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.”
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.
Mike Rice
“Blue Lives Matter.” Too.