Taunton BLM and thin blue line supporters face off during peaceful but heated rallies – Taunton Daily Gazette

Susannah Sudborough|The Taunton Daily Gazette

TAUNTON Two cultures and ideologies clashed verbally on the Taunton Green Saturday morning as people supporting the controversial thin blue line flag mural at Taunton High School rallied and were met by Black Lives Matter counter-protesters.

Each group claimed a side of the Green, putting up their flags and playingmusic. On the pro-police side, rally-goers waived thin blue line flags, raised one American flag and played country and classic rock music.

On the Black Lives Matter (BLM) side, protesters put up BLM flags, rainbow flags with the word "peace" on them, the transgender rights flag and the Philadelphia-style pride flag, which includes black and brown stripes for Black and brown peopleand pink and blue stripes for transgender people. Beyonc, A Tribe Called Quest and Bob Marley, as well as other Black artists, could be heard playing near the flags.

The pro-police side had approximately 10 to 15 people, while the BLM side had at least 20. Over time, the BLM side slowly began to encroach upon the pro-police side, as more and more counter-protesters came over to have a conversation with their ideological opponents.

While there were some heated exchanges, the situation never got violent. Taunton police were standing nearby just in case.

During one exchange, Haverhill resident Ernst Jean-Jacques Jr., who was supporting BLM, went back and forth with Garrett Rainey, a Taunton High School student who helped arrange the rally in support of the thin blue line flag.

"Well, we don't want it to mean anything like that," Rainey said.

"It's too close. It's tooclose to Donald Trump hijacking it, turning itinto the opposition of Black Lives Matter. That's what it looks like right now," Jean-Jacques said.

"We never think of that," Rainey said.

Things got tense when a man, who did not identify himself, called out to Jean-Jacques "This flag is mostly black, you should be happy."

Some swearing occurred, but those nearby on both sides worked to calm things down.

"This is a rally to support police in schools," Rainey said.

"Police shouldn't be in schools to begin with!" Jean-Jacques said.

When the same man who had called out to him before objected to this idea, Jean-Jacques countered, "Do you have kids?"

"Yes I do," the man said.

"When they fight, do you call the police, sir? No the hell you don't!" Jean-Jacques said.

"If there's a f---ing weapon in there, yes I would!" the man shouted back.

Both sides made it clear they were there to weigh in on the Taunton High School thin blue line mural issue.

"I just wanted to support the police, especially the police officers in our school, withthem trying to take the flag down," Rainey said. "I support that flag. I thought it was more of a memorial flag than anything."

Rainey said that in his conversations, he had found the counter-protesters "somewhat friendly." He said many of those who came over to talk to them were agitators, while others were simply having a good time. Regardless, he said, they all had a right to be there.

"I know that they're here against police. A lot of themwhen we say something that they don't like, I see that they start getting very argumentative," he said."[These little girls were] standing here and they had to close their ears because they'reswearing so much. They're saying some awful things. I didn't really like that. My dad had to keep reminding them 'Language, language.'"

But Rainey and Jean-Jacques agreed they had some common ground.

"We both agree that we still respect the police in a sense. And then we also agree thatevery Black life matters," Rainey said.

Many people attending the rallies on both sides were not from Taunton, butsurrounding communities. A social justice group from West Bridgewater was in attendance, as well as people from BLM Rhode Island.

Two college students from Boston College drove down to show their support for the thin blue line flag as a part of Turning Point USA,a right-wing organization that advocates conservative narratives on high school, collegeand university campuses. They said the organization hadinformed them of the rally and the conflict at Taunton High.

"We support our law enforcement. They're essential, and they do a lot for us. They protect us. It's the least we can do," said Boston College student Addy Nini.

"These days, they're gettinga lot of hate from a lot of people. So we just want to show them that that's not for everyone, and we definitely care about what they're doing,"Boston College studentDavid Crowley added.

Rita Fiorello came from Plymouth to show her support for the BLM protesters.

"The blue line flag was madeas a counter protest to Black Lives Matter," she said. "I don't really believe that it's about the police. It'sracist."

Fiorello was holding a thin blue line flag herself, but it had the words "all jobs matter" on it in protest.

"You have two different groups of people with two different sets of facts," she said. "It's hard to convince somebody that theirfacts are not correct."

But there were also Tauntonians on both sides as well. Alison Rosa, whose son goes to Taunton High, was there in support of the taking the thin blue line flag mural down.

"One of the biggest things that should have been done beforethe kids go back is decolonizing the schools, making sure that there's nothing that would make anybody feel unsafe," she said.

"It's not a place to worshipjobs or police officers. They're there for education. All of this has just been crazy. And I wanted to show support to this side, becausethe flag needs to come down. If you want to make a mural, make it inclusive."

Lt. Eric Nichols, who has been involved in the discussions about the flag mural between students and school resource officers (SROs), said that progress has been made on this issue. He said they have had four meetings, and that it's resulted in a "positive dialogue."

"A lot of people want to voice their opinion from the outside, but how many of them have really spoken to these kids?" he said.

As a result of the discussion, Nichols said, one student who had been against the flag said she had never felt comfortable going to the SROs. He said the SROs saw this as a failure on their part to not have reached out enough to make her comfortable.

In response, he said, the SROs came to her basketball game to support her, and ended up repairing that relationship.

Nichols also said that this had been a good learning experience for the officers in having to have tough discussions and finding a good solution, and that at the end of the day, the SROs just want the students to be comfortable.

"What's important is what's important to these students," he said.

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Taunton BLM and thin blue line supporters face off during peaceful but heated rallies - Taunton Daily Gazette