Protests in Cold Spring Gain National Attention

By Cassandra Traina

The Fourth of July weekend was eventful in Cold Spring, NY. Given that celebrations across the country were marred by the coronavirus pandemic as well as the social justice movement known as Black Lives Matter, sweeping the nation, this year’s holiday felt different to those who celebrated. Many chose not to celebrate Independence Day this year at all, questioning who is truly independent and what it’s history represents at its origins, being black slaves found no freedom on July 4, 1776 and still face systemic racism in America today. The Cold Spring community itself seems to be divided on Black Lives Matter and other notable political issues, namely Trump’s 2020 campaign for re-election. This division was seen clearly in a small protest that grew in size as the weekend went on, finally gaining the attention of national media sources such as Perez Hilton thanks to the power of social media. When longtime resident Ed Polhemus sat outside of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at the intersection of Chestnut and Main St., he quickly gained the attention of locals. He had staked into the ground a large banner supporting Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, with the updated “Keep America Great” slogan beneath Trump’s name. It seemed to locals that Polhemus’s presence in front of the church was a display of strength, and an assertion of his conservative values. While it was in his right to do so, some took offense not to the act, but the message he was conveying. Soon––his presence garnering the attention that Polhemus no doubt hoped for–– others joined him on the corner. However, he had not just engaged the interest of supporters but, opposers alike.

Resident Heather Winne who, with her older brother and several friends, were amongst the first to respond in opposition with their own physical presence at the corner on July 1st. When asked why she was protesting the banner, Winne stated

“Trump represents hate, ignorance, racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ+, etc. and to someone who is a minority, a person of color, a woman, part of the LGBTQ+ community, I really felt the need to stand up against this man and let others know that there are people in this community that don’t agree with his views. Heather went on to say “I wanted to be a part of something that’s bigger than myself. With everything that’s going on currently I wanted to do anything I could to support the movements, even if it was just protesting one man.”

Winne, Heather. 2020. JPEG file.

It was on the second day, July 2nd, that these modest protests started gaining more attention with the aid of Kelly Cutrone, a publicist, author, and television personality with thirty years of experience in the fashion industry who has a large instagram following of nearly 200,000. Cutrone, who has owned a house in Cold Spring for 20 years was headed to her office on Main St. when she noticed that Polhemus and his banner––which had now been attached to the back of his pickup truck––had moved in front of Whistling Willies, a local pub that permanently closed earlier this year. With him that day was a sole, unidentified protester. The masked protester sat more than 6 ft away from Polhemus, who himself sat in a lawn chair beside his truck. The protester brought with him a wooden sign, spray painted with the words “Trump is a racist. Black Lives Matter” on it.

Cutrone, Kelly. 2020. JPEG File.

Cutrone came back later that day, compelled by the image before her and fatefully recorded two additional men who, sparked by the presence of the young BLM protester, entered the scene to voice their opinions of the situation. Oddly, this interaction did not really involve the two seated protesters, but turned to become an increasingly tense argument between the two men and Cutrone. In the video the two men, one who has been identified as John Landolfi a volunteer firefighter and retired cop, and the other who seemingly lives nearby and has been identified as John Ormiston had come to confront the BLM protester by measuring the distance between him and Polhemus, trying to see if he was following the 6 ft distance recommended by the CDC. But in doing so, they break that 6 ft distance themselves, invading the young man's space. Neither Landolfi, Ormiston, nor Polhemus was wearing a mask.

From there, a heated conversation commences, with the participants becoming more hostile as the video progresses. When Cutrone moves the camera from the BLM protester to the Trump supporter comparing the two as "cool kids vs. rednecks," respectively, Ormiston takes offense to the name, calling it a "racist term." Landolfi begins to leave, but not before voicing his own discontent one more time that the BLM protester has joined Polhemus on the corner. What followed was a sprawling and varied argument in which Ormiston gives Cutrone a history lesson on George Washington's supposed naming of the town, gives comments on Cutrone's appearance, questions "don't all lives matter," and asks where the media attention is for "all those killings in Chicago over the weekend," as well as referencing a specific Engelwood case in which a 20 month old child died due to gun violence as his mother drove away from a laundromat on June 27th. Then in a confusing departure from the Chicago gun violence he seemed to be fixated on, a visibly agitated Ormiston says "why don't you take care of what's going on in your own community first." Cutrone replies "we are, we're taking care of racism, that's whats going on here," and then references Cold Spring's notorious KKK history. A few more words are exchanged and Ormiston retreats back to his apartment before Cutrone cuts the video,

The BLM protester is not completely silent throughout the argument, although he remains stoically calm. He interjects once to keep the peace, stating that he believes the two parties both have a right to say something.

When the exchange ended, Cutrone took the recording and put it on instagram, using her platform to confront racism in her own backyard. Today the video has nearly 52,500 views and 592 comments. It was picked up by Perez Hilton, who says Cutrone is a dear friend. On his own instagram page the video has been viewed over 110,000 times.

Possibly due to the media exposure, the following day Polhemus would be joined by several more young protesters there to counter him and his message. A few days into the counter-protests the group, consisting of mainly Generation Z liberals grew to at least 13, finding solidarity amongst themselves.

Cutrone in part of her caption of the last of three instagram posts relating to this event wrote

"I received some pretty racist dms from people in town asking me to prove how racism exists etc but I also had the opportunity to text with the young people of the town most of whom are passionate, eloquent and committed to making the town the best it can be!(...)."

She echoed this sentiment over the phone, saying "I think the kids in Cold Spring are great, intelligent, smart, and in a beautiful town. If I'm in a casino I'm betting on the youth of Cold Spring."

One of those young protesters was Freya Wood-Gallagher, 18, who wrote

“The intersection of Whistling Willies and Main St. is in a lot of ways the center of Cold Spring; it is what people drive through when they are just passing through Cold Spring, and it’s where people start their drive down Main St. when coming from Beacon, Fishkill or Garrison. To have this symbol of hate and racism at the center of our small, already white town seemed like accepting defeat.”

Cutrone, Kelly. 2020. JPEG File.

Older members of the Cold Spring community were quick to add to the protest in several other forms. A few protesters stated that on the 4th of July, they were cursed and yelled at as well as received supporting honks. One instance that stood out that day was when Donnie Yannitelli, owner of Yannitelli's Wine & Liquors at 55 Chestnut St drove past the group and proceeded to shout expletives while revving the engine of his large pick-up truck so to produce noise and exhaust in the protesters direction before peeling out suddenly, leaving a dark skid mark behind him. Since then, citizens of Cold Spring have called to boycott Yannitelli’s, as it’s locally known. One call for the boycott comes from longtime resident Ivy Meeropol, who made the appeal to her facebook friends, stating “Please join me in condemning this despicable behavior, we will not tolerate this in our community. TIME TO BOYCOTT YANNITELLI'S!!”

In a conversation with Cutrone we discussed the recent events, including the fall out she has faced since posting the video online. Due to the video's popularity, she says that in addition to the outpouring of support, she has received harassment from several Cold Spring residents via instagram direct messaging. One harasser is John Ormiston's 16 year old daughter who has sent her various messages threatening her with physical violence. When the harassment began to make Cutrone feel unsafe, she reached out to the Putnam County Police Department asking for help. According to Cutrone, she was not given the attention or aid she had hoped for and was disappointed by Deputy Sheriff Andrew Kristan who she says blamed her for starting trouble in the first place by posting the video.

But Cutrone says she did not intend to become so involved when she first came upon the scene. However, not knowing where the dynamic would lead to, she remembers thinking the young BLM protester who was alone needed some backup and thus decided to record it. After the argument unfolded Cutrone ultimately decided to post the video.

She wants to note that she loves Cold Spring as she wrote in the the beginning of the above mentioned instagram caption, "I also [sic] want to make it very clear that I love Cold Spring and the Hudson Valley."

She reiterated these sentiments on our phone call saying,

"I think the majority of Cold Spring is really nice and just want to have a nice life, but there are other people, and they have to understand that they're not gonna get away with this [racism] anymore.

This could be said of the United States on a larger scale as Black Lives Matter protests are spreading throughout the country in response to George Floyd's murder at the hands of four Minneapolis Police Officers as well as other recent racially motivated murders to shake the nation such as the cases of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. While as many as 26 million Americans have participated in the recent Black Lives Matter Protests, making it the largest US protest in history according to the New York Times, systemic racism prevails, staining every aspect of America today. Many are left wondering if the circumstances today are right to finally turn the tide of American culture.

As Cutrone says, "What happens to water when it doesn't move? It becomes a swamp."