CLARK, NJ — Dozens of protestors marched to the Clark Municipal Building on Friday, June 12, calling for Mayor Sal Bonaccorso to resign amid controversy of his comments that he is “pro-Black for all the good Black people.”
Starting from Madison Ave. Park, protestors marched down Westfield Ave. waving placards and chanting the perennial slogans of the Black Lives Matter movement, including “No Justice, No Peace” and naming victims of police brutality. Protestors, though, made it clear that they wanted Mayor Bonaccorso out of office, for what they said was a cavalier attitude towards the Black Lives Matter movement.
“For him to say [he’s pro ‘good black people’] that's like a slap in the face,” said Brian Pyrus, a black 27-year-old Rahway resident. “He knew we were coming a whole week in advance, why don't you sit down in your office once and think of something to say?”
Some were also critical of the Mayor’s response to the controversy.
“He waited three days after other news articles were published to put his response out,” said Imani Mckelvey, a black 25-year-old Rahway resident who helped organize the march. “I think it was definitely strategic and political. I don't feel as though anything he can say can rectify what he said.”
Bonaccorso addressed protestors outside the Municipal Building, saying he was willing to speak with them privately. He emphasized, though, that he didn’t want to debate the matter on the scene and apologized “if anybody took what I said the wrong way.”
“We're all the same, we're all human and that's the bottom line,” he said. “Work together. We can argue over sports, whatever, who cares. As far as communities go, we have to get together.”
At last weekend's protests, Bonnacorso met with protestors at the end of their march and an attendee asked him, 'Are you pro black?. The Clark mayor replied: 'The answer is of course, and unequivocally, yes. I also truly believe that Black Lives Matter,". However, Bonaccorso has taken heat for saying: "I am pro-black for all the good black people that I know in my life." The story has been covered nationally by CNN and NBC. He has spent part of the week trying to clarify his statement.
Related: Mayor Bonaccorso Shares Statement After Saturday’s Black Lives Matter March in Clark
The crowd demanded the Mayor directly apologize for his words, leading to a back-and-forth between the Mayor and protestors.
“All people are good, you choose to see the bad,” one protestor told him.
"A child molester is good?" he replied. As he left the crowd, choruses of “vote him out” erupted.
“It wasn't adequate,” Mckelvey said of the Mayor’s response. “I don't accept his apology, for the fact he said: ‘If I offended someone.'”
Bonaccorso spoke with TAPinto Clark after the rally saying, "I have been in contact with several members of this local movement and will be inviting them to sit down and start a dialogue in my office, person to person, not shouting over crowds, nothing will get done that way, it's time to talk," he said. "Black lives unequivocally matter."
"If people are coming to this town and feel uncomfortable, I don't feel good about that, we have to start communicating," he continued.
It was not only the Mayor’s comments which drew the ire of protestors — drawing on the national movement against police brutality, protestors specifically accused Clark Police Department of racial profiling and questioned the diversity of the police force.
The law enforcement present though, cooperated with protestors, even taking a knee with them during an eight minute and 46 second moment of silence, the amount of time Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck.
“I consider myself as a good human being, but in the past couple of weeks, I've even looked into myself and said wow, I never really put myself in somebody else's shoes,” Maz Elwardany, a Clark PBA Local 125 police union State Delegate said to an enthusiastic crowd. “Even though I consider myself good, we can all be better.”
The march concluded with protestors playing music and dancing down Westfield Ave. back to Madison Avenue Park. One police officer even joined protestors in the Cupid Shuffle dance, but despite the temporary levity, organizers said they will continue putting pressure on the Mayor.
“We'll continue to have protests,” Mckelvey said. “We will continue to open up lines of communication to start working on policies and change. We’re trying to get people to have a seat at the table so we can make overall changes in Rahway, the neighboring town of Clark. So discrimination and prejudice can stop.”
Email: danieljustinhan@gmail.com | Twitter: @danieljhan
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Despite Clark Mayor's Apology, Protesters Chant 'Vote Him Out', Plan Continued Protests - TAPinto.net
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