BOSTON (WHDH) - Boston police officers knelt beside protesters in a show of solidarity during peaceful demonstrations in the city Tuesday night.
The large crowd of protesters with Black Lives Matter signs faced off with officers at Boston Police Headquarters but, when they dropped to their knees and called on officers to do the same, many did.
“Credit to those Boston police officers, Kim Tavares and all the other Boston cops that I know who have a civil rights compass,” NAACP Boardmember Michael Curry said.
“It’s an exceptional statement, it’s a testament to the hard work that everyone in this town has done and there needs to be more of that following the example of what happened last night,” Rev. Eugene Rivers said.
Boston community leaders praised the officers for their show of support but, the organizer of the march, Monica Cannon-Grant, said it should not end there.
“We gotta go a little bit further than taking a knee,” Grant said. “I want to see officers correct, check and address their colleagues when we’re being abused, racially profiled, and murdered.”
The leaders said that officers who are silent need to speak up about the bad apples among their ranks.
“They would say to black communities and brown communities why aren’t you telling us who is committing the crimes, why aren’t you snitching,” Curry said. “They know that they have bad cops. They know they have cops that have lied on police reports, that have beat up and pulled weapons on citizens unjustifiably and they won’t say it. So I ask them the same question that they ask us. Why don’t you snitch?”
Grant said there was no violence associated with her protest on Tuesday.
She says she was shocked when she says the Boston Police commissioner called her and told her she did a great job.
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