Letter To The Editor: No Kings Protest Slighted Veterans

Someone in Clarkstown Police Department management decided that moving the Veterans who wanted to counter-protest the anti-Trump “No Kings” Protest of Saturday June 14 at the Intersection of NYS Route 59 and Middletown Road from the Veteran Park North East Corner across the street to the South East Corner area in front of the Gulf Station.  This was not a proper action.

This act of disrespect might have occurred if not for the immediate presence of Stan Pascoo of the United Sportsman Association of Rockland.  He was the person instrumental over the last two decades for the actual transformation of the former abandoned neglected vest pocket park into the beautiful park we see today with sidewalks, stone work, benches, waterfalls and American flags.  For many years there were weekly Saturday afternoon demonstrations of patriotism.

Still as it was, the counter-demonstration supporting the current Commander-in-Chief did not receive a visible corner location but were marginalized with a space located adjacent to the Pascack Brook stream.  That spot was not visible to all traffic traveling through the intersection but only one out of the four directions of traffic.

All the time we hear people tell veterans “Thank you for your Service”.  As a USMC veteran of the Vietnam War Era who remembers how poorly veterans were treated wonders if this practice originated because people needed to alleviate their feeling of guilt regarding this or for never serving?  However, in this instance we have another moment of disrespectful hypocrisy where actions speak louder that words.

True, there were not many counter demonstrators but hopefully our number will increase as more people realize that the Trump victory was a lot closer than too many people want to believe.

In my twenty years serving on the NYPD the proper standard practice was to always provide a safe and secure area for counter demonstrators no matter the issue.  Especially for such emotional demonstrations as occurred on Saturday June 14.  Traditionally in Clarkstown pro government demonstrators have always occupied the South East Veteran Park corner and hopefully this will not be an issue in the future.