“The rally will be peaceful and respectful, but will demonstrate the solidarity of police organizations in MA to the exclusionary message that the banner sends”, McGrath said.
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Curtatone issued the statement one day before a statewide organization of local police unions is set to join the Somerville Police union at a rally at City Hall to protest the Black Lives Matter banner.
During another Black Lives Matter (BLM) rally in Philadelphia, a march organizer was caught on video making a case to segregate the media, demanding that white reporters move to the back to allow black reporters to stand in front of the group of reporters observing the rally..
In a July 19 open letter to the mayor, McGrath said the Black Lives Matter movement has evolved from the grassroots advocacy group that emerged in 2014 following the deaths of young black men like 18-year-old Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri.
The president of the Somerville Police Employees Association, Michael McGrath, organized the protests against the banner, and police officers from across MA plan to participate. “Promoting our police, and praising our police, and fighting against racism go hand in hand”, Curtatone said.
First, there is a misperception that the Black Lives Matter Movement means only “some” lives matter.
But Curtatone said he has heard from members of the public, “thanking me for continuing to hang that banner along with the one at our police headquarters”. Also critical, he said, was to better train police to avoid “implicit biases”.
“Both of those banners are hanging for the same reason: too many people have died in a cycle of violence that needs to be stopped”, Curtatone said in a statement.
Somerville police chief David Fallon chided the union for getting involved in the debate.
Despite the banner’s presence for almost a year now, it’s recently caught a lot of slack due to recent events in which police officers targets following the officer-involved shooting deaths of black men Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
Curtatone said opposition to the banner wasn’t shared by all police officers. He also said he’s “proud” of the response from residents, community leaders, faith-based leaders and activists, and he rejected the notion officers would face reprisals if they attended the opposition rally.
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Somerville is a city of more than 80,000 residents that borders Boston and Cambridge and is home to most of Tufts University’s campus.
