Mayor Says Black Lives Matter Banner Will Stay

The mayor of Somerville, a largely white and historically working-class Boston suburb, had earlier in the day promised not to remove the banner despite complaints from officers across the state.

The police union’s president, Michael McGrath, says his officers support the “core goal” of the Black Lives Matter movement, but they believe the current banner sends an “exclusionary message” and is disrespectful to officers.

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.

Curtatone, a Democrat who is the 50-year-old son of Italian immigrants and has been mayor since 2004, has argued that standing up for black and minority residents and supporting police officers are not “competing interests”.

The police chief of Somerville, David Fallon, came out in support of the banner.

I want also to reiterate that I am the mayor of a city with a Black Lives Banner hanging from City Hall and an “In Honor and Remembrance” banner hanging at its police headquarters to honor the fallen officers in Dallas and also Baton Rouge.

The local police officers union says they’re considering their next steps.

‘To blame the violence against police against the whole movement of Black Lives Matter is wrong, ‘ he said. He says union members and other officers from around the state will hold a rally Thursday evening.

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. Come. Down, ‘ said Mayor Curtatone.

“It is inconceivable to us as it is demoralizing that our city would propagate its support for this movement while standing silent over the seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country”, he wrote last week. “It’s just right now we’re focusing on black lives”.

When asked whether he thought it was appropriate to place the Black Lives Matter banner on a government building, he replied: “No one can sit out this conversation”. 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. 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. Curtatone reiterated that the banner will continue to hang over City Hall.

What our residents and our officers made clear is they reject the notion that there are sides to pick here.

Somerville is a city of more than 80,000 residents that borders Boston and Cambridge and is home to most of Tufts University’s campus.

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