Mayor Elorza calls Black Lives Matter coffee cup ‘very important issue’

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said the uproar among Providence police officers who took issue with a teenager Dunkin Donuts employee who wrote “#blacklivesmatter” on a cop’s coffee cup is a “very important issue” and pointed out that the community and the officers that serve and protect it are closer than this issue would make it seem.

“I’m really proud we haven’t had the outbursts and the violence that we’ve seen in other communities,” Elorza told RI Future after an appearance on NBC10 News Conference Friday morning. “And it’s not a coincidence. We’ve spent a lot of time building relationships between the police department and the community and it always can be better but I also think we have a lot to be proud of.”

He made certain to draw a distinction between the police union and the police department and said, “If we continue to focus on what brings us together as a community we can make sure that here in Providence we avoid some of the issues we’ve seen in other cities.”