Nearly two weeks ago, President Barack Obama had said it’s key for officers to get to know the community they’re protecting. Curtatone reiterated that the banner will continue to hang over City Hall.
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About 50 police officers and their supporters upset about a Black Lives Matter banner that has been hanging outside City Hall for almost a year rallied on Thursday to try to pressure the mayor to remove it.
It says they support the “core goal” of the Black Lives Matter movement but believe the banner sends an “exclusionary message”.
Nevertheless, a statewide organization of local police unions planned to join the Somerville Police union at a rally last night at City Hall to protest the Black Lives Matter banner.
The banner, which has been up since August of 2015 has caused a stir within the state and throughout the country, with the president of the Somerville police union Michael McGrath citing that the banner depicts police officers as “killers of innocent citizens of color”.
Police Chief David Fallon supported the mayor’s decision during a press conference July 21. Recently, after the killing of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, an “In Honor and Remembrance” banner also was hung from the police station.
“This is an anti-police rally”, the Black Lives Matter activist yelled out to the crowd over the PA system.
McGrath has not indicated how many officers will be at city hall for Thursday’s protest, but told Curtatone in the letter, “police officers will be carefully watching for your supportive response to this most important request”. Standing up for our minority populations and supporting the police officers who protect and serve our communities should go hand-in-hand.
The union wrote a letter to Curtatone last week demanding the banner removed from City Hall and replaced with one that says “All Lives Matter”. At the time, he said it was meant to recognize that “structural racism” exists in society and stressed it was not a criticism of his police department.
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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Curtatone has since said he will also seek to equip officers with body cameras, something some civil rights activists have called for in the wake of police-involved killings.
