Police unions from across MA are planning to protest the “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging at Somerville City Hall, after Mayor Joe Curtatone rebuffed a request from police to remove it.
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The Somerville Police Employee’s Association last week sent a letter to Curtatone, asking the mayor to remove the banner.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone denied a request last week from the officers to remove the banner, saying his “unwavering support” for police doesn’t pre-empt a commitment to “addressing systemic racism in our nation”.
“Those banners to do not represent competing thoughts”, Curtatone says.
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”. Come. Down, ‘ said Mayor Curtatone.
Police Chief David Fallon supported the mayor’s decision during a press conference July 21. “It’s just right now we’re focusing on black lives”.
About 50 police officers and their supporters have rallied to complain about a Black Lives Matter banner hanging outside a suburban Boston city hall.
The Democratic mayor says standing up for black residents and supporting police aren’t mutually exclusive. He notes the city also honors officers recently slain in Texas and Louisiana with a banner over police headquarters.
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.
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For now, we can only be grateful that increasing numbers of people understand that the safety of young black men and police officers are bound up together, as they always have been, and both of these are bound up with other practices that reflect a deeply embedded legacy of marginalization. He said then it was meant to recognize that “structural racism” exists in society and stressed it wasn’t a criticism of his police department. 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.
