Somerville for Palestine planned a meet-and-greet with mayor Katjana Ballantyne for Tuesday as part of a three-part series with Somerville’s candidates for mayor. Since the event failed to materialize, each has blamed the other for its cancellation.
The group posted on Instagram on Tuesday that the event had been canceled by Ballantyne’s team.
Ballantyne posted on Instagram on Thursday saying the event was canceled by S4P, and that the group’s post was “deceptive.”
The disagreement followed an impasse over police presence at the event. Ballantyne’s team told Cambridge Day that S4P canceled the event by stating “last minute” that it would not allow a plainclothes officer to accompany Ballantyne inside the event space.
Emails show S4P confirming that a police officer would not be allowed inside but could be stationed outside. That was Monday morning, responding to a request for police presence made Friday by the Ballantyne team.
In its Instagram post, S4P said the Ballantyne team called Monday to say the event could not be held without indoor police presence. The Ballantyne team confirmed that two calls had been held Monday, but denied the calls contained a cancellation.
The Ballantyne team emailed S4P on Monday afternoon saying the deadline to confirm the meeting for Tuesday had passed. The mayor was open to rescheduling, the team said.
Standard operating procedure
Each said their requests are standard: S4P said no police were present at events over the past month with Somerville’s challengers for mayor, Jake Wilson and Willie Burnley Jr.; the Ballantyne team said a plainclothes officer accompanied Ballantyne to a recent mayoral forum held by the Union Square Neighborhood Council.
From S4P’s perspective, the request for police presence inside the event space implied that group members pose a threat. “This perpetuates racist and harmful stereotypes of Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians being a safety threat, as well as the pro-Palestinian movement as a whole, whose organizers have been indiscriminately targeted by police in the past two years,” S4P said on Instagram.
Having police act as private security inside is also against event space policies, and would be allowed only with discussions about the officers’ role at the event and the site’s values, according to a letter from one of its operators that S4P shared with the Ballantyne team on Monday.
Safety concerns
S4P had previously expressed concern for its members’ safety. As a precaution, the group was releasing the event address only to people saying they expected to attend, such as via direct message Instagram, instead of announcing it publicly.
Ballantyne framed police presence as a necessity in the national political climate. “In the current reality of increased political violence, mayor Ballantyne has been advised to be vigilant. She is a declared target of the Potus as the leader of a sanctuary city, as an immigrant and naturalized citizen, and as an outspoken critic of the Trump administration who is suing the president to protect Somerville’s committed benefits,” her post reads. “Potus” stands for “president of the United States,” now Donald Trump.
Several high-profile episodes of political violence have taken place in the United States in the past year, including the attempted assassination of Trump on the campaign trail and murder of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman. Just Wednesday, Virginia city councilman J. Lee Vogler was set on fire.
Endorsement process proceeds
In its Instagram post, S4P said it had offered to shift the meeting to a virtual format. In communications with the Cambridge Day, members framed a virtual meeting as a means to respond to safety concerns as well as accommodate other requests from Ballantyne’s team, including that no S4P signs or images could be hung near the mayor during the event.
The Ballantyne team told Cambridge Day that S4P said on Tuesday it would not be pursuing a rescheduled meeting.
Both told Cambridge Day that they were still open to meeting, provided that the conditions they requested be met.
S4P said it would move forward with endorsing a candidate for mayor, and members met Tuesday after the Ballantyne event fell through. An endorsement has not yet been shared.
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I am a Somerville homeowner. On August 3, I questioned 3 different representatives of S4P, who were out collective signatures for the group’s proposed divestment ballot question. None of the 3 knew how much money the city has invested in the target enterprises, or whether the city had contracts with any of them and if so, what the contracts provided. They also didn’t seem to know exactly how the ballot question would work in practice. Additionally, none had ever been to the Middle East, nor could they name a book they had read about the conflict or even a book they had not read. All three said that all their information came from “the news.” None of this was very persuasive to a Somerville taxpayer, and it left me wondering what they were all about. Why are they advocating for things they know nothing about?