This is an open letter that was written by a 50+ Year Summer Visitor/Resident of Ocean City NJ. If you’d like to comment, you can do so below, and we encourage it but please, no hate. :

Read the Open Letter from a 50+ Year Summer Visitor/Resident of Ocean City NJ.

“RIP George Floyd, you were murdered in cold blood and we all mourn your death.”

*I love OCNJ.
*I am an anti-racism female Caucasian & support the right to assemble & to protest injustices in a peaceful way.
*I also respect your personal and political views, whether they are aligned with mine or not.

Regardless of your personal & political views, I feel like we are ALL being misled by this call for a “peaceful protest” here. Here’s why:
Who is this invite coming from? A burner account? An opportunist group that aims to divide and incite? Are they inviting us to a “peaceful protest” only to prey on our tears, pain and hurting hearts, only to “switch the script” on us to trigger our anger & rage to overcome us?

All I’m asking that each of us take a few minutes to PAUSE? Let’s take a few minutes to peel back the onion and assess the TRUE INTENT of the unknowns who are organizing and inviting us to this event? Is the intent truly rooted in our right to assemble and goal for a peaceful protest? YES? No? Maybe?

I feel like 98% of us will show up today to the bridge & entrance of our beloved OCNJ, with tears in our eyes and a broken heart. To assemble with our unified pain for what happened to George Floyd and watching our country in pandemic and the pain of racism against our other brothers and sisters. I believe that those of us contemplating showing up today is rooted in a sincere desire for a peaceful gathering and real change against racism.

AND…. I’m also very concerned that our pain and vulnerability is opportunistically being manipulated into thinking that we are joining a “peaceful protest” that will quickly “flip the switch” into something else where we find ourselves as unknowing & “unpaid extras” in a choreographed and unsafe assembly-turned-violent. All of us misled by unknowns who aim to incite anger, promote violence and further divide us.

Please do not respond without at least taking that pause. You may disagree and I may be wrong. I HOPE that I AM wrong, but please help me find these answers.

(1) Who is planning this?
(2) What are their sincere intentions?
(3) Did they follow procedures for a permit with the city for the assembly?
(4) Will we stay aware of our surroundings and notice the signs of a “flipping the script” from our peaceful intent into something else?
(5) Are we fully aware of the signs of the behaviors that aim to incite this peaceful intent into anger/outrage/violence?
(6) How will we respond and deescalate if/when this happens?
(7) How will we keep ourselves and our fellow peaceful protesters safe?

Whether you decide to join the event or not, please stay aware of your surroundings and the behaviors and intents of others. Most of all, please leave children at home and keep our OCNJ family & home safe.

***Feel free to copy/paste/share this on other OCNJ Facebook pages so that the ~98% of us with pure and peaceful intent can stay united and safe.

Feel Free To Comment Below.

Here’s the ‘Flyer’ that was circulating online :

Here’s copy of the ‘online flyer’ that was circulating. It states a peaceful protest will start in Somers Point, and cross over the bridge into Ocean City.