To the Editor:
The photos of police officers and protesters taking a knee and hugging have been very moving but the hostile and provocative police actions at the large Not One More Demonstration in Franklin Park action on Tuesday, June 2 clearly reflected an extremely different approach.
After a peaceful march and rally, in response to the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Black lives lost, as the protesters began to march out of the park, a phalanx of motorcycle police came roaring down the road toward Shattuck Hospital where the speakers had been and the protestors were exiting the park. The police’s sirens screaming and the lights flashing scattered the demonstrators. The police motorcycles were followed by two police cars and a police wagon which were also speeding as if there was an extremely dangerous action taking place. Again, with sirens and lights flashing.
It was a provocative show of hostile force. People were yelling at the police and the feeling was tense and threatening.
Dan Luker, a 70-year-old, Vietnam Veteran and an experienced Boston peacekeeper was shoved with a club by one officer and shouldered by another. He told me: “I have never seen the police as aggressive, angry and unfriendly as I did that evening. As the person who has coordinated Veterans for Peace Peacekeeping missions over the last several years, I have felt there was an element of cooperation with the police in the past, that was replaced at the end of this demonstration by an aggressive, threatening and confrontational stance by the police.”
Luckily the organizers of the demonstration had recruited peacekeepers who maneuvered in between the protestors and the police. One must wonder how much the fact that this demonstration was in the Black community motivated the police to come as if they were preparing for combat rather than to maintain order in a large gathering.
It has been very inspiring to see this movement take off. The levels of involvement of young people is extremely encouraging. White allies and activists, especially those of us in positions of privilege, must continue to use that privilege to push you, our leaders, to change.
While you have been saying some of the right things, change must go beyond words. The police need to be demilitarized. I also call on the mayor and the city council to hold hearings about the history of Faneuil Hall to see if the people of Boston want keep it as a monument to a slave trader. Is this not a small gesture toward racial justice with huge meaning for our city?
– Kelley Ready, Dix Street
