'Blatantly False': Summit Chief Denies Kneeling During 'Defund The Police' March

SUMMIT, NJ — In response to a Facebook commenter who accused Summit Police Chief Steven Zagorski of kneeling during a "defund the police" march in 2020, the Chief released a statement, denying the accusation.

After the Summit Police Department posted an alert on Facebook about an armed robbery that took place at the Arch Sunoco gas station on Sunday, one user commented, "The Summit police kneeled down as the Defund the Police groups marched through our town. What did you think was going to happen?"

In his responding statement, Zagorski said to his knowledge, there has never been a "defund the police" rally in Summit.

"You may be referring to the BLM marches that took place in Summit, and around the world, in 2020 following the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer," Zagorski said.

More than 1,500 Summit residents held a protest for racial justice outside of Summit's Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School to show their support for the "Black Lives Matter" following the the death of George Floyd in June of 2020.

Zagorski clarified in his statement that he was the only police officer who knelt at the protest, but he said he did not do so in support of defunding the police.

"To suggest that I [knelt] in support of defunding the police is not only absurd but blatantly false, and you do not know me at all," Zagorski said.

"Your suggestion maliciously distorts the importance of the message I was trying to relay to the men and woman under my command and to the public I’ve sworn to protect and serve and that is: as a police officer and a human being, I strongly believe that the life of a black man matters as much as the life of any other man and I don’t care who knows it," Zagorski continued.

"And that as a police leader I would not tolerate the type of behavior which led to Mr. Floyd’s death. I’m not afraid to stand by this message and I won’t apologize for it.”

Councilman Greg Vartan commented on Zagorski's statement and thanked the Chief for his message.

"Since I've been on Council, I can't recall a single time Council has ever rejected a request for funding from the Police," Vartan wrote. "Your leadership has proven that supporting law enforcement and advocacy for fair and equitable policing are not opposing values."

The full Facebook post can be viewed below:

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