Letter: Calling On Stoneham PD To Denounce George Floyd's Killing

STONEHAM, MA – The following letter to the editor was submitted by Joseph and Ariel Maloney.

Dear Stoneham Police Department,

We are writing today to ask you to publicly denounce the terrible murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

George Floyd. We had to look up his name again. Maybe we still can’t focus on the details because it’s the same recurring story of violence. Maybe we default to the pangs of sympathy we felt for Eric Garner, the echoes of ‘’we can’t breathe” and how we didn’t hold those accountable for his death then. Maybe we still don’t understand how Michael Brown or Sandra Bland or Tamir Rice or Philando Castille or Breonna Taylor or Botham Jean or countless other Black people have been killed without warrant by people sworn to protect and serve their communities.

We know it’s hard to stomach, to see this time and time again. We know we haven’t always known how to respond ourselves, beyond posting about it on social media. Maybe we don't know how to push back against a system that our taxes directly fund. Maybe we don't know how to ask our community to push back against bias in our system.

We know it’s hard to speak out against your own, especially from a position of power. Maybe we have a problem with how the power structure always supports the police and never the people they’ve murdered. Maybe we both support our officers and also want to hear voices opposed to these actions from our own law enforcement. Maybe we want to see if our local police force has been trained in the same tactics. Maybe we want to ask if they have invested in sufficient de-escalation training. Maybe we want to ask if they have had anti-bias training. Maybe we want to see policing in this country turn less militaristic. Maybe we want to see more social workers responding to non-violent offenses.

We know it’s hard to ask people to speak against such violence when it is enacted by people who look like you. Maybe we want to remind you that regardless of the gun on your hip, violence isn’t the answer. Maybe too many of us are complacent in our sense of safety in our own communities. Maybe empathy will overtake complacency. Maybe we need more than empathy alone.

We believe in the promise of community policing, but when we see silence in the face of horrific actions -- in the name of brotherhood or solidarity or “Blue Lives” -- we question the police force’s commitment to justice. We hope that the Stoneham Police Department holds itself and its brethren in arms to a higher standard, and that when you witness one of your own breach that commitment and act unjustly, you will denounce their behavior. As residents of Stoneham, we support you and your commitment to our community and to justice everywhere.

Sincerely,
Joseph and Ariel Maloney