defund the police

With polls showing Michelle Wu more than 30 points ahead of Annissa Essaibi George, the mayoral race heated up Monday with the super PAC Bostonians for Real Progress dropping an advertisement blasting Wu for allegedly advocating for defunding the Boston police.

On Saturday, June 26, activists from the Youth Justice and Power Union gathered at City Hall to demand a $120 million cut from the police budget and a cancellation of the new class of 250 police officers.

At the head of a procession of several dozen bicyclists, Peter Cheung towed a trailer with a loudspeaker blasting pro-Black anthems. Fifty yards back, cyclists chanted “Black Lives Matter,” as the procession made its way down Boylston Street toward Copley Square.

As the trial was underway for a former Minneapolis police officer who last May killed George Floyd, 10 miles away in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a police officer on April 11 shot dead Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old father, during a traffic stop. That shooting, along with the March 29 fatal shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by Chicago police, has sparked protests across the country.