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Cartoon in Globe about police shootings sparks controversy

Mike Luckovich's cartoon as it appeared in Monday's Boston Globe. Photo by WGBH News.

Mike Luckovich’s cartoon as it appeared in Monday’s Boston Globe. Photo by WGBH News.

Update: The Globe has published a collection of letters in opposition to the cartoon.

Officials with the Boston Police Department are upset over a tough cartoon about police shootings of black men that appeared on the opinion pages of Monday’s Boston Globe. But the Globe’s editorial-page editor is standing by it. And the president of the local NAACP defends the cartoon as a satirical comment on a tragic reality.

The cartoon, by Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a Pulitzer Prize winner whose work is nationally syndicated, depicts a white police officer. In one frame, labeled “For White People,” he is seen holding a piece of paper that says “Miranda Rights.” In the other, “For Black People,” a piece of paper says “Last Rites.”

Read the rest at WGBHNews.org.

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2 Comments

  1. Lois Ambash

    As you note, the issue of disproportionate police violence against black men is a national one. I find the cartoon, sadly, to be apt, powerful, and timely.

    For a city, a newspaper, and for that matter a police force that aim to be sophisticated and cosmopolitan, I’m struck by the Boston-centric reaction to the republication of the cartoon, which originated in another city. I do concede that perhaps through my own ignorance, I did not perceive an intent to portray the officer as Irish-American. Regardless, one of our nation’s leading cities should be able to withstand a healthy discussion of a problem that, if nothing else, figures prominently in the presidential campaign.

  2. Mike Rice

    “Blue Lives Matter.” Too.

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