City won't remove Black Lives Matter banner despite police pleas [View all]
Wicked Local reports the local union published a letter Tuesday calling for Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone take down the banner that has hung since Aug. 19, 2015 and replace it with an “All Lives Matter” banner.
“The Somerville Police Employees Association and its members are deeply troubled that the city continues to display the Black Lives Matter banner above the main entrance of City Hall. 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,” Somerville Police Union President Michael McGrath said in a July 19 letter to Curtatone.
But Curtatone said his support for police officers cannot preempt his commitment to addressing systemic racism locally and nationally.
“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,” Curtatone told the Journal in a statement Wednesday. “Both banners will remain hanging.”
When the banner, which features the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, a picture of the Prospect Hill monument, the city seal, and its sponsors, the City of Somerville and the Somerville Police Department, was placed over the main entrance to City Hall last summer, Curtatone called it a statement.
More with Video: http://www.wcvb.com/news/somerville-will-not-remove-black-lives-matter-banner-despite-police-pleas/40808016
Thank you, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone~ Somerville, Mass
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