At end of Saturday's Black Lives Matter rally, just as the chants of "No Justice, No Peace" died down, two young women turned toward the contingent of Newark and Port Authority police that loosely ringed the group in front of Penn Station, one with a bullhorn in hand.

"Thank you for your support, officers. Thank you for cooperating with us," said Jennifer Richardson, 21, a student at Berkeley College, Newark.

And then the group of about 150 gave the cops a round of applause. What happened next was an informal, unplanned meet-and-greet between police, protesters and the city's preachers that were there. They talked. They posed for pictures. Business cards were exchanged, along with promises of continued communication.

It's all about finding common ground, about finding the humanity," said Newark Police Sgt. Wilbur Cole, the department's veteran clergy and community relations liaison.

He was speaking to Dwayne Wilkins, 31, an activist from Montclair who was wearing a beret with a black power fist insignia.

"I'll call you, or you call me. We'll put together a forum," Cole told him.

Moments later, Wilkins reflected on their conversation.

"We all want to be safe," he said. "We all want to get home to our families. Distrust and hate isn't going to fix this. Understanding and love are going to fix this."

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"We know all cops aren't racist," said Seton Hall student Kelly Outing, 21, of Newark. "It's wrong to categorize them all that way. Look at these guys today. Look how hard they worked to block traffic so we could march."

True enough. The group formed on the Ironbound side of Penn Station, and for the first hour or so, there were more cops than protestors, though neither side was large in force.

The two dozen marchers left Penn Station for a walk up Market Street to the Essex County Courthouse complex, accompanied by five motorcycle cops and several marked cars and SUVs.

"Keep them safe. Make sure none of them gets hit by a car," Newark police Lt. Rich Casale told the cops as the march took off.

Also along were six members of the Newark Police Clergy Alliance, a group of pastors young and old, some with vast experience of police tensions in the city from the post-1967 riot decades.

The group picked up people at busy Broad and Market as police closed intersections along the the way, and again at the Essex County Hall of Records. About 150 made the downhill trek back to Penn Station, some holding signs that likened police to the KKK or depicted caricatures of black men with targets on them.

At a Friday press conference, Mayor Ras Baraka said Newark officials and police would "stand with people's right to protest."

"We will not interfere with people's First Amendment right," he said. "These are mostly God-fearing people, interested in justice, peace and equality."

Two protests were planned, and a third by the People's Organization for Progress is scheduled for today.

The first protest came outside of police headquarters on Clinton Avenue by the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition. This group predates "Black Lives Matter" by more than half a decade. The Coalition not only protests black deaths at the hands of police, but also black deaths at the hands of drug gangs and other criminals.

After a bloody weekend in Newark exactly seven years ago, the group formed at the urging of then-councilman Baraka. For five straight years - rain, sleet or snow -- they occupied intersections near the scene of homicides in Newark once a week, and police where there each time, controlling traffic. Friday as they displayed the names of five men shot by Essex County law enforcement in the last decade, the preachers mingled with them, also.

While police brutality is the focal point of the Black Lives Matter movement, some welcome partnering with police to better protect the community.

"We're all in this together," said Richardson, the young woman who led the applause. "This is the beginning of a new dialogue. It puts my mind at ease to start a conversation with them. We need them."

Since the five police officers were killed in Dallas, there have been three homicides in Newark and a fourth man died of injuries from gunshot last week. Last year there were 104 homicides in Newark, and 96 the year before.

The most recent killing of a civilian by law enforcement in Newark was Jose Quinonez, who was shot in 2013 by two narcotic detectives from the Essex County Sheriff's Office.

Some of the facilitators of those conversations will be the Newark Police Clergy Alliance, a group of a few dozen ministers with a 25-year history of straddling the thin blue line.

Elijah L. Williams, pastor of the Welcome Baptist Church, is a former cop. Jethro C. James of Paradise Baptist Church, is a longtime police chaplain. Bryant R. Ali of the New Psalmist Worship Center, sits on the Newark police civilian complaint review board.

"Our clergy alliance is one of the strongest in the nation," said Baraka on Friday when he and Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose announced plans to put reverends in patrol cars all weekend and into tomorrow.

"We have an opportunity to go out and keep things calm," said Pablo Pizarro, pastor of the Lighthouse Assembly of God in the North Ward.

Later on Friday, Ambrose met with more than a dozen members of the alliance and said their presence as "an independent person" riding in a car would help build public trust in police, considering the news of the latest shootings of black men by police.

"You may be able to save us from a Ferguson or Baltimore," he said. "I need you now."

Ambrose is getting three patrol cars painted the same yellow as the department's Harleys to carry ministers into the community beyond the weekend.

"All the Civil Rights changes in this country began with black churches," said James. "That is the reality. Now we can try to foster new relationships between police and the community."

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.