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.
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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.
Last week, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone denied a request 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”.
According to Worcester Magazine, Worcester Police Officer Tom Daly said the officer’s absence was due to the short notice of the rally, and they support the Somerville Police Department’s cause. Its president, Michael McGrath, said his officers support the “core goal” of the Black Lives Matter movement but believe the banner sends an “exclusionary message” and is disrespectful to officers.
“Someone hijacked that movement”, he said, “and now it’s nearly synonymous with killing cops”. Come. Down, ‘ said Mayor Curtatone. He noted the city has also hung a banner over police headquarters honoring the officers killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
The letter was written unbeknownst to Somerville Police Chief David Fallon, who said he’d prefer to keep politics out of policing.
Curtatone refused, and ordered a banner honoring slain members of law enforcement to be displayed alongside the “Black Lives Matter” sign.
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. Standing up for our minority populations and supporting the police officers who protect and serve our communities should go hand-in-hand.
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.
“Those banners do not represent competing thoughts”, Curtatone said. It is a violence that tests us in every community, demanding we either come together or break apart. Afterward I received an overwhelming response from people in my city thanking me for continuing to hang that banner along with the one at our police headquarters.
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City resident Roy Pardi, who’s white, said some people who don’t understand what Black Lives Matter means. That is why both banners will remain.
