South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Dueling demonstrations
Black Lives Matter, ‘Back the Blue’ protests converge on MSD
PARKLAND — Dueling demonstrations drew about 200 people to northwest Broward County Saturday, one group holding a Black Lives Matter march, the other a demonstration in support of the police.
BLM marchers gathered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and walked toward Pine Trails Park, as their numbers grew to about 150.
They chanted “Black lives matter” and “What’s her name? Breonna Taylor,” referring to a Black
medical technician shot to death by police in a controversial raid in Louisville, Ky. Meanwhile,
demonstrators in a “Back the Blue” event chanted “all lives matter” and “U.S.A!”
Most of the pro-police demonstrators stayed where they were, but some trolled the BLM protesters by following them and honking from cars draped with USA, TRUMP 2020 and “thin blue line” flags.
“Our men and women in Blue have been attacked and vilified by leftist groups. Our nation and her values are being shredded,” was a message written by the Back The Blue organizer heading into the rally. “The battle for freedom and our own civil rights has come to our city. It’s time for us,
the silent majority, to stand up and let our voices be heard. This is a PEACEFUL rally to Back The Blue. Please bring a mask, water, flags, signs. Wear your back the blue colors!”
The Black Lives Matter protest was organized by Douglas High students, survivors of the 2018 Parkland school shooting and by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin was one of 17 people killed in the attack.
Patricia Oliver held a “Black Lives Matter,” banner along with a poster that features a quote from Malcom X that read, “a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” Manuel Oliver said Joaquin held that poster at a Black Lives Matter event in Fort Lauderdale in 2017.
“Our duty as parents is to continue his legacy,” Manuel Oliver said. “Gun violence is a real pandemic. It’s out there and it’s not going to leave that easily and we’re not going to prevent it by wearing a mask. Gun violence is hitting really badly on the Black community and we all know it … We believed that we already worked through gun violence, but no. Because right now someone is suffering. Someone is dying.”
During the BLM event, various speakers addressed the crowd.
Patricia Oliver holds a banner during a Black Lives Matter march Saturday at Pine Trails Park in Parkland.
Elberg ‘Mike’ Gelin, a Tamarac city commissioner whose video statement of his own experience with police as a Black man went viral last year, asked why there were no members of the Parkland City Commission at the protest.
“Isn’t it a shame that we even have to say ‘Black lives matter?’ If all lives mattered, we wouldn’t have to say Black lives matter,‘” he said. “There are folks out there that are scared of the term ‘defund the police,’ but when we say ‘defund the police,’ we mean we’re going to make your lives easier, police officers. We want you to focus on crime and we’ll have other agencies focus on social services, on homelessness, on mental health, that somehow turn into violent issues when they get involved.”
One girl who introduced herself as “Mimi” said systemic racism goes beyond issues of police brutality, bringing up issues her mother experienced going through the medical system and her own experiences in underfunded schools.
“We don’t have enough computers, we don’t have enough tablets, we don’t have enough books. The teachers have to buy those supplies for us on their own and they are already not even paid enough by the system. it’s just ridiculous that the police get $200 billion per year and we have homeless people, we have starving people, we have people that can’t even get clothes for their children to go to school in.”
Brooke Baitinger contributed to this article.