Newly released BP4TP emails show how organization coordinated with police
Boston’s pride parade was marked by several arrests of pro-Palestine protesters. Before the June 8th 2024 pride parade, several organizations under the name Liberate Pride published a list of demands addressed to Boston Pride for the People (BP4TP), the organization which organized the Pride Parade. The demands included that BP4TP drop several sponsors and find a way to implement a “community-based plan for safety” that did not involve police.
In an emailed statement, Adrianna Boulin, the President of BP4TP, said it would “be impossible, and irresponsible, to hold New England's largest Pride parade, festival, and block party without having police present.”
“We will never compromise on the safety of our events,” Boulin said. “We have worked to ensure the police are there in a way that is sensitive to the concerns some members of our community have to any police presence.”
Emails released through a public records request shed new light on how BP4TP coordinated with the Boston Police Department to respond to the protest. The list of demands was sent to BP4TP on Thursday, June 6, according to Liberate Pride’s website. However, BP4TP was aware of a planned protest as early as May 30, according to an email sent from a BP4TP organizing committee member to the Boston Police Department. “Can we set up a meeting with you and Chief Martin next week?” the email read. “We have been made aware of a planned disruption of the parade.”
Members of the BP4TP organizing committee then held a Google Meet meeting with the police department on Tuesday, June 4th, according to a copy of an emailed meeting invite obtained through the public records request. It’s unclear what exactly was discussed at this meeting. One day later, on Wednesday, June 5th, BP4TP published a statement discussing several topics raised in Liberate Pride’s letter, including the Israel-Palestine conflict, the corporations who sponsored the parade, and police presence at the parade.
There’s a wrinkle in this timeline: on Wednesday, Liberate Pride hadn’t even sent their letter to BP4TP yet. That happened one day later, on Thursday June 6th. The President of BP4TP then forwarded a copy of the letter to the Boston Police Department, according to the emails obtained through a public records request.
Boulin said that BP4TP had been tipped off about the protest by social media. “When BP4TP became aware of public social media posts about planned protests, our organizing committee wanted to be sure Boston Police understood our commitment to free speech and protest as they made their security plans,” Boulin said. “Given the threats around the world to Pride celebrations, for obvious reasons, we will not discuss our security plans in detail.”
“We have been transparent that our events welcome and encourage speech that is free of violence and/or hate,” Boulin added. “Our commitment to that was communicated with all law enforcement involved in our event.”
Liberate Pride’s demands did acknowledge that it might be difficult in practice to have a pride parade without the involvement of police. (The letter was also sent less than a week before the parade was scheduled to take place). “We understand that it is difficult to do anything without having the police surveilling the community,” Liberate Pride’s letter read. “The state mandates permits and police in order to access facilities, electricity, and disability accommodations.”
BP4TP continued to discuss the protest with the Boston Police Department, the emails show. On Friday, June 7th, BP4TP’s president emailed the police department asking to “follow up by phone some time today” because “we want to better understand where we’ve landed on the protest procedure.”
It’s unclear what the “protest procedure” was, if a “protest procedure” actually existed, or if the procedure was something BP4TP had control over. But a day later, on Saturday June 8th, three protesters were arrested at the parade. In a blog post after the parade, Liberate Pride criticized BP4TP.
“Boston Pride for the People’s shameful use of police brutality to respond to our demonstration showed that they are unfit to represent queer, trans, and working class people, and people of color who already face constant police brutality and repression,” the post read. “It is clear that there was no attempt by BP4TP to engage with our demonstration in good faith.”
The Bay State Ladybug shared some of the emails with one of the groups who signed Liberate Pride’s list of demands: Stonewall Liberation Organization. “We knew that P4TP knew about our action ahead of time,” a spokesperson for the Stonewall Liberation Organization said. “These emails are further proof of lack of engagement.”
“As an organizing committee, we welcome all feedback and are committed to having a robust protocol to consider what actions we may or may not take based on the feedback we receive,” Boulin said. “The demands we received on June 6th, less than 48 hours before our event, came at a time when our all volunteer team was focused on executing the final details of the events - a task that requires many hours and people to complete successfully. We did respond to the protestors while still ensuring we met the many obligations before us to the more than 1 million people coming to our events. We are committed to continuing that conversation in the future.”
The Boston Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
BP4TP was created in the wake of criticisms lodged at the organization that used to organize the Boston Pride parade, Boston Pride. Ironically, one of the criticisms lodged against Boston Pride involved a statement the group released about police brutality; before the statement was released, Boston Pride edited the statement and removed the phrase Black Lives Matter from it. Other criticisms of Boston Pride included that its board was not diverse and that its board did not have structures such as term limits that would increase accountability. Boston Pride ultimately dissolved and BP4TP now organizes the city’s annual pride parade.