Dear Town Manager Chapdelaine and Acting Chief Flaherty,
We the undersigned, residents of Arlington and surrounding communities, are writing in response to concerns over the manner in which the restorative justice process provided to Lt. Rick Pedrini was conducted. A lack of transparency and a failure to effectively reach out to harmed individuals in the community has damaged the community’s faith and trust in the Arlington Police Department.
We are requesting the following actions from the Town of Arlington:
- Develop and announce a plan for repairing community trust by November 1, 2019.
- Restrict Lt. Pedrini to desk duty while this plan is developed.
- Work with an impartial, racially diverse, third-party organization to conduct a review of the APD and assess the presence of bias within the department.
- Based on the assessment findings and third-party recommendations, develop a plan for ongoing cultural competency and anti-racism training within APD.
- Develop a plan for the establishment of a racially and class diverse Civilian Review Board.
If you have not had an opportunity, please read Lt Pedrini’s unabridged writings: https://www.arlingtonfightsracism.com/the-issues/what-pedrini-said/ (don’t stop after his first article, there are three in a row).
Follow us here:
instagram.com/ArlingtonFightsRacism
facebook.com/ArlingtonFR
twitter.com/ArlingtonFR
The full petition can be found by clicking on the button, below. Translations are available in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese and French:
Organizations and Town Meeting Members that have endorsed the petition:
- ArCS Cluster (Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville refugee support group)
- Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project
- BDS Boston – A Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement
- Black and Pink, Boston Chapter
- Black Lives Matter – Cambridge
- Boston Center for Independent Living
- Boston Users Union – Chapter of the National Urban Survivors Union
- Centro Presente
- Cosecha Massachusetts
- Council on American-Islamic Relations – Massachusetts (CAIR-MA)
- Digital Fourth / Restore The 4th – Boston
- Disability Policy Consortium – Massachusetts
- Dorchester People for Peace
- First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington, MA, Parish Committee
- Indivisible Mystic Valley
- Jewish Voice for Peace – Boston
- Massachusetts Peace Action
- Massachusetts Union of the Homeless
- Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope Independent Congregation
- National Lawyers Guild-Massachusetts Chapter
- First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington, MA, Racial Justice Coordinating Committee
- Raising Luminaries
- Real Cost of Prisons
- Progressive Massachusetts
- Progressive Massachusetts – Arlington Chapter
- SIFMA (Supervised Injection Facilities in Massachusetts Now)
- Tenants for a Livable Arlington
- The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
- Adam MacNeill
- Adele Kraus
- Alan Jones
- Alex Bagnall
- Alham Saadat
- Anne Ehlert
- Beth Melofchik
- Betty Stone
- Camilla Haase
- Caroline Murray
- Courtney Urick
- Deanna Graham
- Elizabeth Carr-Jones
- Heather Fowles
- Jo Anne Preston
- Jordan Weinstein
- Kaspar Kasparian
- Laura Gitelson
- Laura Tracey
- Lisa Reynolds
- Patricia Worden
- Phil Goff
- Madeleine Delpha McClure
- Mona Mandal
- Patricia Muldoon
- Rebecca Persson
- Scott Lever
- Stephen Revilak
- Susan McCabe
- Zarina Memon