The police in Cambridge recently faced a great deal of online backlash after they posted to social media allegedly insisting that a "purge" would take place if a police reform bill that was recently introduced, were allowed to be passed and become fully implemented.
The Massachusetts Senate recently passed the bill 30-7 this week, that would reportedly ban choke-holds, reduce their justification to use tear gas, and require more training of officers, along with further independent oversight of law enforcement.
They allegedly posted online that a purge would come if these changes were made, but they adjusted that post to later insist that the message wasn't any sort of call to violence.
Those behind the Facebook message for the police insist that there was no call to violence, with their purge reference, and if you do assume they meant that then you have only misconstrued their message.
Around the country people are looking for more police accountability and more transparency, more record-keeping on wrongdoing etc. Pretending that current powers and measures that are in place are sufficient enough to solve the problem isn't going to cut it. If they were sufficient then there wouldn't so many who are calling for reform.
No apologies for the poor choice of words when discussing legislative matters on official media pages for public services, only an apology that some decided to interpret the message that way.
After hundreds of people posted their feelings online, criticizing law enforcement for their post about the purge to come if changes were made, many of those comments were allegedly removed later.
pics:
pixabay