Students lead rally in Bridgewater over arrest of Z’Kye Husain
BRIDGEWATER – School was out for the day, but students were still learning.
A group of Bridgewater-Raritan High School students on Monday afternoon led a march, from the Bridgewater Police Department to Bridgewater Commons and back, in response to officers’ handling of a fight at the mall last month that's been questioned as racially motivated.
The teens said they wanted to be a voice for those who've been unjustly accused because of their race, saying this time it happened in their own backyard.
It was their first taste of protesting, organizing and speaking out, and they were joined by a community of 50 adults who said they’ve seen all too often what children continue seeing today.
The adults were there to support, reassure and guide. "Don't worry, you'll get it," they told the teens. "By the time we are done, you'll be professionals."
When they reached the mall, the teens found their voices and spoke out against what seemed like police unfairly targeting 14-year-old Z'Kye Husain, who’s Black, which was captured in a video that's since gone viral.
Husain, a Black eighth grade student from Somerville, is shown in the video being forcefully detained by Bridgewater police following a fight with another teen, Umar Joseph Franco, who was described as “white” in some initial media reports but has now been identified as Hispanic.
The video shows Husain and Franco, a sophomore at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, arguing and pointing fingers at each other. That leads to pushing and shoving, and the Black teen, Husain, is thrown to the floor and handcuffed while Franco is placed on a nearby couch.
Ben Crump, a nationally recognized civil rights attorney who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin, has been retained to represent the Husain family. Crump has scheduled a rally and news conference Wednesday outside the Bridgewater Police Department to call for justice.
Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore Tanaya Durant, 16, whose idea it was to march, said she felt hurt when she saw the video.
"The fact that only people of my skin color got hurt, thrown on the floor, but the other one got to sit down, I didn't like that,” she said. “I wanted to make everybody feel like we matter too. All lives can't matter until Black Lives Matter."
Durant's parents supported her plan for the march with pride and understanding.
"She was doing this on her own, but then I realized it had evolved into something bigger," said Durant's mother, Lisa Bell-Durant. "I am so proud of her. I am proud of her friends. I am glad she is doing this on behalf of the students. These young kids are our future. Having them step up and realize that things are wrong is very important.
"This is a learning experience, and I am glad that so many adults came and decided to support them."
Durant's classmate, Cheryles Ward, 15, came to march because the video "hit home" for her. The mall is a place, she said, that is both comfortable and familiar for her.
"It is scary seeing people that could be you or that look like my family members getting hurt or killed by the police," Ward said. "I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this in my backyard."
With the rallying cry, “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” reverberating in the background, Durant said she knows what she wants to see – change.
"I want to see and be a part of making a change in the world," she said. "I want to be the person that keeps fighting for a change, even though obviously I'm not going to be there for long. I want to make sure that my kids, when I have kids, are safe. I want to walk without feeling the fear. As a young, Black teenager, I shouldn't have the fear of going outside because I'm afraid there could be consequences. I shouldn't know at this young age that people don't look to me as their equal."
It's my obligation
Tormel Pittman, a community leader from Middlesex County, has seen his share of these marches. Now a father of three in his 40s, Pittman said he’s proud of the teens, as well as his 22-year-old daughter, Mehlnae Pittman, who called out of work to come and support the cause.
"It is my obligation, she said. “I work at a day care and most of my kids in my class are Black. I felt like I would have been doing them an injustice if I didn't come here to fight for them and support Tanaya.
“That young man in that video, he is my brother. I have a 13- year-old brother. That is my brother. I don't want it to happen to my brother. That boy in the video, I'm out here for him. I'm out here for my kids and their kids and so on. We have to show up. We have to be present, and we have to stick together as a community."
Tormel Pittman led the group in chants and songs, teaching the teens what he knows.
"Who knows the purpose of demonstrations?" he asked them as he handed out small bullhorns. "To make noise. To make people uncomfortable. So if we are not loud and we are not yelling, then we are not that."
He praised Durant for having the courage to "step up, stand up and make her voice heard" and giving others the same opportunity.
"This is probably one of the most important demonstrations because it is being led by the kids,” he said. "It's important for me to be here to make sure that their voice is being heard and they are not ignored by the adults. But we also want them to be able to remain kids."
Pittman said he also wants people "to understand there is another child in the equation." Franco is part of the discussion and "is not the bad guy," he said, and he worries that Franco may now be the target of bullying.
Franco is shown in the video questioning why he is not being questioned or detained.
"We don't want to vilify him," Pittman said. "We want to make this a teachable moment. If everybody looks at him with the same vision we look at the officers with then we are doing nothing but what we claim he did.
“I would love for both of them (Franco and Husain) to come together and have a discussion and both of them become champions of change. That's one of the best things that could come out of this; see them work out whatever differences they had and move forward as children and future adults. I would love to have a discussion with him and see him grow into a responsible adult. We want both of the young men to learn and grow from this."
Pittman called the incident at the mall "a blatant disregard for a child's wellbeing by the police officers."
"That was obvious," he said. "The only two in the video who were trained were the officers. Those two kids aren't trained in anything. But, those officers, we expect more. We expect more compassion when they see a brown face. We expect more delicacy when you are dealing with a child, not slamming them on the floor, putting a knee on their back and hitting their head on a table. We need to focus on those officers.
"I would have a problem with any adult treating a child like that. We don't want to see that kind of action coming from any adult, let alone a trained police officer."
Bridgewater Mayor Matt Moench and Police Chief Paul Payne said last week they were to participate in a private roundtable discussion with local Black community leaders to discuss the incident.
The township said it also plans to host a public forum to discuss the issues of policing and public safety after Internal Affairs investigations of the incident are complete.
email: cmakin@gannettnj.com
Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Bridgewater NJ: Z’Kye Husain supporters rally, march to Commons mall
