Tuesday, December 10, Masters student’s, lead by the Young Activists Club, marched in Dobbs Ferry to voice their opinion on the lack of justice served to the many unarmed African-American Males murdered by police officers. Many students felt angered by the shear lack of consideration for not just the lives of the victims of police brutality, but for the sad truth that in the 21st century racial profiling is a present issue.

This protest, along with numerous other ones around the country are in light of the numerous acts of police brutality recently, primarily toward African-Americans. In one instance Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, by Darren Wilson, a Caucasian police officer, in Ferguson, Mo. The St. Louis County prosecutor announced that the grand jury decided not to indict Officer Wilson of any charges. And though the eyewitness accounts and lack of evidence in this case has lead to ambiguity in this case, the next example will definitely show you the corruption in our police force.

On July 17th, 43-year-old man and father of six Eric Garner, suspected of selling untaxed single cigarettes, was approached by several NYPD officers. He told them to leave him alone, and without even getting offered his rights officer David Pantaleo put him into a chokehold, which is prohibited by the NYPD, and slammed his to the ground. As he repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe” he lost consciousness. As Eric lay still alive on the floor, an onlooker asked the officer why they weren’t performing CPR. The officer responded, “because he’s breathing,” despite his unconsciousness and suspected head trauma. Eric later died in the ambulance of a heart attack due to compression of the neck.Months later a New York Grand Jury failed to indict Pantaleo, and many Masters students feel justice has not been served.

Senior Amalia Mayorga, came up with the idea for this march. “It is not just a problem for the media to make a story out of, but impacts everyone in a huge way,” she said. “When an injustice is served to one person in our country it’s not their problem it’s everyone’s problem, and if it isn’t, nothing happens.”
The march started at 3:30 and went on for an hour as a large amount of kids clad with signs chanted down the streets. Various chants such as “I can’t breathe” or “No Justice, No Peace” were yelled and heard by many Dobbs Ferry residents. Many drivers honked at us in gratitude, while one man stopped in the middle of a crosswalk, rolled down his window, cursed us out and drove away.

Dobbs Ferry resident Bob Sacco saw the march and said, “The verdict was a terrible thing. Half of these people don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They should know what they’re doing if they’re going to do it. This just disturbs me.”

But many Masters faculty participated in the march and were thrilled by students displaying discontent. Matthew Ives, Head of Upper School said, “I absolutely respect the student’s right to protest. But this is a controversial topic and the school never takes political stands.” He added, “But we encourage students to speak their minds and are proud that they are voicing their opinions.”

Science teacher Elizabeth Merrill said, “I was saddened by how unjust our justice system is. Justice should be colorblind and it definitely isn’t.”

Junior, Gigi Lavigne participated in the protest. She said “I think it’s a monumental moment for Dobbs Ferry and the rest of the river towns. I don’t believe we have seen anything like this before.”

This protest wouldn’t be possible without the Young Activist Club and its many leaders. Senior and Vice President of the club, Kaan Solakoglu said, “I felt a responsibility to spread awareness when I heard the news of the Eric garner incident. I was saddened and angered, and I knew a lot of other people were as well. I thought we should use the energy to make change happen.”

This march definitely stirred up some controversy in Dobbs Ferry. As some people took photos of us marching and smiled as we walked by, others heckled at us and looked at us with faces of disappointment. One person said on the social media outlet Yik Yak, “Masters kids ‘protesting’ on the mean streets of Dobbs Ferry. Roughest neighborhood they’ve ever seen, glad they all made it back safe.”
Regardless of what people thought of this march, the objective of it was to spread awareness, and to get people talking and voicing their opinions. When a problem like this is protested not just in major cities but in small river towns, it really sends a message that this is an issue that should not be overlooked.