WESTFIELD–City Police have sought to clarify information and comments surrounding the memorial convoy for Justin Messier that occurred Wednesday.
MICHAEL MCCABE
Following the memorial convoy for Messier, comments surfaced on Facebook and to a news agency of the event being perceived as a white supremacist rally. Additionally, comments surfaced regarding the police’s refusal to assist the convoy, which was deemed inaccurate by Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe.
“The Westfield Police Department did not refuse to help the people on Little River Road,” McCabe said.
The convoy left from the Super Phipp’s Liquors parking lot, which nearly intersects with Little River Road, and traveled to West Springfield, along the way stopping at Toomey O’Brien’s Funeral Home in West Springfield, then at an unnamed bar, according to police.
McCabe said that after deliberation, he decided to decline the request to assist the convoy for multiple reasons, including no request from the family for an escort and that the convoy would be going to West Springfield, which is out of the Westfield Police’s jurisdiction.
“If the Messier family asked me to assist and had a plan, including number of vehicles and people, I would have considered further,” McCabe said.
Additionally, McCabe said that the plan to travel to a bar at one point during the convoy was not something that he felt the department should endorse, especially considering that alcohol is being considered as a factor in Messier’s car crash death.
“I was told it would go from one place to a bar, and it was not something I wanted to involve my personnel with,” McCabe said.
McCabe also addressed concerns from those who believed that the organization of the convoy was actually a white supremacist rally of some kind. At the convoy gathering many Confederate, American and Gadsden flags flew from vehicles.
Some people perceived the flags, particularly the Confederate flags–which have ties to Southern sympathy during the Civil War–as a statement of white supremacy. This culminated on Facebook, when comments erupted in various forums, as well as questions about a confederate rally in Westfield came into local news stations.
“The group organized was reportedly off-road enthusiasts,” McCabe said. “They never made any mention of white supremacy.”
McCabe said that regardless of intention of the flags though, the participants do have the right to fly them.
“They have the right to fly Confederate flags, I have to represent the legal rights of everyone,” he said.
