"Seeking more than a ‘symbolic gesture’: Around 200 join anti-racism protest in Easthampton"

“EASTHAMPTON — When Stephany Marryshow and her family moved into the Treehouse Foundation community in the city in 2005, it was because her mother wanted to provide her four children with the best opportunities possible.

But Marryshow stood on the lawn outside of the building that houses the city’s police station on Saturday afternoon and recounted some of the ways she and her loved ones experienced racism while living in the city: A seventh grade teacher asking her brother if he was in a gang or had ever been shot at, a postman asking her mother if she lived in the ‘projects on Pleasant Street’ and being pulled over, herself, by the police ‘way too many times.’”

NewspaperGuest UserJuly 15, 2020Anti-racism, Policing, Western Mass

"Guards at Boston Museum of Fine Arts Protest More “Militarized” Role"

“For the past three weeks, guards who usually serve to protect the treasures of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) have instead been walking the pavement outside. Members of the Museum Independent Security Union (MISU) object to changes that museum officials want to make to reduce flexible scheduling and the coverage they’ve provided inside the galleries to assist patrons and protect the art. According to Hyperallergic.com this week, MISU president Evan Henderson explained the guards’ position saying the proposed changes are ‘pushing guards out of their positions,’ and would ‘reportedly be less focused on providing artwork protection and guest support within the galleries, and require them to cover shifts in areas of the museum like the attic, offices, or outdoors.’

Henderson was quoted in the Boston Globe saying, ‘They want us to be more like unlicensed cops, in which we’ll be more militarized…. We’ll be doing, like, drills in the morning. They want us to not focus on the artwork and be able to fight things like active shooters.’”