ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ – Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario M. Kranjic ordered 18-year-old Black Lives Matter protest organizer Emily Gil to pay the city $2,500 for police overtime to provide law enforcement security during the event. The July 25th protest was attended by approximately 30 people.
After alerting the mayor to her protest in advance, Kranjic told the young woman he has to have police at the event.
“He said, ‘So now that you’ve alerted me that this is going on, I’m going to have to send the police to you,'” Gil said in an ABC 7 interview. “So it wasn’t something that I specifically requested. It was something that he imposed on me.”
Leftist Democrat Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr., approximately 99 years old, never saw a good news story he couldn’t politicize and he did just that.
“Protest is a right in our community. This bright young woman – and a stellar former intern in our office – is standing up for justice and apparently being sanctioned for it. The move to punish Emily Gil should be rescinded immediately,” the elder statesman said.
The mayor eventually rescinded the bill after the story became an international viral story. Kranjic said billing event organizers for police overtime is routine. He also invited Emily to channel her activism and offered for her to volunteer to help the local police department.