Hundreds turn out to support police in Ridley Township
Several hundred residents turned out on the lawn of the township building to hold a “Back the Blue” rally to support police Sunday afternoon.
“This is a community event - this is not a rally, this is not a protest. This is getting our town together so we can support our law enforcement,” said Ridley resident Joe Carafa, who put the event together over the past ten days.
“What happened yesterday has nothing to do with us,” said Carafa, a self-described peacekeeper, referring to a rally Saturday which, as reported in the Times, turned tense as crowds of mostly white men bum-rushed Black Lives Matter protesters as they neared the township police station before being separated by police. “Unfortunately, the way it was handled, I don’t believe it was handled in the correct way.”
In contrast, the atmosphere of Sunday’s event was relaxed. Numerous flags fluttered in the wind supporting police, various police organizations and President Donald Trump. A number of police organizations set up tents and handed out water and pretzels to those in attendance.
The National Anthem was sung as everyone stood in silence, with hats off and covering their hearts with their hands.
“This is to show that we are the people of the community and we can stand above everything that is going on right now,” Carafa said. He hoped the event would give members of the public a chance to talk to police officers and share some of their thoughts. He runs a group’s Facebook site with 10,000 followers, where he attempts to hold a dialogue.
“We need to train our kids to get racism out of our heads so we call all
live equally, when it comes down to it,” said Carafa. “We have to get this anger out of us. Don’t label them (police) and it’s hard not to in today’s society. I don’t want my son to live in a world like this where everything is racist. I want my son to consider whether you are white, Black, Spanish, Puerto Rican, Chinese, we’re all equal. Why put a label on somebody?”
“We’re here to support the police,” said John Bustin of Ridley Park, who pointed to his shirt pin with a photo of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, who was murdered in 1981. “We can’t have our cops being slaughtered.”
Aside from Carafa, there were no planned speakers at the event. Organizers said a number of politicians were invited to speak; however, they declined. Two people picked up the microphone to give some words including Josh Bryan of Collingdale, a criminal justice major at Widener University, who said the support of those in attendance would help motivate him in the police academy and Lutfor Rahman Hemu, who said he was an immigrant from Bangladesh and encouraged those in attendance to vote for Trump.
Most of the afternoon supporters lined MacDade Boulevard waving flags and cheering as cars went past honking horns. One or two pick-up trucks, including a U-haul rental, burned rubber as they passed. A lone car holding a BLM -Black Lives Matter sign went past. One bystander made a derogatory remark, that it meant :Burn, Loot, Murder.” Most others ignored the car.
Throughout the twohour event, passing groups of police cars went past instigating loud cheers from the crowd.
“We’re just here to support the police. We don’t want to see them defunded,” said Ashley Hunter, who was there with her friend Kellie Park. “This is no disrespect to Black Lives Matter. I understand the movement. We just want to show we respect them and we are appreciative of all the hard work they do.”
Kathy Payne of Prospect Park was at both the Saturday and Sunday events. She said she was surprised to see more white marchers Saturday than African Americans and expressed the view that they were being overly influenced by social media and were not thinking for themselves. “I think they are uneducated,” said Payne. “One woman (on Saturday) kept yelling ‘Jesus was Black.’ I found that to be obnoxious.”
“I came here to support the Ridley police. I grew up here, lived in Woodlyn and graduated from Ridley High School in 1972. It’s a fallacy that Black people don’t support the black and blue, “said Rev. Dr. Edna Hopkins Rozier, who is African American and said she has family members who are police officers as well as students she has taught.
Asked why she thinks there were few African
Americans at Sunday’s event, she said one reason is not many Blacks live in Ridley and people often do not get involved unless they are personally affected.
““I came because I support the police,” said Hopkins-Rozier. “It’s important for both sides to know we share this world. We share thoughts and we share Ridley. The sooner we get together, the better it will be.”
She added there are bigger issues that must be addressed. “We’re fighting all these viruses; we’re fighting economic difficulties. There are other bigger wider issues that will take all of us to solve,” Hopkins-Rozier said.