Most of the police officers and their supporters seeking to remove the banner are white men.
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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.
City resident Roy Pardi, who’s white, said some people who don’t understand what Black Lives Matter means.
Before the march began, the woman told white people at the protest, “Take your rightful position, behind us”.
The Seahawks star cornerback, in an interview this week with the sports blog The Undefeated, talked about athletes, social activism and how he feels about the Black Lives Matter movement, reports For The Win.
He noted the city also has a banner over police headquarters honoring the officers slain in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas in retaliation over police killings of black citizens.
Sherman, who has always publicly voiced his opinion, placed blame directly on the Black Lives Matter movement when explaining his reasoning for not backing it. He tied their message and mission to advocating police violence. Curtatone reiterated that the banner will continue to hang over City Hall.
For there to be equity, black lives and lives of people of color who are marginalized need to matter, too, in this world. Where this is happening is in cities.
The sign above city hall’s main entrance has been in place for almost a year.
The Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition says it opposes the “exclusionary message” the current banner sends.
Banner outside the Somerville police station.
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”.
In a letter to Curtatone last week, the Somerville Police Employees Association said they are “deeply troubled” by the mayor’s decision to display the banner, while “standing silent over the seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country”, CBS Boston reported. The police chief of Somerville, David Fallon, came out in support of the banner.
Curtatone said opposition to the banner wasn’t shared by all police officers.
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“What our residents and our officers made clear is they reject the notion that there are two sides to pick here”, Curtatone said. It is about 74 percent white, 11 percent Latino, 9 percent Asian and 7 percent black, according to 2010 U.S. Census data.
