Ridley Marches for Justice

 Posting a bit late today:

Yesterday afternoon, there was a second Black Lives Matter march in my hometown of Ridley Township in PA. Unlike the march in early August, this one was peaceful, thanks in large part to a far more visible police presence. I didn't march but, because I live just a few doors from the end of the march at the township building, I went to observe.

I'd guess there were about 200 marchers; I can't estimate the number of counter-protesters, because they were clumped in little groups or strung out along the barricades set to separate them from the marchers. As in last month's events, the counter-protesters were vocal and, in many cases, abusive. It also seemed that, this time, they acted more like a Trump rally than a police-support group. (See the pictures below.)

The police I saw were polite and, indeed, very protective of the marchers. When one counter-protester near me began to hurl invective, one of the cops told him to knock it off. "That's what instigates violence," he told the heckler. "We want this to be peaceful."

There are times when I am both proud of and ashamed of my neighbors. In many ways, this was one of them.