Holiday goers, grand-jury protesters to vie for space on Tremont Street tonight

If someone showed up at your Thanksgiving table and interrupted to protest famine on the other side of the world how would you take it?

I venture to say not well!

If so, then you don't pay much attention because the person who gathered the data called out the ACLU for misinterpreting it.

The study also found that black neighborhoods saw more FIOs than white neighborhoods, even after researchers controlled for crime rate, with each 1 percent increase in black residents bringing with it a 2.2 percent hike in FIOs.

“What is the conclusion?” said Anthony Braga, a professor at Harvard University and Rutgers University, who is one of the study’s two lead authors. “One is that, when we analyze the FIO activity of the Boston Police Department, we do find patterns that suggest racial disparities in the way it is being executed in neighborhoods. That said, we also see that the Boston Police Department is using FIOs in ways that you would expect given their crime control mission.”

In its analysis, the ACLU stated that of all the FIOs recorded, none led to arrest, and only 2.5 percent led to seizure of contraband.

But Braga said that interpretation is wrong. FIOs, he said, aren’t necessarily intended to lead to arrest, and the majority do not involve searches. When an FIO does turn up contraband or an arrestable offense, it is no longer considered an FIO.

They pulled over mostly people of color because it just so happens they are pulling people over where the guns are and where homocides are occuring, which happens to be a neighborhood with mostly people of color. You can't complain about gun violence and unsolved homocides and then out of the other side of your mouth find fault when the police try to do something about it and scream racism. That gig needs to stop yesterday.- It's pathetic.

They're not a magazine or whatever to be taken as gospel. Boston, with all its problems, both past and present, imho, is NOT any more racist than other cities here in the United States.

1 out of 100s? Congratulations, police brutality is over!

Yeah so ruin a fun kids' Christmas event for all the other city kids? Okay, that makes sense. What an ignorant jerk.

You're missing what this is about. These people aren't protesting the BPD, they are protesting this as a national issue. That is why the President is talking about it as are politicians and other leaders around the country. If they are protesting the BPD specifically, I personally think they are misguided. Assuming this will be a peaceful demonstration, a strong and wise response to this protest by BPD and the union would be an affirmation that in Boston we understand people's right to free speech, and that BPD is committed not to doing the kinds of very unfortunate things that have happened elsewhere, which I think is a true statement.

Just because a few high-profile incidents happened in other cities does not mean that other cities are free from racism. I assure you, non-white people in Boston deal with racism every single day. Look, here we are discussing this on a site that is almost entirely white commenters, with a few exceptions. Where are the people of color? Well, look at all the racist comments with 50+ upvotes, and then wonder why anyone who isn't white would want to look at that? Here's some systemic racism right here for ya. People of color can and do head over to news sites that reflect and support their communities. But they can't put a sign on their car saying they choose to only get stopped by their own private police force. Or put a note on their BPS registration that they only want teachers who are culturally competent and truly believe in seeing Black kids as capable whole people. So this is why people in communities of color and white allies are demonstrating. Keep up the good fight, folks.