SOMERVILLE, Mass. — About 50 police officers and their supporters upset about a Black Lives Matter banner that has been hanging outside City Hall for a year rallied on Thursday to try to pressure the mayor to remove it.
The primarily white opponents of the banner broke into chants of “All lives matter!” and “Take it down!” Many held signs saying “Cops lives matter” and “Support your local police.”
Harold MacGilvray, president of a coalition representing 1,500 officers in 26 communities, said a public building like Somerville’s City Hall is “no place” for political slogans to be displayed.
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.
Mayor Joe Curtatone, a white Democrat, said it’s “OK to disagree” and the only way to resolve the impasse is through an “open dialogue” about race.
“That sign is not coming down,” he insisted while standing in front of City Hall flanked by the police chief and two deputy chiefs.
The Somerville Police Employees Association was among the unions represented at the opposition rally Thursday evening outside City Hall. 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 had become “offensive” to them after this summer’s fatal attacks on police in Dallas and in Baton Rouge, La.
“The banner implies that Somerville police officers are somehow responsible for racially motivated decision-making against minorities,” he said.
As the police rally was breaking up, some Black Lives Matter supporters held signs saying “All lives can’t matter until black lives matter” or thanking the mayor for his stand.
