IN TEANECK, A CALL FOR RACIAL HARMONY; Over 100 Gather in Peacefull Rally Against Injustice

By Laurie C. Merrill and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, May 3, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A03

Saying the time is right to work for racial harmony, a score of civic and religious leaders told a rally of some 100 people in Teaneck on Saturday that the Rodney King beating case underscores the injustice and prejudice that permeate society.

“We are at a very dangerous point in our society. The schism between the races is greater than ever before,” said Franklin Wilks, a lawyer for the Bergen County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“In the absence of faith in our legal system, there is nothing left by anarchy,” Wilks added.

In apparent preparation for the afternoon rally at Teaneck’s Municipal Complex, police had barricaded the doors of police headquarters with plywood. But the mood of the interracial crowd was conciliatory, and when the rally ended, participants departed quietly.

Across New Jersey, streets were calm Saturday afternoon, and in Manhattan, the Rev. Al Sharpton led a peaceful march of about 1,000 people. There was no repeat of the violence that flared briefly in Jersey City and Newark on Friday, responses to the acquittal in Los Angeles of four white policemen who beat King and were videotaped doing so.

Several speakers bemoaned the poor attendance especially by teenagers at the NAACP rally held to speak out against injustice.

“Injustice has corrupted us all,” said Wendy Dunlap, 16, of Hackensack, a member of the NAACP Youth Board. “All of us must work to end it, especially young people.”

And many speakers, including several Teaneck council candidates, spoke of other social issues, stressing the need to improve conditions in cities, obliterate the drug trade, improve education, and increase employment.

The ghost of Phillip C. Pannell was invoked. The youth was fatally shot two years ago by white Police Officer Gary Spath, who was acquitted of reckless manslaughter in February. Pannell’s parents, Thelma and Phillip, spoke at the rally.

Thelma Pannell said she had predicted that the four officers would be acquitted, as Spath had been. And Phillip D. Pannell said: “I’m mad as hell. . . . There is no justice in this country for the people of color.”

Many at the hourlong rally sounded a similar theme: Remove President Bush. Said local NAACP President Robert Robinson, “We need to change George Bush from the White House to the poor house.”

Those who gathered under the bright sun came for different reasons. Some have attended the rallies that had been held almost weekly since Pannell was killed. Others came to express outrage over the King verdict.

William Johnson, 27, of Englewood said the Los Angeles police officers guilt was never in doubt. “What better proof do you need than that videotape?” he asked.

“I think the verdict in Los Angeles was as unjust as the verdict for Gary Spath,” said Eva Michael, 38, of Teaneck. “I believe it’s a much bigger issue than these two court cases. It’s the whole issue that is going on in the country. We have a racist society.”

Former Teaneck Mayor Bernard Brooks, 56, said that at least Teaneck faces its problems.

“I think if you look at towns like Teaneck, Teaneck tries,” Brooks said. “I’m not suggesting that Teaneck is a perfect place, but it tries. Look at this crowd. You’ve got all kinds of people here. Right after the Pannell thing, you had all kinds of people trying to get together and do things. But even then, there are still divisions.”

In Jersey City, streets were quiet and merchants said business was slower than they expected a week before Mother’s Day.

“It’s nice and calm and peaceful,” said Jay Kang, owner of Jay Discount Jewelry on Journal Square, who late Friday afternoon was locked inside his shop with dozens of customers as youths looted several stores.

Record Staff Writer Neil Reisner contributed to this article.

Caption: PHOTO – An interracial crowd rallying outside the Teaneck Municipal Complex on Saturday in protest of the Rodney King verdict. – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD

VANDALISM INCIDENTS PROBED IN TEANECK

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, April 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

Township police are investigating five incidents of vandalism along Teaneck Road in which windows at two businesses, a private residence, and the Bryant School were broken Thursday night.
In the first incident, about 5:30 p.m., a woman reported that someone threw a rock through the passenger side window of her car parked on Sherman Avenue, near Teaneck Road.
The vandalism occurred in the wake of an impromptu march Wednesday by students marking the first anniversary of the death of Phillip C. Pannell, a black 16-year-old who was shot by a white township police officer. The window of a police cruiser was shattered.

Keywords: TEANECK; DEMONSTRATION; ANNIVERSARY; VANDALISM; POLICE; SHOOTING; YOUTH; DEATH

SATANIC CULT DIGS UP GRAVE; SECOND INCIDENT OF DESECRATION

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 18, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

The graveyard with a single plot lies amid industrial buildings on Washington Avenue in Carlstadt, obscured by an overgrowth of weeds. But vandals managed to find the grave and dig it up Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, Carlstadt Detective Sgt. Michael Barbire said the vandalism was the work of a satanic cult the second time since last year that a grave has been desecrated by a cult. Last year, the gravesite of Thomas Fransen Outwater, one of North Jersey’s pioneer settlers, was torn up, and his skull was removed. Outwater’s grave is about 40 feet from the site of Wednesday’s damage.

Barbire said a worker in a nearby factory called police to report the vandalism at the plot, where a man named Henry Gordes was buried at least 100 years ago.

The hole “only goes down about four or five feet this time,” Barbire said. “As far as we could tell, we don’t think they went down deep enough to disturb the remains. Whether they were scared off or not, we don’t know. “

Barbire said only Gordes name was visible on the tombstone and that police would not dig up the stone to determine the date of his death or burial.

More disturbing to police was an inverted cross found stuck in the mound of sand at the head of the hole, Barbire said. The way the cross was embedded in the mound was indicative of a satanic ritual, he said.

The cemetery plot is on a strip of land owned by the Third Reformed Church of Hackensack. The Rev. Paul Janssen, pastor of the church, said he was unaware of the existence of the grave.

Last year, in the nearby Outwater Cemetery, vandals dug up the graves of Outwater and his wife and took his skull. His scattered bones were later reassembled at the Carlstadt Police Department and reburied during a ceremony in the town in July.

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – DANIELLE P. RICHARDS / THE RECORD – Carlstadt Police Detective Sgt. Michael Barbire at a gravesite that is believed to have been dug up by members of a satanic cult on Tuesday night.