Newark Zimmerman Protest Enters Fourth Day

Article updated midnight July 18. 

The organizers of an ongoing protest formed after George Zimmerman was cleared of all charges in the death of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin announced late Wednesday that their next rally point would be the Peter Rodino Federal Building at 1 pm Thursday. 

The building is located at 970 Broad St. 

Organizers said earlier Wednesday another protest would be held at Broad and Market but the change to the time and location were announced late Wednesday night by one of the protestor's organizers, Bashir Akinyele. 

Speaking for the fourth consecutive day from the intersection of Broad and Market streets, Akinyele, of the Newark Anti Violence Coalition, earlier Wednesday had urged the crowd of about 60 to meet once again at the city’s commercial crossroads Thursday for a rally that would end at NJPAC. 

Akinyele, a Weequahic High School history teacher, congratulated participants for sustaining the protest in Newark even after rallies in many other cities had largely ended by Monday.

“No one else has done what you’re doing here, shutting down a major city for four days,” Akinyele, holding a microphone, said.

The first protest was called Sunday afternoon, the day after a Florida jury cleared Zimmerman, 29, of murder and manslaughter charges. Protests have been held on each of the following three weekdays at the peak of rush hour.

On Wednesday, Newark police again cordoned off Broad and Market several blocks away from where they meet, snarling traffic on side streets. Per the protestors’ request, police did not attempt to intrude upon the human chain encircling the intersection, although a motorcycle cop did try to allow some buses to pass through that were already at the corner when Broad and Market were closed off.

Later, Brother Tru V, another member of the anti-violence coalition, used the microphone to refer to that police officer, an African-American, as a “house n****r” indifferent to Martin’s fate.

Organizers like Akinyele and Brother Tru V have said the rallies held since Monday have come at the request of ordinary individual citizens. Although the crowds have thinned considerably from a high of a few hundred Monday and Tuesday, the passion of the dozens of animated but peaceful protesters who turned out Wednesday seemed undimmed.

Neither city police nor representatives of the administration of Mayor Cory Booker responded to questions Wednesday about whether officials would at some point prohibit the protesters from essentially closing off the city’s downtown, where thousands of commuters normally pass through every weekday.