Mayor after Black Lives Matter protests: ‘Somerville, I love you’
A day after protesters gathered both in support and opposition to a “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging at Somerville City Hall, Mayor Joseph Curtatone took to Facebook with this message: “Somerville, I love you.”
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In a post published Friday, Curtatone praised city residents for the “civil discussion” that took place outside the municipal building. A rally in opposition to the banner was organized after the Somerville Police Employee’s Association penned an open letter to Curtatone this month, calling the mayor’s decision to display the banner, which was hung at City Hall last August, “deeply” troubling.
“It was a small number of police officers who showed up to protest the BLM banner hanging at City Hall and most of them were from other cities and towns,” Curtatone wrote. “At the end of their protest, pro-BLM folks came up to them, shook their hands and then everybody talked.”
At the same time, Curtatone said, Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in Union Square with Somerville police on site, talking “respectfully and amicably.”
“For all of you out-of-towners rolling in here trying to stoke a fire, allow me to give you the headline: we don’t have a fire,” he wrote, later adding, “So if you want to have a food fight, if you want to find a city where everybody’s going to tear at each other’s throats, you’re going to have find someplace else. #Somerville isn’t going to come apart at the seams for your entertainment.”
Curtatone wrote that the debate over the banner was started by one officer, while contract arbitration was underway between the city and the patrolmen’s union. He said the city would not get “sucked into this blue vs. black fight that some of you seem to want to have” but would treat both minorities and police with respect.
“To the surprise of no one who actually knows our city Somerville handled this with civility and dignity,” he wrote. “I invite people to learn from our example.”
Read Curtatone’s full post below:
https://www.facebook.com/jcurtatone/posts/952109354915300:0
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