Open Letter To Boston’s Mayoral Candidates On Civil Rights Priorities

Economic Justice, Police Accountability, Racial Justice

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) sent an open letter to the mayoral candidates in the City of Boston identifying urgent legal and policy issues that are currently affecting people of color and immigrants across the city. The letter identifies five critical areas for immediate action, and urges the candidates to prioritize the following:

  • Commit to dismantling entrenched “old boys networks” that for decades have unfairly and unlawfully deprived minority-owned businesses of equal contacting opportunity, and to setting race-conscious, contract-specific goals on all contracts put out for bid; 
  • Commit to reforming police practices, including increasing transparency and de-coupling policing from mental health services in light of Terrence Coleman’s fatal shooting;
  • Commit to creating a municipal identification program to help integrate and empower immigrant communities – as the City promised to study back in 2017;
  • Commit to taking concrete steps to ensure diversity in public employment, so that our public institutions – including but not limited to the Boston Police Department and Boston Fire Department – truly reflect the communities they are meant to serve; and
  • Commit to resolving civil rights lawsuits – some of which the City has been fighting for years including Coleman v. City of Boston – and stand on the side of justice.

The open letter identifies key opportunities for policy development and advocacy on behalf of people of color and immigrants. Progress on each of these fronts is desperately needed to make all families and communities safe.

The open letter to Councilor Essaibi George is attached and available here.

The open letter to Councilor Wu is attached and available here

Essaibi-George-Civil-Rights-Letter-10.20.21.docx-1

Open-Letter-to-Wu-10.25.21