Lynn Police agree: Give peace a chance

LYNN – He has advocated for peace before legislators, students, and representatives of the highest courts throughout Central and South America. But Dr. William Soto Santiago visited Lynn Thursday to be honored for his work on a more local scale: helping to promote collaboration among members of the local Latino community and Lynn Police.”Lynn is a small city, obviously not a world power,” Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger told Santiago in awarding him a plaque on Thursday. “But when you talk about genocide and preventing it, we look at it on a smaller scale ? your philosophy on a world scale has helped us on a small scale.”Santiago is a pacifist and humanitarian and also head and global ambassador of the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace in Puerto Rico. He is visiting the State House today to present one of the organization’s main projects, a forum entitled Educating to Remember – The Holocaust: Paradigm of Genocide. The forum commemorates the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.The forum gathers law enforcement officials, lawyers, lawmakers and survivors of genocide to discuss their experiences as well as how to prevent future genocides. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Boston Police Commissioner William Evans are scheduled to speak at the State House event, which will be held in Gardner Auditorium beginning at 10 a.m.Lynner Juan Gonzalez, a regional coordinator for the embassy, organized a similar forum at the Lynn Police Station in November which included City Councilor at-large Hong Net delivering a powerful personal recollection of life under the Khmer Rouge.But Gonzalez’ work with the embassy, and with Lynn Police, goes way beyond the forum.Coppinger explained to Santiago that Gonzalez helped Lynn Police better connect with the Latino, and particularly the Guatemalan, community after members of that community were increasingly targeted in robberies.Coppinger said many members of the Guatemalan community were unfamiliar with the U.S. banking system and therefore would carry around large amounts of cash every Friday after getting paid. They became a popular target for robberies. But many of the robberies went unreported. Some members of the Guatemalan community were afraid of the police because of the history of genocide in their homeland; others were afraid to file a report because of their, or their family members’, immigration status, Coppinger explained.”It’s not genocide as we have talked about, but to somebody who’s robbed and beaten (because of their ethnicity), it’s just as terrible,” Coppinger said.So police reached out to Gonzalez to help spread the message that police were out “to protect everyone … regardless of their background or belief,” as Coppinger told Santiago. Coppinger was interviewed for a Spanish-language publication, met with local Latino groups and leaders, and will speak about these experiences today at the State House.”The problem has diminished,” Coppinger said Thursday. “I think we’ve made inroads in our small scale.”Santiago thanked Coppinger and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy (who had met with Santiago prior to the presentation at police headquarters) for welcoming him to Lynn. Speaking through a translator, Santiago also praised Lynn Police.”I am so thankful for the work you have done for the Latino community to defend their rights,” Santiago told Coppinger.