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Greenville, Pleasant Valley protests met with counter marches
Jul 19, 2020 6:33 am
On Saturday, July 18, protests in favor of the "Black Lives Matter" movement continued locally in Greenville and Pleasant Valley, and so did uglier counter protests at the same locations. In Greenville, over 100 protesters met at the Town Park, and then marched a short ways to the smaller park across from the Greenville Town Hall. There, about half as many counter protesters yelled at them with many obscenities. Online threats preceded the demonstration, including one about someone putting a snow plow back on a truck for the event. Someone did just that, driving the snow plow in the hot July sun back and forth along Route 32 over and over again during the two-hour demonstration. Protesters did not stay near the counter-protest long, moving back to the town park, with both sides trying to impress cars driving by with their messages. Here is a sample of some of the sounds of the Greenville protest. CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE PROTEST EXCERPT. Also on July 18, Katelyn Cordero reported for the Poughkeepsie Journal that there was a clash between protesters and counter protesters in Pleasant Valley in Dutchess County. One side chanted "black lives matter," while the other side shouted back "all lives matter" and "blue lives matter." The side chanting about black lives had "peacemakers" in yellow vests throughout the crowd discouraging interactions with the opposing voices. Police made no arrests or reported injuries but Royal Parker, organizer of the Black Livers Matters rally, said five protesters suffered minor injuries. Police officers pulled the two sides apart when a man yelling "all lives matter" lunged into a group of opposing protesters. Then, police put themselves between the two groups. "I hope that there's going to be some more understanding. People think that the Black Lives Matter and Black rallies is just to tear up the streets. I hope that they see that this is not what it is, I hope that they see that this is a peaceful movement," Parker said before the event. "I really hope that this movement will be like the civil rights movement and can help generations to come." The Dutchess County NY Conservative Party organized the other protest. Here is a bit of the audio from Cordero's Twitter feed of the clash between the two groups. CLICK HERE TO PLAY BREIF EXCERPT.