Black Lives Matter protest held in Wildwood a week after controversial arrest

The latest in a series of demonstrations in Cape May County and around the country was planned before an arrest in Wildwood a week earlier in which video surfaced of an officer punching a prone black man.

Melisha Anderson, of the Whitesboro section of Middle Township, was one of the organizers of the event and said the march and rally were about racial justice in the long term, not just a response to a single incident. She called the protest a justified response to continued racism and discrimination.

Dozens of people, white and Black, gathered at 26th Street on the border of North Wildwood and walked the length of the Wildwood section of the Boardwalk to hear speakers in the shade of the iconic Wildwoods sign near the Wildwoods Convention Center.

“I grew up in Wildwood, so I am so happy to be here, unapologetically Black, in front of this Wildwood sign,” said Crystal Hutchinson, another organizer of the event. She said there have been incidents of racism in Wildwood.

Hutchinson said the date for the event was chosen because it marks 101 years since whites rioted in Washington, D.C., attacking Black people and Black-owned businesses. Police did not intervene.

Hutchinson called the white rioters terrorists.

“This went on for four days. Police did nothing to stop it,” she said. “This was one of 38 such riots during the red summer of 1919. We want our history to be told.”

But the Wildwood arrest was mentioned several times in the course of the demonstration. The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into that arrest.

“It was here in Wildwood last weekend that a man was pummeled by those police officers, being held down,” she said, after there had already been protests in the city and around the country over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The event took place on one of the hottest days of the year so far. The protest organizers had a cooler full of water offered to anyone who wanted some, and a wagon full of snacks. Several children participated in the march.

Several speakers addressed the enthusiastic crowd using a hand-held bullhorn.

“You all are beautiful,” said Anderson. “That was a beautiful march. Black people. White people. LGBTQ people. We are all here, protesting, and in the protest we find possibility. A possibility to change things.”

Protesting is not limited to walking on the street or boardwalk, she said. People can make their voices heard with their spending and with their votes, she said.

“Protest on Nov. 3,” she said, referring to Election Day.

The presidential race hovered over the event, with protesters chanting “No Trump, No KKK, no fascist USA,” along with “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace.”

Near the start of the event stood a man wearing a T-shirt calling for the reelection of President Trump and carrying a Trump flag. He said he was there is response to the protesters.

“I’d have no problem with ‘Black Lives Matter, too,’” he said. But he argued that the slogan “Black Lives Matter,” worn on T-shirts, emblazoned on a flag and chanted by protesters, elevates some lives above others and is aimed against the police.

The man declined to give his name. He said he spent his career in law enforcement.

Others surrounding the protesters were not so circumspect. Several people on the Boardwalk booed and yelled as the march began, and one man rode his bike alongside for about a block, repeatedly shouting an obscenity at the protesters.

Once the marchers reached the Wildwoods sign, there were several heated shouting matches, with police quickly placing themselves and their bicycles between the two sides.

One on the Boardwalk started with a man yelling “Blue Lives Matter.” On the street side of the demonstration, a passerby and a protester started yelling back and forth.

In each case, organizers of the march pulled people away. At one point, James Hutchinson took the bullhorn to say he did not want to keep anyone from speaking, but said it was better to ignore those who were challenging them.

“I’m not trying to stop your voice. I’m not trying to keep you from saying anything. But there’s a lot of cameras out here,” he said. “It will change the narrative of what we’re trying to do, because in the paper, it will show us screaming and yelling and looking like idiots.”

He said participants came to the march to be peaceful, to be heard and to make it known that they have a voice.

Along the route, most were just out to enjoy a summer day on the Boardwalk. Many people took video of the passing protest on their phones. Some seemed to disapprove, and many others raised their fists in the air in support.

Crystal Hutchinson encouraged people to join in, with spontaneous marchers swelling the ranks as the group neared the Wildwoods sign.

Police from several jurisdictions in the Wildwoods and beyond were present, including officers of the Cape May County Sheriff’s Department. Officers made no visible response to criticism from the protesters or to support from those opposing them, and officers stayed at a distance except when a shouting match erupted.

Officers did greet both passersby and protesters, with one officer offering a fist bump to several people in the march.

Wildwood Police Chief Robert Regalbuto watched the event unfold but declined to comment on the scene and could not be contacted later in the day.