said of Weber.
“I think we’ve all learned something that could make this world a better place,” Jarocha-Ernst offered.
