Demonstration in response to shootings planned in downtown Riverhead Sunday

A demonstration in response to the shootings of two black men by police officers this week is being planned in downtown Riverhead Sunday.

Riverhead native Vanessa Vascez-Corleone said she is organizing the demonstration to in the hope that people join together and take a stand against what has been going on.

“Black men are being singled out,” she said. “It’s a scary thing to think that my husband or father or brother — or someday my son — could get pulled over and this could happen to them,” said Vascez-Corleone, who has a 3-year-old son.

“All lives do matter,” Vascez-Corleone said, referencing the retort to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

“This isn’t a black-white thing. It’s not attacking white America,” she said. “It’s against racism in the police force against African-Americans, who seem to be the ones being murdered most often by the hands of the police. This is about everyone coming together to stop this wrongdoing.”

Vascez-Corleone said her intention is in no way “a call for violence” or any kind of confrontation.

“It is a call for a peaceful gathering” she said. “It’s just about awareness and bringing everybody together of all races — whites, blacks, Spanish, mixed, whatever — to support one cause.”

A protest in Riverhead this weekend would be “an absolute mistake,” Town Supervisor Sean Walter said.

“Tensions are too high, emotions are too raw,” Walter said. “She may have the best of intentions, but this is only inviting the potential for people with bad motives to come to Riverhead to do harm,” he said,

“What we need to do is understand that all lives matter, from conception to death and get into our churches and synagogues to pray for God’s help so that we understand each other and support each other,” Walter said.

“I’m going to beg her not to do this right now,” he said. Walter said he would ask her not to do anything like this for two weeks. “I will help her with it,” he said. “We should do this as a community, in solidarity with the police department, the churches and the residents.”

Vascez-Corleone said she considered the supervisor’s request and put it to “a mutual vote on Facebook” and decided not to wait.

“Nobody wants to wait two weeks. They feel the need is urgent and we need to do this. We will keep it peaceful but the whole community is ready to take the same risk everyone else around the country is taking right now, Vascez-Corleone said.

People interested in participating should meet in the western portion of the Peconic River parking lot at 12 noon on Sunday. The demonstrators will then move to Peconic Avenue at about 12:30. She is getting together with friends tomorrow to make signs, she said.

Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force member Angela DeVito, who has organized several vigils in Grangebel park in response to previous acts of violence — the murder of Demitri Hampton, who was shot and killed during a home invasion, the mass murder in a South Carolina church last year and the mass murder in an Orlando nightclub last month — said she thinks a demonstration is a good idea.

“I would encourage people to attend to raise awareness about the need for us to have reasonable controls to prevent this violence,” DeVito said.

“I don’t believe any demonstration like this is an indictment of our local police. It’s a statement about a national issue,” she said.

“We need the start a dialogue. It’s a dialogue we should have in every community,” DeVito said.