with Park Police
Protesters blocked two cement trucks from entering the construction site of a self-storage building behind the McDonald's on River Road in Bethesda Tuesday. Advocates for the desecrated and hidden Moses African Cemetery held the first of three protests this week at the site, over concerns that human remains could be disturbed by the project. When a Park Police SUV arrived at the scene near the end of the peaceful protest, demonstrator B.E. Farrow blocked it from entering as well, leading to a confrontation with the officer.
"We're on police business, back the f*** down," Farrow recounted the officer saying in a statement released by the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition today. Another protester, Chris Rigaux, recalled the unmasked officer saying, "Get the f*** out of my way. I am on official police business," to Farrow, who was wearing a mask. No arrests were made.
BACC has been monitoring the site daily, and report that there is no archaeologist on-site, as was required by the project's approved plan for the building's foundation work, the group said. The organization said they were forced to physically halt the work going on at the site after their pleas were ignored by the Montgomery County Council and the County Executive.
While the self-storage building's footprint is not within the recorded boundaries of the Moses African Cemetery, the concern has been that remains improperly buried beyond the property line could be disturbed during excavation. This has been a common issue with many black cemeteries. Advocates for the cemetery had suggested searching the site to ensure it was clear before approving the project, but that suggestion was unanimously rebuffed by the Montgomery County Planning Board. The Board also acquired an adjacent parcel of the property that actually was part of the burial ground, in order to prevent BACC from having any archaeological studies performed on that piece.
"This is a crime scene," Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, president of the BACC, said in a statement Wednesday. "This cemetery holds the bodies of innocent boys and girls, girls that were brutally raped unto death to provide slaves for the immoral slave trade. We will not allow their bodies to be further desecrated, to be covered by concrete, and their memories forgotten forever."
"We will be back every day until this digging is halted and Moses Cemetery is returned to its rightful owner: Macedonia Baptist Church," Dr. Coleman-Adebayo added.
Photos courtesy BACC
10 comments:
This has literally been *the* Black Lives Matter issue in Bethesda.
Do the bodies of freed slaves have value?
The only "crime" here is the protesters not respecting property rights. If they think the project plan (on-site archeologist) is not being followed, calls DPS (permitting). They usually get a person out the next day, and often the same day, if you report a code violation.
If the protesters care so much about the land of this alleged cemetery, they should make an offer to buy the land. That's how property rights work.
Da fuk? Wear a mask, officer.
12:15 PM
Black lives are more important than some "property rights" construct.
So when this was originally sold and became a parking lot or whatever no one cared then?
Protesting stuff is the fastest growing hobby.
Mr. Dyer, are you equally concerned about Trump's destruction of Native American burial grounds, so that he can build his Wall To Nowhere along our border with Mexico?
I wish they'd leave those black souls resting there in peace.
Are the out of town developers still trying to build a garage on top of the graves?
I still don't understand why there is no museum or even historical marker sign planned in the new Westwood development concerning black history in the area. There are more historical monuments in Bethesda about former car dealerships than black lives.
That would be nice. Where would funds come from?
That is a fair question.
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