Somerville, MA, police officers are asking that the city’s mayor remove a banner supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement from City Hall and replace it with one proclaiming “All Lives Matter.”
In a Tuesday letter addressed to Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the Somerville Police Employee’s Association, the bargaining unit for 90-95 patrol officers, called the city’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the display of the banner “deeply” troubling.
“…we strongly object to a public banner sponsored by the City that [implicitly] 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 power in a discriminatory of unlawful way,” the letter said.
The letter didn’t sway Mayor Curtatone, who said he doesn’t plan to remove the banner.
“My unwavering support for our police officers does not and cannot preempt our commitment to addressing systemic racism in our nation,” Curtatone said in a statement to Boston.com.
In addition to the “Black Lives Matter” banner at City Hall, Curtatone said that he also ordered a banner honoring slain law enforcement to hang above the city’s police headquarters, and that both will remain in place.
