10,000 strong: Hoboken residents, mayor, council, HPD solidarity for #BlackLivesMatter

clockwise photo credits: Amardeep Singh (Facebook), @tkobrin21 (Hoboken Girl), @zoester03  (Hoboken Girl)

PEACEFUL PROTEST

What a day. I doubt that Hoboken has ever experienced anything like it. Thousands of residents of all races, cultures and tax brackets joined yesterday's Black Lives Matters march. The crowd size was estimated at 10,000; marching, they chanted the names of victims of police brutality, sang Happy Birthday (yesterday was victim Breonna Taylor's 27th birthday), took to Washington Street, City Hall and the Hoboken Housing Authority. listening to speakers. It was beautiful.

Most of all, it was peaceful. 

Some business owners, already devastated economically, boarded their stores in an abundance of caution after dozens of peaceful protests in cities have been hijacked at sundown by violent extremists. This includes Hoboken's neighbor,Manhattan.  

Others chose not to clad their glass storefronts.  Basile's Pizza, on Newark and Washington street, opened its doors, giving out free pizza and soda to marchers. 

credit: Josue Quiros (Facebook)

Note, the protest split into two groups, one of which stayed on the original route as planned by organizers Allies4Justice as reported by NewJersey.com:

"The protest, organized by a group called Allies4Justice, started off at Maxwell Place Park where Hoboken Police were seen on rooftops and the City's Fire and Rescue team watched the crowd from a boat on the Hudson River. The crowd split into two groups as organizers stressed the importance of listening to the Black community and learning about Black history...

As the first group made its way down Frank Sinatra Drive, multiple speakers referenced the gentrification the mile-square city of 53,000 people has seen over the last couple of years. They urged its residents to give the "Black community the space to live"  in the city. Shortly after, the crowd may its way down the water to meet the second group of protesters at Pier A.

Chants of "no justice, no peace" and "say her name" echoed throughout the waterfront as residents cheered from their high-rise apartments. Once at Pier A, a second group headed down 1st Street and onto Washington Street, a route organizers had not planned for."

ALLIES4JUSTICE  ON WHY HOBOKEN WAS CHOSEN  

The Jersey Journal got an exclusive from an Allies4Justice organizer who explained the group's choice to march in Hoboken:

"Hoboken is one of New Jersey’s most gentrified cities, and organizer Herrana, who declined to provide her last name, said that was one of the reasons her group Allies4Justice selected it as the location for its march.

“A lot of the black population here has been pushed out to the edge,” she said."

HPD: ZERO USE OF FORCE AGAINST PROTESTERS  

A source close to the HPD told GA, "It was major success from a law enforcement perspective. Only one arrest - a disorderly person punched a protester near Mad Hatter. "

GA asked whether yesterday's arrests were below or above average for a "typical Friday" in Hoboken.  

"There were two arrests on the midnight shift unrelated to the protest. So three for the entire day, which is two below normal."

Wow. 10,000 marchers in the street and fewer arrests in Hoboken than an average Friday. Don't even start with the LepreCon and SantaCon crime waves... 

Major props to Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante and the men and women of the HPD on their handling of yesterday's unprecedented march in Hoboken.  You-all have put some other cities to shame, on how they have botched the peace. 

Thanks to all who came out, all who worked with organizers, all who kept the day focused on the movement and the message: