Walsh: Protests wipe out police OT savings
The recent protests over police treatment of minorities are wiping out what would have been coronavirus-driven savings in the police overtime budget, Mayor Martin Walsh said Tuesday as protesters continue to call to “defund the police” — a slogan the mayor pushed back on.
“We’re not defunding the police department in Boston,” Walsh insisted at the Boston Municipal Research Bureau annual gala, referring to the “defund the police” rallying cry that many protesters have taken up in recent weeks. “What we’re doing is redirecting some of the money from overtime to programs that will help us with some of our systemic problems that we’re dealing with around racism.”
Walsh said last week that the city is moving $12 million from the BPD’s $60 million overtime budget to social services as protests continue following the death of George
Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, at the hands of police last month.
Though actually, Walsh continued, these demonstrations have contributed to keeping Boston police overtime costs up despite a lower demand otherwise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Back about three or four weeks ago, we canceled all parades and festivals in Boston through Labor Day,” Walsh said. “And so I was thinking as we did that, in talking to Emme (Handy, CFO of Boston) and some other folks, that we’re going to be able to save some revenue here and have some money — but the protests have taken away any savings we have, because instead of parades now we have marches and protests.”
Walsh did then express his support for the recent demonstrations against racism, urging his fellow white people to listen to black voices and saying, “There’s a reason behind those marches and protests.”