Newton police on Monday night monitored some 50 vehicles that circled the Chestnut Hill mall, on the same night trouble was reported at shopping centers elsewhere including Braintree, Natick and Providence, the Globe reports.
“As I was speaking with Sgt. we observed approximately 12 cars, several of which had out of state license plates, and each with numerous occupants, gathering on the southwest side of the Chestnut Hill parking lot,” the report said.
I don’t think we should underestimate the degree to which violence and looting have been caused by people with no interest in racial justice and who, in fact, are seeking to instigate unrest and divisiveness across the country–in contrast to the thousands of demonstrators who peacefully march for a more equal society.
If anyone is forming a citizens brigade to stop these looters, count me in!
Matt, will you join me in a citizens brigade to stop the murder of black people by police? If so, I’ll join you in stopping property damage and theft, or at least make sure Bloomingdales has adequate loss insurance.
Off to a hot start already on this thread.
If people want to take action, on actually important things (sorry – protecting Bloomingdales isn’t one of them):
– the Newton City Council is voting on an increase in the police budget (even as parks, libraries etc get slashed), and I’m sure your city councilors would love to hear your thoughts.
– there are numerous MA State House bills to progress civil rights causes that could use some Newton co-sponsors (https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/06/02/ayanna-pressley-rachael-rollins-police-reform-violence-racism-press-conference)
– there’s plenty of Black-owned restaurants that would love your support, and probably need it more than Bloomingdales (https://www.boston.com/food/restaurants/2020/06/02/black-owned-restaurants-in-boston)
Affirming Jim’s points/resources.
Oh, it’s like THAT now?
Look, there are bad cops out there, but not all police are bad. Where was everyone two weeks ago before the tragedy of George Floyd? Were you all signing petitions to get Colin Kaepernick reinstated? Where were all the protesting then?
Crash diets after New Years never work. The fight for racial justice is not a fad. I don’t see anyone talking about racial attacks and prejudicial attitudes against Asians relating to Corona anymore. Will be interesting to see how many of you will be beating the drum about racial injustice this hard, 6 weeks from now.
Peace out. ✌
PS. If you defund the police, who are you going to call when your car gets broken into….after leaving the doors unlocked?
Nathan Phillips, who is the reply right before you, literally just finished a valiant two-week hunger strike (protest!) over the Weymouth natural gas compressor.
Even assuming no one was engaged before this tragedy, I have no idea why we would encourage people to not become socially engaged in advancing society. Sitting it out because “it won’t last” only further enables this system.
We need to hold each other accountable, and I hope that people will be doing that six months down the line and beyond.
About the police, the new PD budget doesn’t increase social programming or community policing funding – instead it cuts it. I personally think the Newton PD can sacrifice two new police cruisers so we can have open libraries on Sundays, public parks, or unconscious bias training for police.
“We need to hold each other accountable” comment from an anonymous account is so 2020.
@Jim, I am by NO MEANS saying we should stand by the sidelines and accept a lack of racial justice.
My initial comment was a knee jerk reaction to the looting and rabblerousers. Please don’t tell me anyone supports this!
I support people protesting against racial injustice. Just hope it continues beyond the current reactions and is long lasting.
As for defunding, it seems like just yesterday we were praising first reponders after 9/11. Remember #BostonStrong? First responders were considered heros at the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. Now suddenly the police are all racist, and we need to defund their ability to protect us?
Racial justice is a marathon, not a sprint.
Cheers!
Thank you Newton Police for being alert to this. Family in Santa Monica, not near the beach, tell me looting is rampant. People taking advantage of police distractions during protest marches. They see classmates of their kids (middle class, white, high school) on videos posts joining in the looting.
If increasing their budget means more police officers walking and biking the beat, I’m all for it. Connecting with the community is a social service.
Completely understand @Matt, admittedly a bit knee-jerky on my end too, it’s quite a stressful time.
@Lucia, unfortunately it doesn’t. Community and youth services actually saw pretty hefty cuts in this budget (http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/103625), but 100K was allocated for new police cruisers (https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Newsletter-for-May-29–2020.html?soid=1124249987853&aid=mcOetAxyxKU).
I’m not sure the value-add for new police cruisers is really there for me.
I have personally called the Newton Police 24 hours non-emergency line twice when Youth, Senior, and Community Service Depts were closed because I was concerned about an elderly resident. On a summer Sunday afternoon when an elderly lady came out of her house and asked me what day of the week it was and in the evening when I passed by a house, that looked lived in, with an unshoveled driveway and sidewalk days after a snow storm. (I knew it was owned by an elderly person via the assessors database).
Both these homes out of my neighborhood. The police responded immediately (there is a Elders Affairs Officer) and let me know they had contacted the people. They gave me no more information, because it was none of my business. IMO the Police are our front line social services in Newton. They are there 24/7 and can pass issues on to others where appropriate.
I’m also fully supportive of new police cruisers if it means the police cars don’t have to idle when they are stopped to keep their computerized systems running.
I’ve 3 kids and have lived her 20+ years and never had any interaction with Community and Youth Services. Whereas I’ve met the police at school bike safety training, filling in for crossing guards, meetings on traffic safety, and once when stopped for driving over the line in a turn (my bad). Make the case to me why C&YS are more important than the police. I honestly do not know what they do.