Natick Holds ‘Blue Lives Matter' Rally

Organizers in Natick say about 100 people came to their 'Blue Lives Matter' rally held Saturday in the wake of the shooting death of Weymouth police officer Sgt. Michael Chesna.

People in attendance expressed their fandom of police.

"I love the law enforcement; I love my country," said attendee Evan Walker.

"I think that it's important that we show that we're going to back them up no matter what the situation is," said attendee Lizzie Hopkinds.

"Without the police, what are we?" asked attendee Eli Nottonson.

Sgt. Chesna was one of two people killed Sunday morning when officers responded to calls of an erratic driver who had left the scene of a single-car crash in Weymouth. Upon finding Lopes "actively vandalizing a home," Chesna drew his firearm and commanded him to stop, according to the Norfolk County DA office. Lopes then struck him with a large rock, took Chesna's gun, and fatally shot him several times, the DA office has said.

Local resident Vera Adams, 77, was then killed when a stray bullet entered her home and struck her. The DA's office has said it is believed that the bullet came from Lopes firing Chesna's gun an additional three times as he fled from the scene.

The Blue Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2014 in opposition to what founders claimed was an anti-police narrative spread by the Black Lives Matter movement. The latter has protested racial profiling and police killings of unarmed African Americans, many of whom were accused after death of making an officer feel nervous during something like a traffic stop or sidewalk questioning.

The Blue Lives Matter movement as a whole has advocated for those convicted of killing a police officer to be sentenced under hate crime laws, thus seeking to extend protections based on personal characteristics like race or sexual orientation to a public sector career choice.

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