Then in August 2015, the month the Somerville banner went up, the St. Paul, Minn. Black Lives Matter chapter and other activists marched during the Minnesota state fair chanting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.” According to The Daily Caller, “The activists sang out the violent chorus chant just hours after a lone gunman shot 47-year-old Harris County sheriff deputy Darren Goforth while he was getting gas. The suspect approached the 10-year-old veteran from behind… And shot him in the back of the head.”
Afterwards the Harris County Sheriff said, “We’ve heard ‘Black Lives Matter,’ ‘All Lives Matter’—Well, cops’ lives matter too. So why don’t we just drop the qualifier and say ‘lives matter’ and take that to the bank.”
As the Nation debated the merits of the Black Lives Matter movement there was no debate in Somerville about the banner or the movement it represented. It’s clear Somerville officials ignored the actual movement and just supported the slogan.
But after Dallas police officers were killed by sniper fire during a Black Lives Matter march last month the banner was no longer a progressive slogan for Michael McGrath, President of the Somerville Police Employees Association.
McGrath sent a letter to the mayor stating the banner was demoralizing in light of the recent violence against police. The letter also said, “The vast majority of police officers across this country are tasked with shielding, protecting, and assisting elements of the protest movement that loathe them, spit on them, intentionally injure them, and wish death upon them.”
This point should have been made last year, but since it wasn’t McGrath went with the “soft approach.” Instead of asking for the removal of the banner he asked for it to be replaced with a banner that stated “All Lives Matter.”
The problem is in this context the rebuttal “All Lives Matter” becomes the political statement that has no place on City Hall and not the initial “Black Lives Matter” banner because it was hung with no political connotation intended.
So the Mayor played hardball with the police union and refused to replace or remove the banner.
In response the police union organized a rally and more than 100 police officers demonstrated in opposition to the Black Lives Matter banner. They carried blue signs that said: Cop’s lives Matter. And they wore tee shirts with the American flag that said, “Strength in Unity”.
As Somerville’s Mayor and their police union fought over how to decorate City Hall, Black Lives Matter, Cambridge didn’t respond to multiple media request.
They had no comment.
Maybe they matured in the past year and decided to leave the adolescence to the adults.
(J. Pharoah Doss is a contributor to the New Pittsburgh Courier. He blogs at jpharoahdoss@blogspot.com)
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