October 29, 2021
Dear Residents of Worcester,
As Worcester residents begin early voting and make plans to head to the polls on election day, a coalition of community groups are publicizing posts made by Richard Cipro, police sergeant, IBPO local 540 president, and candidate for District 1 City Councilor on the IBPO’s Facebook page. The page is open to the public.
The IBPO page claims to have been “set up to inform and educate members and the general public of the dedication and commitment Worcester Police Officials have to the City of Worcester.” Rather than being informative, as moderator of this Facebook group, Cipro’s page is a clearinghouse for racist tropes , celebrations of police violence, COVID misinformation, and anti-democracy conspiracy theories. As page moderator, he has chosen to let stand racist and offensive posts. As a poster in the group, Cipro himself has authored some of the page’s clearest examples of racism, vitriol against sitting Black and Latina politicians, and support for the January 6th insurrectionists.
In September, a meme posted to the Worcester Police Officials Union’s Facebook page depicted Mayor Joe Petty with a Hitler moustache after the announcement of policies meant to reduce the transmission of COVID in public spaces. Residents met this display of hatred and ignorance with outrage, but not before Worcester became the center of an embarrassing news story covered by local, statewide, and even national media. Cipro has tried to distance himself from that particular post. Is apologizing and banning the poster from the IBPO’s page enough for him to wipe his hands clean and move on? We don’t think so. Sadly, we believe his response came because he was caught rather than because these kinds of extremist views are an outlier on his corner of the internet.
The signatories of this letter write to express our concerns about having Sgt. Cipro as a city councilor. Law enforcement has historically been hostile and abusive to Black, Latino, Indigenous, queer, disabled, and poor populations, and is invested in protecting and expanding power for its own purposes. These general concerns about law enforcement sitting on city council are embodied in candidate Richard Cipro. His public comments show that he cannot be trusted to work seriously with the city’s residents that suffer disproportionately from Worcester’s rising costs of housing, police misconduct, opaque city government decision-making, and a budget that does not allocate appropriate resources to the neighborhood and community groups that have dedicated themselves to making Worcester a safer, more just, and more equitable place for all of its residents.
In solidarity,
508Pride Pa'Lante | Latinx Moving Forward Queer Coalition of Greater Worcester Racism-Free WPS SURJ Worcester WooFridge