The president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association is accusing the Boston Teachers Union of helping to demonize cops and even endanger their lives by supporting a Black Lives Matters program that calls for hiring more black teachers and school counselors instead of school cops.
But not all Boston cops agree with BPPA President Michael Leary's missive to BTU President Jessica Tang. Read more
WBZ reports on the protest. There was also a protest in support of Black Lives Matter.
Katie Ernst watched kids putting up new fliers over the vandalized part of a Black Lives Matter sign at Hope Central Church on Seaverns Avenue in Jamaica Plain yesterday.
Marg Zamos-Monteith shows us Hope Central Church on Seaverns Avenue, where a Black Lives Matter sign was defaced the night after a JP Black Lives Matter vigil and four months after a similar banner in front of First Baptist Church on Centre Street was torn down (then replaced).
Arlington Police report they've identified a 23-year-old man they say slapped a sign reading "All" atop "Black" on a "Black Lives Banner" at the First Parish Unitarian Church on Nov. 25.
In a statement, Police Chief Frederick Ryan says: Read more.
Charlie Rosenberg attended the unfurling of a new Black Lives Matter banner today at the First Baptist Church on Centre Street - to replace an earlier one that was ripped down.
The Globe reports on the Jamaica Plain church's problem with vandals.
Yesterday:
An open letter to the person who hired a lawyer to complain about a Black Lives Matter lawn sign.
Gaysian Dad lives and teaches in a Boston suburb with his husband and their two adopted children, one black, one Latino. He reports:
Two weeks ago, we put up a Black Lives Matter sign. Our eight-year-old black daughter was so excited. Our white neighbors across the street put one up too, and I think that meant a lot to our daughter. I know it meant a lot to me. So when we came home last week to find a letter jammed in our doorknob from the town Building Commissioner stating that an anonymous complaint had been submitted through an attorney against the display of our sign, I was disheartened.
Matt Conti at NorthEndWaterfront.com forwarded this photo of the defacement of the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Park some time last night.
By noon today, the paint and message were completely gone after a thorough power washing by a city crew.
Over the years, the statue has been marked up by people with a point to make - once, the statue was even decapitated.
Excerpt from Kevin Alexander Grey interview by Chris Hayes, tonight:
"I'm from South Carolina. This state is the ideological home of white supremacy in this country. On our state house grounds we have memorials to confederate heroes. We have a flag of the confederacy that flies on the state house grounds. We have streets, roads, bridges, schools, buildings named after confederate heroes. They built the statue of Calhoun so high so that the freed slaves wouldn’t tear it down. The tourism industry in this city is based on slavery.
Hundreds of people peacefully marched around the Common and Public Garden this afternoon before marching up Beacon Street for a protest in front of the State House.
Some photos:
The Herald reports the 25-year-old woman working for the Boston Centers for Youth and Families is now an ex-part-time worker.
The Herald talks to the daughter of the injured guy in the ambulance that had to be diverted by yesterday's I-93 protest shutdown . She's livid.
State Police report a total of 27 arrests at this morning's protests on I-93 south at Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford and I-93 north in East Milton Square.
Meanwhile, Easton firefighters report an ambulance carrying a trauma patient to a Boston hospital had to be diverted to another facility because of the blockage in Milton.
Protester chained to a barrel on I-93 in Milton. Photo by Curmudgeon Prophet.
After weeks of trying to evade police lines at highway ramps downtown and in the Back Bay in nighttime attempts to shut down a road, Black Lives Matter protesters managed to shut down I-93 this morning in East Milton Square and at Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford.
About 100 Black Lives Matter protesters held a die-in at 5 p.m. in Copley Square, on the Dartmouth side of the BPL.
The peaceful protest, watched over by a large contingent of Boston Police, did not interrupt First Night activities, including the parade, which started well after the protest concluded.
Students in the upper grades at the Joseph Lee K-8 School in Dorchester held a two-hour Black Lives Matter protest this morning.
Kids who'd brought in permission slips walked from the school to the intersection of Blue Hill and Talbot avenues, where they chanted slogans such as "Hands up! Don't Shoot!" and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"
Several teachers stood with them; three BPD cruisers and officers were parked on Blue Hill Avenue. Many passing motorists honked in support.
Here's a memo that was sent to students:
Central Square photographed a Black Lives Matter die-in at Mass. Ave. and Prospect in Central Square.
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