Last night there was a debriefing meeting of representatives of those who participated in the Doylestown Borough Council Meeting on Monday, August 17th where two of us made a statement about the BLM rally on August 2nd and concerns about the hate speech of the opposition group and the role of the Doylestown Police. Marlene Pray, former Doylestown Councilwoman and one of the founders of Rise Up Doylestown had joined the meeting and Jason Daye, who spoke at Pebble Hill’s Sunday Celebration 2 weeks ago about his involvement in the BLM movement. During the Sunday Celebration, Jason had shared his story growing up in Bucks County where he experienced numerous incidents of racial oppression as a person of color. The debriefing meeting held last night was a virtual meeting and it was very informative.
A focus of the meeting was on the events surrounding a BLM rally that took place in Doylestown on August 2nd where there was a strong presence of an opposition, “Back the Blues” group that was having a protest during the BLM rally. Several people at the meeting had been to the BLM rally on August 2nd and reported experiencing it as highly charged with racist rhetoric and intimidation by the opposition group. Marlene was present at the rally with a group of people who acted in the role of “Peacekeepers”. Marlene shared the importance of the role of the Peacekeepers in helping to contain the peace and prevent the escalation of hostilities and potential violence. Marlene also shared that she had a meeting with the Doylestown Mayor and Police Captain addressing her concerns about the role of the police who did not appear to intervene as the intensity of the event escalated.
Those of us present at the event talked about the importance of Pebble Hill Church as a Peace Site taking a stand of solidariy on this matter and supporting anti-racism and the BLM movement. Marlene Pray will be offering a Peacekeeper’s training within the next few weeks. There will be another BLM rally on Saturday, September 5th in Doylestown that will be sponsored by the Buck County youth. Information about the Peacekeeper’s training will be sent out on the Pebble Announcements.
If you are interested in further information about this matter, participating in Peacekeeper training, or supporting Peace and Social Justice activities, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Gary Schoenberg
gs2lvfree@aol.com
Cell: 215-805-4845
