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Pro-cop rally planned for West Roxbury on Wednesday
By adamg on Mon, 06/15/2020 - 10:32am
The Law Enforcement & First Responder Appreciation Rally starts at 5:30 p.m. at Holy Name Rotary in front of the E-5 police station.
Today at 5:30 p.m., meanwhile, Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale will host its third straight Black Lives Matter vigil at the rotary.
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Comments
I guess Covid-19 is over?
Cancel parades , school, dance classes, gyms etc. But not large outdoor crowds ?
I hope we dont get overwhelmed with new cases in the upcoming weeks.
You'll be fine.
Stay outside and keep moving and you'll be fine.
The biggest risk is for people inside, in close proximity, for more then a few minutes.
I will pass.
Too much conflicting advice.
Better safe than sorry.
Excuses
People have been coming up with all kinds of excuses to unsafely gather for protests, rallies, marches,creation of autonomous zones, etc in recent weeks. "(Insert cause here) means more to us than risking getting the virus". I suppose I admire their resolve but in the bigger picture it shows little consideration for the very things they are standing up for. And if you watch the TV news it is such a mass of contradictions it's mind boggling. They'll go right from one Covid story of how we must continue safe social distancing practices to a "heartwarming" story showing a protester hugging or shaking hands with a cop, which the announcer sings the praises of. Huh? Am I the only one noticing this?
You haven't been to a local rally?
The ones in my area have featured social distancing and everyone wearing masks, in addition to being held outdoors.
If everyone wears masks, the risks are greatly reduced.
Check this out: stylists wore masks, clients wore masks. When two stylists got sick? 140 clients did not get sick.
Everyone wearing masks = freedom.
For what it's worth, the
For what it's worth, the current state mandates do not restrict the size of OUTDOOR gatherings in areas that would allow for appropriate physical distancing. Now I know you'll tell me the people in the photos aren't 6 feet apart, but the way I interpret the mandate, the line is drawn at the ability of the location rather than the reality of human behavior at that location.
In the same order, the prohibition on large outdoor events such as festivals is continued but does not restrict gatherings for the purpose of expressing political speech (naturally, that is a Constitutionally protected activity.)
https://www.mass.gov/doc/june-6-2020-regulating-gatherings-throughout-th...
Then why all the anger over
Then why all the anger over stuff like the Belmont High School outdoor graduation party?
All the official advice and rules I hear keep saying masks and being outdoors are not substitutes for avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people and social distancing.
Evidence
Minnesota had the first protests. There's been no uptick in cases.
Meanwhile, cases are rising down south, where it's 100˚ and everyone has gone inside for air conditioning. Outside seems pretty much fine, especially wearing a mask in groups.
Nope, Covid-19 is not over.
This:
imho, smacks of hypocrisy, through and through.
Well?
You are welcome to provide evidence of what you claim.
A large outdoor crowd with people 6' apart and everyone wearing masks is a lot different from people crowded into an outdoor bar.
Holding a pro-cop rally
Holding a pro-cop rally following all the beatings and murders by police in the past few weeks (or decades, really...) is so tone deaf I can't bear it. Reeks of "all lives matter" BS.
I have no intention of going
I have no intention of going but seriously why not just let things be? Let them express for themselves what the rally is about instead of this kneejerk reaction that everything must be either A or B.
on the other hand
True. But otoh, people are giving all cops a lot of grief for what others are doing. I feel there's plenty bof room for improvement on BPD, but I'm grateful they keep pulling guns off our streets.
I imagine a lot of police officers' families and neighbors feel their sons/daughters/friends deserve some positivity to offset some of the negatives.
That will probably stop...
That will probably stop if and when cops start throwing out their "bad apples" -- in other words, don't hold your breath. If they weren't doing it already, they're not gonna start doing it now.
I imagine a lot of police officers' families and neighbors don't know as much about their relatives as they think they do. No one likes to think that someone they care about commits atrocities, covers up for them, turns a blind eye to them or makes excuses for them.
Not holding a pro-cop rally
Not holding a pro-cop rally following the shootings and mass shootings each day & night in Boston over the past month is so tone deaf I can't bear it.
Boston has a serious violence problem this spring and it isn't from BPD. Shitting all over BPD for the unprofessional actions of police departments halfway across the country makes as much sense as blaming Gloucester fishermen for the over fishing of the South China Sea.
Won't SOMEONE--
ANYONE--think of the poor disrespected police officers and their qualified immunity that lets them murder anyone who doesn't properly respect their authority? Why, if we don't hold a rally for them, the $150K average wage we pay them for their services might not be enough to keep them on the job, and THEN what will they do with their GEDs and rampant senses of entitlement?
It's West Roxbury
West Roxbury is just living up to its reputation. They hate anyone who isn't white and from there. They also hate change. Keep in mind that these are the same people who screamed for Marty Walsh to deploy the national guard to keep out the "looters and thugs" at the first BLM rally a few weeks ago.
Tough guys
Terrified of a bunch of Unitarians and soccer moms.
Crawl back under your rock
Hey Spud,Guess what? Folks
From West Roxbury are
Just ordinary People, Just
Can the vltrol. Get out
More.
Cool typography. Is that some kind
of West Roxbury haiku I've never heard of? 5-6-8-6-1: challenging!
(Though to be honest, "vltrol" looks like cheating by skipping a syllable.)
Ward 20 West Roxbury
Ward 20 West Roxbury Republican Committee brings out the worst side of people; anti-immigrant, reactionary response to Centre St redesign (the main road in the neighborhood) to improve public safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, conspiratorial fear-mongering political action. And they were big time arseholes to blm on week 1.
Police
Showing support for men and women who do their jobs day in and day out even though a large number of the public and media disrespect and taunt them on a daily basis does not seem like bs to me
Let's compare
Group 1: "Please don't kill us!"
Group 2: "Please don't disrepect us!"
Wow, how could anyone think Group 2 might be just a little bit bullshit...?
"Respect"
There's this thing going around the internet that pretty well sums it up:
Because there are GOOD cops
That’s the reason - because the good cops should not be the targets of your hatred for the heinous acts of the bad ones. Try and be fair and not so one sided.
Please don’t do this.
Please don’t do this.
Most of us don’t want to get ordered for this and the inevitable counter rally.
- a Boston Cop
It speaks volumes that the
It speaks volumes that the comments have been turned off on the Facebook event page for the Pro-cop rally.
the title of the rally was changed
From "Stand for the Blue" to the more generic/inclusive "Law Enforcement & First Responder Appreciation Rally"
Cops sidling up to fire fighters and first responders
Oh, hey guys, we should hang out more often!
We seem to have lost our credibility
I mean, it isn't fair that we can't choke a woman helping someone who was tear gassed, and that we can't tear gas people leaving a peaceful demonstration without being called on it!
Hey ... firefighter! ... nurse! My friends! ... can we borrow some of yours? Just so we don't have to change ... be responsible ... all that ...
Have it downtown. Cowards.
Have it downtown. Cowards.
I'll go to the rally that supports trash collectors. A job 3 times more dangerous than being a cop and without all that cushy overtime pay. Plus they make the city better every day with their back breaking work.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/410585/garbage-collectors-are-more-l...
Got the perfect flag for them to fly
“Let me lick your boots,
“Let me lick your boots, officer Daddy. I love the taste of fascism and overtime fraud.”
I thought the OT fraud was
I thought the OT fraud was the Staties, Boston too?
Maybe someone will ask these supporters
why "good" cops tend to not intervene when a "bad" cop is murdering a human being?
because
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvaqa3/buffalo-cop-loses-job-and-pens...
I must be dumb - help
I guess I just don't understand a few things.
Is it possible to think black lives matter, and that all police are not bad? I feel like no one wants to take a middle ground.
I honest to God believe that all of society's ills do not come from the police department, but also think that the police need to be better trained, and should be show solidarity, not doing 'wah, blue lives matter! all lives matter!' - yes I know this is a complex issue, but I feel like many members of law enforcement (some I know) are essentially feeling threatened, abandoned by 'liberal mayors' and how no one appreciates them and 'who you gonna call?' when things get bad?
I can't believe Wash and the Police Commissioner would allow effectively an 'all lives matter' rally - unless it is meant to be outreach.
Last time I checked, being a cop wasn't a race. You choose to be a cop, you don't choose to be black. I will also note, that I have heard both first and second hand, that there was a general sentiment that Obama weakened police department, by what seemed like, holding them to account.
We seem to all have to choose between 'law and order' and 'looting the Nike store because of pent up frustration' - but honestly, this isn't going to end until you have more and more police and city leadership saying "We can do better."
Trust me, I have a feeling many of the cops will vote for Trump, and in 1-2 years time, if he is re-elected and doubles down on "I am always right and unbeatable, quell the dissenters!", these protests are going to look like a parade compared to what will happen next.
Not all cops
To your point that many cops aren't bad, aren't white supremacists, etc... - that's true. It's also true that when you watch the videos from the NYPD unions and leadership groups last week, those groups themselves don't reflect the demographics of the NYPD. There are tons of black (and other minority) cops, a fair number of women police, etc... and none of those voices are in leadership. I would hope the police would realize that they are being led in the wrong direction but their leaders (not their employers and bosses in the form of mayors.) We'll see.
Thank you
I always feel like I'm not 'committing' for change. I'm a white guy who grew up in a mostly white burb west of Boston, but have always had black / Asian friends and my wife is an Asian immigrant. My son is in college now and went to a few of the protests in early June. We fully support him and have tried to teach our kids about equality and not being judgmental. We have also taught them to respect the law and not see police as people to be feared.
As a teenager however, even growing up in the halcyon days of the late 80s / early 90s, there was more than one time t hat I've seen Police being more aggressive on someone because of race, or openly mocking them (like some detail cops outside of the Ramrod on Fenway acting like frat boys) - but I don't generalize about Cops the way I don't generalize about blacks, or protesters.
I've heard a real mix of stories about aggressive tactics from friends who have lived in NYC for many years (and are both white and non white) and honestly, the NYPD comes off sounding more like a well funded street gang. You can say that it has helped make NYC better and safer, and though any direct experience I'd had has been pleasant (asking for directions, being guided to a less crowded area etc) everyone seems to have an NYPD story that is borderline scary..
Here's the difference
You're a very openminded person -- but there's an important difference. Cops have a license to kill. They have a license to abuse. They have a license to harass. Bigoted fratboys and townies are annoying, problematic, even dangerous sometimes -- but cop bigotry has power and weapons backing it up. Combine a cop's power with racism or homophobia and you're talking about potentially lethal consequences for those that they hold in contempt.
Leadership Voices
"There are tons of black (and other minority) cops, a fair number of women police, etc... and none of those voices are in leadership."
Is not the Boston Police Commissioner William Gross an African-American man? I would say the police commissioner is a voice in leadership. And something else I've been wondering about those who are taking the hard line "Black Lives Matter vs. All Police" position. Where do black police fall along this continuum? Are they "black" or are they "police"?
I'm referring to the national police leadership voices
Local BPD isn't perfect but simply isn't on the same level as NYPD, the federal prison storm troopers, the Buffalo PD, LAPD, etc... However, do you think the people behind this rally are really going for that nuance? That Boston PD isn't so bad but nationally, yes the police have a lot of problems? I suspect not.
I think you need to flip this around
Yes, police forces around the country have a lot of issues, and almost all of those were only exposed when some outsider had a video or picture exposing this. So why would you assume that Boston PD isn't on that level, given that they had similar training, etc?
Please
I am not a fan of the police in general, nor am I saying that the Boston cops are without racist problems, but there are a whole bunch of people who were disarmed and arrested by the BPD, who would certainly have been shot in most other cities. I think you're wrong that the Boston cops' training is "similar" to other departments that are killing their citizens. It's not an assumption, it's based on their performance over the last few years. And there are just as many people pointing cell-phone cameras at them as in other cities. Parkwayne's comment needs no "flipping around."
Is it possible to think black
I don't think anyone believes that all police as individual people are bad. What's being said is that the institution of the police as we know it is fundamentally broken and impossibly resistant to change. Changing the premise to mean that all individual policeman are bad people is part of that resistance and cops get dragged for trying to do it, continuing the grievance cycle.
I keep hearing police
I keep hearing police officers say they agree that change is needed, they support the spirit of the protests, etc. They can put their money where their mouth is and ask for money to be shifted out of their own budget to support the other social programs people have been saying could handle some of what police are currently asked to do.
That gets to this "who you gonna call?" attitude. Many people now are saying "it shouldn't need to be the police every time," and I've seen some police themselves saying that as well, but as long as the police continue to soak up so much of city budgets to the point where schools, mental health supports, etc. can't be funded, it's going to continue to be the police. If the police really don't like being asked to do everything, they can do something about it right now.
Bad Orchard
It isn't about individual cops - although some should be fired.
It is about a bad system where there is no restraint, no consequences, and no thought given to not expanding policing into schools, public health issues, and militaristic behavior.
The entire way that policing happens in the US is a bizarre joke at this point.
The cops have resisted even minor changes, so all that is left is the defunding option.
I also think that some police unions meet the criteria for terrorist organizations.
Huh....
And here I thought that stereotyping large groups of people based on perceived actions of a few (or even a bunch) was a bad way to go about life.
Huh.
This is a pretty dumb take
Most groups out there (religious, ethnic, cultural, etc) didn't get exactly the same training and equipment for how to deal with other people. Cops did, and it turns out that pretty frequently they use that to injure or kill other people, and when that happens, they defend each other.
That's why we can treat their behavior as a group differently than the way we would for other people. Because they choose to be a part of a group that regularly acts against the rest of us. And they choose to be part of a group that doesn't try to limit the bad behavior of its worst members.
Not only that
Most of our police are part of a union that consistently elects leadership that publicly opposes any efforts to hold these "bad apples" accountable, or to distance themselves from those officers' actions. In the case of the Minneapolis PD, the union chief himself (who has been reelected several times!) is one of those cops we've been complaining about for years. And he does not appear to be an exception among police union chiefs.
As long as police forces are consistently willing to elect officers with a history of excessive-force violations to represent them, it may not be "all cops" but it's certainly most of them.
One bad apple ruins the bunch
One bad apple ruins the bunch of apples you have.
Especially if it's allowed to
Especially if it's allowed to sit in the pile for a really long time.
I'm still irritated that some of the best news reporting
on major social, political, health and scientific issues in the country is being done by ostensible comedians. I can't bear to watch straight TV news or commentary programs of just about any stripe, on any channel.
Regardless, this John Oliver piece on the historical intertwining of white supremacy and policing in this country dating back to the Colonial era, the current thorny obstacles to reform, and some possible solutions is a thought-provoking and worthwhile 34 minutes.
cops have really hard jobs
and most of them do not deserve all this backlash... But I'm not going