There appeared to be about 100 or so people (see photo above) making up the crowd. At least half appeared to be white and the rest of color. We overheard one man offer a sign to another that said “Black Lives Matter” and when thanked, he said he was just there to hand out signs. At one point Ms Green led the crowd in several chants, with the one most often used was, “Black Lives Matter here!”
There were many apparently hand-written signs saying the same thing but differently. “Listen To Black Women” and “Slavery Never Ended, It Just Evolved,” White Silence = Violence.” There were others, but not everyone had signs. Some were there to support the movement and some frankly were just curious to see what was going on.
With a helicopter flying overhead, which we assumed was the state police helicopter, Tarrytown police officers, as well as state police officers seemed to be everywhere, even on the rooftop of the stores in the extremely crowded CVS (formerly Stop and Shop) parking lot! We spoke to one officer who said his post was right here but the parking lot was a zoo. His sergeant happened to walk over and said basically the same thing.
There also seemed to be a lot of media coverage here with about five news trucks, and numerous video cameras hoisted overhead to capture Ms Green as she spoke to the crowd. It remains to be seen if they make it across the bridge or not as state troopers had set up a row of officers at what would be considered their access point. We’ll just have to see how this plays out. A peaceful protest and no arrests would be preferable. That will help us toward A Better Greenburgh.
The website callblackline.com espouses a list of thirty issues that they are hoping to address, listed here as presented on their website:
A few demands
provided by Black Women in Westchester, Ulster, Orange, and Rockland Counties:
- Improved services for Black LGBTQ gender non-conforming folks
- The silence and complacency regarding the continued murder and
brutalization of trans women, especially black trans women
- Eradicate poverty
- Address environmental racism that occurs in communities like
Newburgh’s PFOS water contamination and generational high lead levels
- Improve education, especially in the East Ramapo School District
- Transform and dismantle the police
- Disinvest in police, invest in community
- Eliminating cash bail in New York - we need legitimate Alternative
To Incarceration (ATI) programs that are not electronic monitoring,
probation and other fucked up governmental programs
- Improve mental health services
- Address drug use impacting Black families, through public health
not criminalization
- End the mass incarceration that is tearing Black families apart
- Address disparity in the foster care system
- End sexual violence against Black women. Believe them.
- Job opportunities that include a living wage
- Affordable childcare
- Safe, decent and affordable housing
- Safety in our homes (from state and intimate partner violence)
- Address inadequate or non-existent legal criminal defense
- Stop policing Black Women on their anger
- Stop using us for legitimacy in your predominately-white agencies
- Financial institutions cease charging fees for minor transactions
- Access to bank accounts without being charged fees for not
maintaining a certain balance
- Ability for undocumented Black and Brown women to secure Drivers'
licenses
- Stop arresting Black and Trans Women for survivor crimes
- Improved transportation infrastructure
- Reduce and eliminate states’ social control and punishment in the
judicial system (criminal and family)
- We are not a monolithic people and the One Black Women in the room
is no longer acceptable
- NY state enact racial impact laws- provide opportunity for
policymakers to consider alternative approaches that do not worsen
disparities. (Similar to fiscal and environmental impact statements)
- Access to necessary and needed hormone treatment
- Reproductive justice, having a say over our bodies, choice to have
many children or none at all
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