Young protesters in Newton called for justice Wednesday, a day after a white man interrupted a peaceful, youth-led Black Lives Matter demonstration outside City Hall, shouted at teens and teachers, then sped away in a pickup truck — nearly striking several people.
The unidentified man behind the wheel of the Ford pickup has not been arrested, and a Newton police investigation into the incident is ongoing, a city spokeswoman said Wednesday evening.
And some say Newton police officers on duty at the event did not act to protect protesters from potential harm.
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller told reporters outside City Hall on Wednesday, “If that driver endangered the lives of peaceful protesters, we want him charged.”
Advertisement
More than 1,400 people have signed an online petition supporting the investigation and demanding that the man face “repercussions for his violent acts.” The petition also alleges that during the incident, “three police officers sat nearby idly and refused to take action.”
Leyla Davis, 18, who graduated from Newton North High School last month, said she spoke briefly with Fuller Wednesday and told her “something … needs to be done” about “the inappropriate response from the officers” who were present outside City Hall on Tuesday.
Davis and four other demonstrators said nearby Newton officers failed to intervene as the man shouted at teenagers, pre-teens, parents, and teachers and then drove out of his way to menace protesters with his truck.
“After the protest had ended, I approached one of the officers who was present … and said to him, ‘Hey, you know, I really hope you do something about that man, because what he did was unacceptable,’ " Davis said.
“And his response to me was, ‘I’ve already talked to five other people about this. No one was physically hurt, so there’s nothing really we can do about it.’ Which I felt was not a great response.”
Advertisement
The man, who was wearing a face mask, emerged from City Hall just as the demonstration’s first speaker, 15-year-old Uche Okonkwo, began to address the crowd, according to witnesses.
The man yelled, “Do all Black lives matter?” When the crowd responded yes, he shouted, “What about the unborn Black babies?” according to video posted online and witness accounts.
Protesters shouted back and told the man to leave. He briefly turned away, but after Okonkwo shouted back at him, the man swung around and attempted to approach her, though members of the crowd, including parents and teachers, intervened, according to witnesses.
The man eventually turned again to leave, but when he got into his truck, he bypassed a nearby entrance and instead circled the oval driveway and paused in front of City Hall, honking his horn, witnesses said.
As some demonstrators approached the truck, the man accelerated, and several people had to jump back to avoid being hit, according to witnesses and video.
“He could have easily exited on either side … but he decided to make a statement by driving around,” said 16-year-old Peter Dukakis, one of five Newton North High School students who organized the protest through an informal social media community for students, BIPOC in Newton, which uses the acronym for “Black, indigenous, and people of color.”
“He wanted to drive through us, I think, to say that he’s not going anywhere, say that what he said is what he said. And people were just not having that,” said Dukakis. .
Advertisement
Douglas Williams, 18, who graduated from Newton North last month, said that as the man hit the gas, “people freak[ed] out. One guy almost [got] his toe run over and jump[ed] back and smack[ed] one of the back windows … with the base of his palm.”
Davis said that as the man drove through the crowd, there were “many younger kids” among the youth-led protest who were endangered or frightened. She said his truck came closer to some protesters than was visible in video of the incident.
“I think that his feelings were hurt because nobody wanted to hear what he had to say,” Davis said of the driver. “I think that he was intending to scare people, but I also think that he must have had intention to injure, because if he didn’t then he wouldn’t have tried to drive his car through a crowd of people.”
She wants to see the man held accountable, but she also wants answers from police, she said.
“The officers that were there, and their lack of action … made me feel as though they were there to make sure that we, the protesters, didn’t do anything,” she said. “They weren’t there to protect us but rather to make sure that we didn’t cause any disturbances.”
“Newton is a very white, liberal bubble,” Williams said, which sometimes can allow residents “to fool [themselves] into thinking that it’s above a lot of the issues that we hear about.”
Advertisement
Williams said the man should face “some light prosecution” for endangering protesters but more importantly should be held up as an example of the quiet racism that exists in many communities.
“I think a good punishment would be to sort of have him become the face of the hidden biases, or the ignorant bliss that Newton likes to live under,” he said.
The young protesters said they have been attacked on social media by people who support the driver of the truck. They expressed concern that attention to the man’s actions would overshadow the message of their demonstration.
“The incident and the arguing about the incident … has really changed the conversation,” Williams said. “The conversation has shifted from let’s amplify these voices, or at least look at what they were saying, to, ‘Oh my God, this man!’ "
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.
"crowd" - Google News
July 09, 2020 at 11:00AM
https://ift.tt/2CiRKYV
Young Newton protesters call for justice after man accelerates truck through crowd - The Boston Globe
"crowd" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YpUyMI
https://ift.tt/2KQD83I
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Young Newton protesters call for justice after man accelerates truck through crowd - The Boston Globe"
Post a Comment