255.7 - Hero Award: Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Somerville, MA

Hero Award: Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Somerville, MA

Now for one of our occasional features; this is the Hero Award, given out as the occasion arises to someone who just does the right thing on a matter big or small.

Our hero this time is Mayor Joseph Curtatone of Somerville, Massachusetts, oddly enough not for what he did but for what he didn't do.

For nearly a year, a banner has hung over Somerville city hall reading "Black Lives Matter."

But now, the police union in Somerville is demanding the banner be taken down and replaced with one carrying the vapid greeting card sentimentality of "All Lives Matter."

Joseph Curtatone

Demonstrating true command of hyperbole, the union's letter to the mayor accused the Black Lives Matter movement of "inciting" violence against police, called the banner "deeply troubling," "inconceivable," and "demoralizing," and accused the mayor of "standing silent over the seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country."

Just as a sidebar: Thirty-three cops in the US have been killed by gunfire so far this year. Well over a third, perhaps half of them if not more, were killed by white people.

So what didn't Mayor Curtatone do? Capitulate.

"My unwavering support for our police officers does not and cannot preempt our commitment to addressing systemic racism in our nation," Curtatone said.

The banner remains. And Joseph Curtatone is a Hero.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2016/07/20/somerville-police-union-asks-mayor-remove-black-lives-matter-banner-city-hall
https://www.odmp.org/search/year
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-cops-killed-white-men-conservatives-silent-article-1.2632965