Are Hate and Discrimination Finding a Home in Fair Lawn?
By: Ari Lopez Wei
Tags: Protest, Blm, Bluelivesmatter, Hate, New Jersey

Are Hate and Discrimination Finding a Home in Fair Lawn?

A rally was held in Fair Lawn purportedly to show support for police and first responders here. But it seems this was only a guise to hide what the rally was really about — hate. Ari Lopez wei Aug 5, 2020·10 min read

Monday night, I’m at home editing photos when I get some Snapchats from a friend. She’s sending me videos of a bunch of White people walking down Fair Lawn Ave towards the municipal building, carrying ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flags and posters, and even a couple people proudly carrying their ‘Trump 2020’ flags.

The rally was never about bringing a community together, showing that hate and discrimination have no home here, or even, simply praising our police and first responders. It was designed and intended to antagonize supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, and spread hatred.

I went to the Fair Lawn town Facebook page and found a flyer about the rally posted by Stephen Janiszak, who writes for a number of right-wing websites. It told people to come out and, “show our appreciation to our police and first responders for keeping us safe and protecting our life and property.” The flyer continues, “I’m sure you are all aware of recent unrest in our country, and this rally and march is to show that, in Fair Lawn, hate and discrimination have no home. Ours is a very diverse community where our diversity does not divide us but instead it brings us together.” Sounds good, but according to tapinto.net, former Republican mayor John Cosgrove, retired Fair Lawn police detective David Boone, Craig Mont CPA and Kathleen Zaccone DDS organized the rally. I haven’t known any Republicans to come out as front line supporters of civil rights and Black Lives Matter protestors.

Here’s the flyer of the rally that was posted on the Fair Lawn Facebook page.

So, I’m feeling skeptical about the real purpose of the rally, but not for long. When I started watching the Facebook live video Janiszak was streaming of the rally, the truth became clear. Whoever made that flyer and promoted this rally lied about its real purpose.

The rally was never about bringing a community together, showing that hate and discrimination have no home here, or even, simply praising our police and first responders. It was designed and intended to antagonize supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, and spread hatred.

All the rally-goers seemed to be following a previously agreed-upon script and exhibiting aggressive behavior. If they had truly been interested in promoting unity and rejecting hate and discrimination, they would have hosted a Black Lives Matter rally or organized a community building exercise like sponsoring a conversation between police and POC. Even if the rally was actually just to praise Fair Lawn police and first responders, it’s unfortunately true that doing so at this particular moment in our country’s history would have been in poor taste. I’ve heard that similar rallies are happening all over the area. I hope this isn’t true.

If the supposed diversity in this town doesn’t divide us, but brings us together, where were all the POC in that blue lives matter rally? And can someone explain to those folks that shouting “USA! USA!” or holding up a huge US flag to BLM protestors, does not make you any more American than they are. Unless you’re at an international sports match, it actually just kind of makes you look like a jackass.

The camera focuses on Janiszak wearing a Three Percenters’ face mask that reads “When tyranny becomes law, resistance becomes duty” and struggling to flip the video on his camera. For those that don’t know, the Three Percenters are a far-right militia and paramilitary group which the Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes as ‘anti-government.’ Considering what’s going on around the country today, the irony of their slogan is completely lost on them. Trump is weaponizing law enforcement agencies against American citizens to create an environment of tyranny and fear in this country. And yet here these people are, claiming support for Trump, and police (which are part of the government), while attacking the people actually fighting against tyranny.

It wasn’t long before Janiszak and his group started to verbally abuse the Black Lives Matter protesters gathered across the street. I hear Janiszak and others say “Here we go!” and begin chanting “blue lives matter, blue lives matter,” while others in their group shout at the counter-protestors: “Get a job,” “you low lives,” “you need to go get a life. Go get a job,” “go back to your mother’s basement.” A lady near Janiszak said that the police were protecting those people and then Janiszak is heard saying “They’re protecting them from us, cause –“ I assume he stopped when he realized he was about to voice violent threats while live streaming. A couple minutes later, the blue lives crowd cheers and Janiszak proudly shouts “here come the big boys,” as about 16 police officers dressed in black from head to toe with riot helmets come marching down the street in formation and post up in the middle of the street, half facing the counter protesters, and half facing the blue lives crowd.

Officers from the Fair Lawn police department dressed in riot gear, facing the BLM counter-protestors after most of the blue lives rally goers had left. (Credit: Ari Lopez Wei)

As I was watching, my blood began boiling. How dare this group claim to be rallying to show that hate and discrimination has no home here, and yet stage a rally that expressly supports the continued abuse of POC in this country and of the widespread intimidation and oppression that has been leveled against my people for centuries, often with the help of American law enforcement officers (LEOs)?

Here’s a link to more photos of the rally and counter protest taken by photographer Danielle Parhizkaran for northjersey.com.

If the supposed diversity in this town doesn’t divide us, but brings us together, where were all the POC in that blue lives matter rally? And can someone explain to those folks that shouting “USA! USA!” or holding up a huge US flag to BLM protestors, does not make you any more American than they are. Unless you’re at an international sports match, it actually just kind of makes you look like a jackass.

This town has obvious issues with racism and diversity. My brother and I, and other people of color we grew up with here have experienced it on many levels and too many occasions. I understand that this is a town with a population that’s over 80% White (clearly very diverse), but still, on Monday I was extremely disappointed in Fair Lawn.

After a few minutes of watching the live stream, I decided that as a photographer, I had a duty to go and at least try to document some of what was happening. I won’t lie, I was frightened. We’ve all seen too much lately of what LEOs are capable of doing to BLM protesters and even journalists, and the image of all those officers clad in all black with their riot helmets, gave me an uneasy feeling.

I drove over to Borough Hall anyway, but as a precaution, parked a few blocks away. In case violence did erupt, I wanted to be able to run to my car and drive off to safety. But as I arrived, I saw most of the blue lives crowd already leaving. There were some 40 or so BLM protestors still there, a few on megaphones, talking about racial oppression and police brutality in this country, and calling Fair Lawn “a racist ass town.” Across the street were a few remaining blue lives rally goers shouting insults. I stayed on the BLM side, because as a young Afrolatino man, I clearly didn’t belong on the Borough Hall side of the street Monday night.

BLM protestor (Credit: Ari Lopez Wei)

Eventually, the riot police left and the BLM protesters started marching back to the Land & Sea Diner, where their counter rally had begun. I heard some of them discussing one of them being threatened with a weapon by an officer, and I felt troubled. I grew up in this town. This is not what I want my hometown’s police to be. Yesterday, I viewed photos of the incident, where a protestor was walking in the street, just off the curb, when an officer came up and told him to get back on the sidewalk. He put his hand on the man’s arm, and the man whipped his arm to shake it off. Then the officer drew his baton. The situation deescalated when other officers and protestors stepped in, but it was wrong for the officer to reach for a weapon just because a man didn’t want to be touched. It shouldn’t be that when it comes to POC, police’s first response is often violence.

You have to question why these people will claim there’s something wrong with saying “Black lives matter,” but not “blue lives matter,” maybe the word they really have a problem with is Black.

While we marched to the diner, a number of vehicles drove by, some with words or honks in support, but others filled with people angrily shouting insults and threats and a large blue pickup truck with a Trump flag kept circling around us. And then three police SUVs filled with officers were also following. Knowing that LEOs have recently been snatching people off the streets in Portland and NYC, I wasn’t sure what the intentions of these officers were — were they following to menace the BLM protestors, or to protect them? And that man aggressively driving that blue pickup was alarming. Did he intend to ram his car into us? I wondered. I called my brother and asked him to pick me up and bring me back to where I’d parked my car. It didn’t feel safe to walk there by myself.

BLM protestors marching back to Land & Sea diner as a police SUV follows. (Credit: Ari Lopez Wei)

This town has obvious issues with racism and diversity. My brother and I, and other people of color we grew up with here have experienced it on many levels and too many occasions. I understand that this is a town with a population that’s over 80% White (clearly very diverse), but still, on Monday I was extremely disappointed in Fair Lawn.

The central issue at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement is what both police and all Americans should be focusing on. Black Lives Matter is about stopping unjust violence against people who are being murdered, beaten and having their lives destroyed because of the color of their skins.

It is inherently racist to respond to declarations of “Black Lives Matter,” with “blue lives matter,” or “all lives matter,” because neither police, nor the general population, are under constant threat of violence in America the way Black people’s lives are. They are not being murdered in great numbers because of the color of their skin. There is no skin color ‘blue’ and becoming a police officer is a choice someone makes. You can’t equate people’s skin color with a job. It comes from a real place of ignorance and privilege, or hatred, to not understand why people of color in this country are so hurt, and angry.

You have to question why these people will claim there’s something wrong with saying “Black lives matter,” but not “blue lives matter,” maybe the word they really have a problem with is Black.

If hate and discrimination really had no place in this town, these rally goers would not have insulted and tried to intimidate the BLM protesters. And members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys (another violent right wing group also represented at the rally) and the Three Percenters would not have received permission to stand on borough grounds and be made welcome there by borough employees.

But, I do find hope in the number of young people I’ve encountered at rallies in recent months and was pleased to see youth well represented in the BLM crowd in Fair Lawn Monday night. Together, we are making inroads into combatting racism. A few weeks ago, I attended a huge Juneteenth rally in Montclair that was entirely organized by high schoolers. And already, Juneteenth has become a recognized New Jersey holiday — the first state holiday honoring African American history. On the livestream, I even heard one woman say that while she was marching for blue lives matter, her daughter was on the other side of the street, marching with BLM. I see that as progress.

Update: Since publishing this article, I’ve seen a comment from the daughter of the woman I mention above. She makes it clear that her sibling and mom are both first responders (one in Fair Lawn) and that her mom was under the impression that was really a rally for first responders. Her mom was not there for “blue lives matter,” or “all lives matter” and was sad to learn the true nature of the rally.

“She supports my decisions and encourages me to fight for what I believe in!” she says, “We have discussions in our home about what is happening around the world and while we may not agree on ALL things, we respect and listen to each other at all times. Something I hope a lot of people in our town and beyond can learn how to do: Respect and Listen.”