Like most other cities around the country, Melrose is currently debating its FY21 budget in times of great uncertainty, amidst two interrelated public health crises: COVID-19, and state-sponsored racism and violence against BIPOC communities.
With just under two weeks remaining in the Appropriations process, Melrose mayor Paul Brodeur submitted a memo to the City Council asking them to reject his existing “free cash” appropriation for the police department, which Chief Mike Lyle was going to use to replace the force’s 14-year-old service weapons, and instead agree to “reallocate” this money — $26,000 — to the City’s HR department, as a sort of down payment toward diversity and inclusion efforts (anti-bias training was discussed, but is not specifically mentioned in the memo). The request was rejected 8–3.
After a public outcry over this vote and the language many councilors used — one councilor extensively quoted an inflammatory speech delivered by New York Police Benevolent Association president Mike O’Meara; another suggested that without firearms upgrades, police were at risk of accidentally shooting children on local playground — another meeting was held, in which many of the councilors who rejected the request harshly criticized the Mayor, characterizing the memo as a political stunt calculated to lay any blame for the city’s inaction with the council, rather than the mayor.
At that second meeting, numerous Melrose residents spoke during public comment. Some of these residents identified as people of color and spoke from that experience. While the mayor and the councilors have been quoted extensively, I am not sure if any written documentation of these residents’ statements exists. Here are those comments, which I have not attributed, as best as I could transcribe them.
I documented these with the hope that others will benefit, as I have, from reading them, and will join me in the challenge of remembering to prioritize these perspectives going forward.
I’ve been in Melrose my entire life. I first want to thank the council for allowing me to speak, and I wanted to touch upon the recent proposal put forth by Mayor Brodeur which was to allocate money meant for new police guns toward anti-bias training. I first want to speak to those members of the Council who voted against this recent proposal. I’ve heard a number of the councilors purport that they are supporters of the Black Lives Matters movement, and I want to note that being a supporter means listening to the voices of people of color. A central goal of the Black Lives Matter movement is to support the redistribution of wealth and services out of our policing and law enforcement institutions, and toward community-led health and safety strategies. Listening to the voices of people of color is even more important in a predominantly white community like Melrose.
Now, to everyone on the council, I want to note that the call to defund the police is only half of the demand being put forth. It is also about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions such as mental health counselors who can respond to incidents without arms, shifting funding to education, and to housing, all of which help to create security and safety for all. And so yes, implicit bias training can be a part of this narrative, but it should certainly not be the end-all be-all of that line. The fact that Melrose does not have a large population of people of color is not by accident, I would argue, but rather a product of the community culture and policies put in place, and not put in place, by our legislators. Policies related to over-policing and criminalization for sure, but also affordable housing — and I’ll pause there — as well as food security, diversity in our educators, and hiring practices. As a person of color who grew up in Melrose, I can attest to the harm that is inevitably caused by growing up in an environment where there are so few other people of color. I hope that those who have heard what I’m saying here today continue to support policies that create an environment in Melrose that is open and safe to all residents.
In closing, to paraphrase Dr. Angela Davis, safety safeguarded by violence is not really safety.
I am speaking today about my grave disappointment that the City Council vote to deny the reallocation of money away from police firearms, and not toward the anti-racism efforts that the mayor had suggested. I do want to thank Mayor Brodeur, and city councilors Jennifer Grigoraitis, Maya Jamaleddine, and Leila Migliorelli for your courage and leadership in taking a stand in supporting the reallocation of funds for this essential and necessary training. Not only for our police officers, but for all our city employees. I along with so many members of our community were so moved to see the incredible representation from community members at the recent stand-out for racial equality in Melrose. And judging from the signs that were displayed, there was an overwhelming support for Black Lives Matter.
To the city councilors who voted against the reallocation of funds from new firearms to anti-racism efforts in our city, did you miss the messages in the stand-out for racial equality? Do you not hear the voices of the citizens you represent? Do you think that simply attending a vigil, or a stand-out for racial equality, is sufficient? I do not. Standing out is no longer sufficient. We need to show through our actions that we will no longer stand by and bear witness to bias, and violence, against marginalized members of our community that include black and brown people, the queer and trans community, our Muslim residents, those with mental illness, and immigrants, among others. It is essential that we listen to the voices of marginalized residents in our community. To many of these people, police signal less safety, not more.
I want to share a little anecdote which was a painful experience for me. I am a physician, I am a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist, I am a woman of color, I am a lesbian, I am an immigrant to this country. Several years ago I had an experience in my workplace where I was advised by my employer, by the legal department at my place of employment, and by the police department at the institution where I worked, that I needed to file a police report with the Melrose Police Department regarding an issue concerning a member of the institution where I worked at the time .And without getting into the details, I can share with you that I had an incredibly unpleasant interaction at the Melrose Police Department, I was treated in an incredibly dismissive manner, my concerns were treated as minor, and unfounded, as though I was in the wrong office. And it was not until I was accompanied by a white male police sergeant from the institution where I worked that my concerns were taken seriously.
I share this personal story with you to tell you that despite the annual diversity training that is received by the Melrose Police Department, I am confident that part of what occurred the day I went into the police office to file a report was related to bias, perhaps implicit bias. And I’m confident that implicit bias exists throughout our society. None of us, not even myself, is free from implicit bias. Where we spent money now will decide what kind of city we will live in for decades to come. Decreasing money for firearms and investing in diversity, inclusion and anti-racism efforts is just a minor small step toward creating a community where all of our residents feel safe.
I am interested in hearing the rationale behind your vote. I’m also interested to learn more about the explicit impact of not purchasing new weapons for the police. I don’t think $26,000 is going to come anywhere near what we need to do the work that we need to do within our community.
An earlier speaker really captured perfectly what I, a black Melrosian whose loved ones are also law enforcement officers, have been grappling with since bearing witness to the false dichotomy that was presented at last Thursday’s meeting. At the end of the day, this really comes down to — [as an earlier speaker said ] — timing and the restoration of trust, required clarity around the urgency of the need Chief Lyle requested by met, the efficacy of training, and how best to leverage the small amount of money at our disposal to meet multiple needs and to have the greatest impact.
Like many, I would have supported the proposed reallocation of $26,000 from replacement firearms to citywide implicit bias training, and I was also disappointed by the initial vote. However, as inopportune a moment as this is to be purchasing new firearms, they are 14 years old. And so it wasn’t actually the outcome of the vote that I found so disheartening, even though that would not have been my preferred choice. Instead, what was most upsetting during the 40-minute discussion was the inflammatory rhetoric and hyperbolized what ifs and worst-case scenarios used to mischaracterize the request as anti-police. Those were offensive and unnecessarily divisive. Ironically, they also underscore the need for investment in the equity and inclusion training and services that triggered the discussion in the first place.
I commend councilors McNaught, Jamaleddine, and Migliorelli for attempting to refocus the conversation when given the opportunity, and for reminding all that supporting the police and working to make the City’s administrative departments more diverse, equitable, and inclusive are not mutually exclusive endeavors. I do not envy the position you all find yourselves in this evening. Whether you are considering holding firm on your vote or changing it, I ask you to consider: to what end? If you hold firm, please consider the recommendation made by [a previous speaker], to balance meeting the immediate needs of the police department in accordance with Chief Lyle’s request, and longer-term goals. Similarly, if you change your vote, please consider that reallocation for an unspecified purpose will do nothing to move our city closer to confronting structural racism here, which is a commitment that you have all stated you share.
Implicit bias training is the call that continues to be made; meanwhile implicit bias training is a valuable professional development tool, on its own it will not meet the challenge of confronting systemic racism. It needs to live within the larger framework that guides the city’s equity work. That framework needs to set clear outcomes and must include the integration of resources and planning towards achieving measurable results. I’m concerned that simply reallocating the $26,000 now, without specifying how those dollars be used, will simply check a box. It will ultimately be an insufficient amount, invested inadequately, and that in the long term is more unacceptable than authorizing replacement of firearms in the immediate term. Regardless of how this vote goes this evening, a real conversation needs to be had about how this body, the administration, and members of the community can and will work together to ensure that the city budget reflects the values of this community, and the shared commitment to fully integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion into all aspects of decision-making.
Several of you asked last week what had happened in a few short days to change course. To that, I Would respond: nothing, and also everything. Our community is well-positioned to lead by example and demonstrate what is possible with commitment and collaboration. As councilor Migliorelli said, it’s time to put our money where our mouths are. I urge you to please do so.
I’m speaking tonight to order 2020–106, Free Cash to the Police Department, but also in regards to last Thursday’s city council appropriations committee meeting. Another black man, Rayshard Brooks, was murdered by police with guns this weekend. Last week, our city council has the opportunity to wait on replacing the police department’s 14 year old guns, and start getting serious bout the need for anti-bias training in Melrose. I’ve heard the debates and discussions, Mayor Brodeur’s memo was last-minute, $26,000 isn’t enough money to pay for anti-bias training, the current guns are less accurate — though that one confuses me, as guns don’t shoot themselves, people shoot guns. Our city is lead mostly by white individuals, our schools are lead mostly by white individuals, and our community is mostly white as well. I live off of Franklin Street and spend a lot of time yelling at cars that are driving way too fast up and down the street. I can say that whenever I see cars pulled over by the police, the majority of those people pulled over are people are color. I pay attention and I notice every time this happens. When my non-white husband goes running, he says hi to everyone he encounters, and rarely gets a nod, a smile, a hello, or a wave, except on occasion when our kids are with him, but even that is rare.
At a physically-distanced event in my neighborhood, a person of color drove by in a car, and someone joked that it must have been a delivery man giving takeout on a Saturday night. And in the schools, my kids have yet to have a teacher of color, and will likely graduate from Melrose High never having had one teacher of color, and will still be called the Red Raiders, with Indian feathers on the booster trailer and concession stand. These may be considered microaggressions, but they happen every day in Melrose. However, I have had the honor of facilitating a few diversity equity inclusion and anti-racism meetings in this City, and there are many, many citizens who are ready, willing, and able to do the work that needs to be done in Melrose to make our city a city that is truly One Community Open to All. As our leaders in Melrose, you have the opportunity to make a strong statement that you know racism exists in Melrose, and that you care about people of color, and you really believe black lives matter.
To be clear, I do not believe in defunding the police, but I do believe in reimagining and reforming policing so no more black and brown kids and adults have to die. I ask you to vote for starting the work of anti-racism in our city, and not for more guns in our city, by approving the mayor’s request for approving the mayor’s request for 26000 to be moved from the police department to the city’s HR department. This money could be used to develop a multi-pronged strategic plan for addressing bias, discrimination, and racism in our city, schools, and community. It certainly isn’t everything, but it is a start, and we need you to start right now.
I first wanted to note that it’s unfair to make this an attack against the individuals on our police force. I personally have an excellent relationship with Chief Lyle, as well as many other Melrose police department officers. My personal sense has been that these folks signed up for this job because they truly do want to protect and serve. Also, I do care about keeping our officers safe from harm, just as I wish for all in our community to say safe from harm. As we’re all talking about, there’s a nationwide conversation, happening right now, on the nature of policing. We’ve underfunded other aspects of community need, and diverted resources to policing, from the federal level down to the local, from city to city and state to state. The things that our police officers are expected to respond to should not all be within the scopes of their jobs, though I do thank them for shouldering so much for us. And just because this might be a nationwide trend, I know we must also look at the realities of Melrose, as well. IT can be both true that our officers have shouldered too much, with not enough resources, while also supporting the effort to reallocate some funds. It’s unconscionable that our police headquarters is a dated building that is not handicapped accessible, in addition to the needs of our fire station, and we do need to address our public safety capital needs. That said, that doesn’t mean that reallocating these funds is not appropriate, and I believe it’s worth this initial investment in implicit bias training.
Again, reiterating some of what folks before me have said, last week’s comments by the councilors who voted to move forward with the original free cash appropriation request, rather than investing in implicit bias training, as well as I would say some of the silence by other councilors, were largely disappointing at best. It was isolating and frustrating to hear racially coded language, sexist language, as well as other exclusionary language. These comments themselves pointed to the need for implicit bias training, because in saying them, you either didn’t hear the dog whistles you were using, or perhaps, you didn’t care. But I know all of you, and I want to believe that you do care, and you just don’t’ see. You don’t live in different skin. I implore you to consider the experiences of people who do.
Furthermore, our police here in Melrose are not free of bias, either. While canvassing last summer, I spoke with many Melrose residents, largely people of color, who pointed to experiences with racial profiling they either experienced themselves, as longtime or recent residents, or that they witnessed. I want to emphasize that there’s a difference between racism, which is sort of talked about as a binary — you’re either racist or you’re not — versus what we’ve been talking about, which is anti-racism. We all live in a culture that we are a bit blind too at times. The racism is there, and it’s lifelong work to eradicate it. I think you all know that I have done a lot of this work, and I know that I have my own biases with regards to all the “isms,” including racism. Furthermore, there is a difference between diversity training and implicit bias training. Again, diversity is about just learning that there’s different people; implicit bias is partially about looking within, and learning how much of this culture that we’ve absorbed, and what can we do to do better.
I appreciated councilor McNaught’s statement about wanting a more substantial investment, and I agree — this is going to be an ongoing effort, with systemic change, and at the same time I want to thank councilors Migliorelli, Jamaleddine, and Grigoraitis for supporting the effort to reallocate those funds, because we’ve got to start somewhere, and thank you to Mayor Brodeur as well for getting the ball rolling.
It’s neither too late nor too early for us to start doing the right thing.
