The following is taken from an email sent by Attorney Jeff Feuer to our membership:
Last night (Thursday, April 8th 2021) the Somerville City Council passed an ordinance which outright bans the use of tear gas, regulates the use of pepper spray, and severely restricts the use of other chemical crowd control weapons and kinetic impact projectiles (rubber bullets, flash bang grenades, beanbag rounds, etc.).
The NLG, through Attys. Jeff Feuer, Lee Goldstein and David Kelston, were the main authors of the ordinance – which was sponsored by progressive city councilor Ben Ewen-Campen which was somewhat watered down by political considerations, but which was nevertheless passed over the strong objections of the Somerville police department and the city solicitor’s office.
I (Jeff Feuer) wrote the Guild’s letter of support for this ordinance: “This is an important and historic piece of legislation that, if passed, will place the City of Somerville at the forefront of the movement to de-militarize America’s urban police forces, de-escalate the often unnecessary use of force by police, and begin to address the inequities and injustices that have been visited for far too long upon communities of color by armed police.”
The story of the passage of the ordinance (the first one of its kind in Massachusetts) and the details of the Ordinance are in the story linked below:
In addition, today, the Boston City Council held a working group session on a similar (and somewhat stronger) ordinance, at which I was one of the main panelists. The ordinance, sponsored by City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo (a former board member of our NLG chapter), has the support of both the majority of the City Council and Acting Mayor Janey, who has pledged to sign it into law. It should be passed by the full City Council within the next 4 – 6 weeks at the latest. A copy of the current (but not final) version of the proposed Boston ordinance is attached to this email as well.
One small step forward.
In solidarity,
Jeff Feuer
