Boston City Councilors push for change after George Floyd protests

The time is now for major change, several Boston city councilors say, urging reforms as protests continue over the police treatment of black people.

“These are changes that have been proposed for years,” City Councilor Andrea Campbell told the Herald. “This is the time to get it done.”

Campbell, a city councilor whose district includes Dorchester and Mattapan, ticked off a list of objectives including expanding the Boston Police Department’s body-camera program, starting racial equity trainings and creating a civilian review board to oversee complaints against officers.

Campbell earlier in the day on Thursday called on Mayor Marty Walsh to make changes to the department’s use-of-force policies.

“This is about greater transparency and accountability,” Campbell, the city council’s chairwoman for public safety, said.

City Councilor Michelle Wu said, “It’s time for action … there’s a lot that can happen at the city level that can happen tomorrow.”

This comes as protests continue in Boston and in other cities around the country following the high-profile death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

City Council President Kim Janey, who was one the elected officials of color who spoke at a press conference Tuesday, outlining changes to be made at federal, state and the local levels with an aim at improving the lives of minorities, said the issue needs to be tackled broadly.

“We need to revamp,” Janey told the Herald. “We have to attack all of the ways that this system of white supremacy elevates a few at the expense of most.”

She pointed to several pieces of legislation before the council currently that would make changes over affordable housing, city procurement practices and surveillance, among others.

Mayor Martin Walsh told reporters at a press conference on Thursday, “I am committed to making real change.”

He said the city is “working on some things now,” but declined to elaborate, calling for action to be less “reactionary” and more geared at systemic changes.

City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo reiterated his call “to declare that racism is a public health crisis in the City of Boston,” and “for the establishment of an independent office that assesses the racial equity impact of all City of Boston policies, procedures, regulations, executive orders, and legislation prior to their implementation.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3cBvo0Y