A Somerville, Massachusetts police union wants the mayor to take down a banner in front of city hall that shows support for the Boston offshoot of the Black Lives Matter movement.
According to CBS Boston, the city just northwest of Boston has displayed the banner since August of last year. Now, the Somerville Police Employees Association wants Mayor Joseph Curtatone to remove the banner and replace it with an “All Lives Matter” one immediately.
Tuesday, the police union released this statement highlighting their grievances:
“The Somerville Police Employees Association fully endorses the proposition that Black lives matter just as much as white, Asian, and Hispanic, and any others do. Similarly, we respect the rights of all American citizens, including those well-intentioned members of the BLM movement, to protest injustice.”
The statement continues …
“At the same time, we strongly object to a public banner sponsored by the City that impliedly paints police officers as the killers of innocent citizens of color when there is no evidence whatsoever that the police officers in the City are in anyway using their police powers in a discriminatory or unlawful way.”
The mayor released a statement of his own telling the union that the banner will stay.
“My unwavering support for our police officers does not and cannot preempt our commitment to addressing systemic racism in our nation. The City of Somerville stands against all violence and all injustice, which is why a Black Lives Matter banner hangs at City Hall and why a banner in honor of the slain officers is hanging at Somerville Police Headquarters where it would provide the most moral support to our officers—both on my order. Both banners will remain hanging.”
