For Brookline police officers, the past is present tense
“Look at this,” Brookline Police Chief Daniel O’Leary said, gesturing toward the gift shop at Boston’s Museum of African American History.
A replica of a vintage sign dated April 24, 1851, advised “Colored people of Boston, one & all” to not converse with “watchmen,” as police were known then.
O’Leary, a tall man in a trench coat, shook his head with a bit of awe, a bit of sadness.
“It’s the same thing today,” O’Leary said.
What he meant is that police officers are still feared.
So he decided to teach his officers a bit of history.
Read the complete story at BostonGlobe.com.
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