Group Wants Salem City Council To Defund Police

SALEM, MA —A group plans to hold a march and rally in Salem Friday at 6 p.m., where it will call on city council to defund the Salem Police Department.

"This protest is focused on the Salem City Council, to push them to DEFUND THE SALEM POLICE and meet our demands, allocating those funds to programs that would strengthen our community," Solidarity North Shore wrote on the Facebook page announcing the demonstration. "Providing more equal funding to schools in Salem, affordable housing, resources for the homeless, and more. Specific demands are being formulated as I type."

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Salem and other U.S. cities have seen protests against the police in recent weeks following the May 25 death of George Floyd while he was handcuffed by Minneapolis police officers. But this is the first local protest to specifically target city council.

Several Salem city councilors have reported receiving copy-and-pasted letters in recent days calling on them to defund the police department. The letters erroneously claim the department's budget is $97 million, which is higher than the entire city budget.

"The amount stated is about 87 million dollars off. In my opinion you should check anything you copy and paste and put your name on," Ward 4 City Councilor Tim Flynn, who opposes cutting the police department budget, said in a Facebook post.

Dave Copeland covers Salem and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).