The vote caps off a political fight that's pitted the body's left wing against Mayor Michelle Wu, who was once the council's progressive standard-bearer.
"We are moving backwards on police reform," said Councilor Kendra Lara, one of the measure's opponents. Lara argued that increased spending on the police intelligence unit will contribute to the targeting of Black, Latino, and Muslim residents by law enforcement.
But it's faced criticism from civil liberties advocates for years, who accuse the center of disproportionately surveilling minority communities. The Massachusetts Attorney General's office isConcerns about that database led councilors — including Wu — to block grant funding for the agency two years ago. Wu also pledged to dismantle the gang database during her mayoral campaign.
Lara accused the mayor of doing an"about-face" on the funding, saying Wu's criticism of the center and its gang database had helped win her vote in the mayoral race,"a vote that I will not soon be giving her again," she said."Several consequential policy and leadership changes have been implemented such that the BRIC and Boston Police Department operate in a significantly different environment today," she wrote.
The council ultimately voted 7-5 to approve the grants. Several of the progressive councilors pointed out the racial breakdown of the vote: The council's seven white members voted for the police funding; the five no votes all came from councilors of color.
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