ELLENVILLE – Police officers marched side by side with residents in Ellenville Monday afternoon as some 50 people rallied in support of peace and an end to violence.
Just as across the country, protesters chanted “black lives matter,” “George Floyd,” and “I can’t breathe,” the Minneapolis man’s last words as he was dying last week, allegedly at the hands of local police there. That case remains under investigation and the officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck was fired and charged with murder. Three other officers who stood by, remain in question legally.
In Ellenville, local resident Angela Cooper marched.
“I think this is the way everybody should be protesting. I understand the looting and the rioting; I get it, but we are all not trying to do that. We are all just trying to stand in solidarity and enforce the message that black lives matter and just unite,” she said.
PBA Vice President Cecil Cooper also marched to show “we are here to help, not hurt.”
Police Chief Philip Mattracion said he was “appalled and just disgusted and it cannot be tolerated” by the killing in Minneapolis.
“We need to send a message that we are united and standing behind what is right and dignified and we are not going to tolerate that kind of violence of police against civilians. It’s not going to happen,” he said.
Maude Bruce, long-time president of the Ellenville NAACP, who lost her son to a chokehold in 1986 by police officers who were moonlighting as movie theater security guards, urged everyone to register to vote. “Power is in the vote,” she said.
