A Democratic candidate for state representative from Martha’s Vineyard has expressed support for abolishing prisons.
Arielle Reid Faria, a Democrat from West Tisbury, said in 2020 that prisons should be abolished. She is now running for state representative in the Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket District.
Faria expressed this position in a Facebook comment on May 31, 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Faria shared a link to a Forbes article on Facebook titled “In Some Cities, Police Officers Joined Protestors Marching Against Brutality” and wrote “More of this.”
A woman named Talia Luening responded to the post, disagreeing with Faria’s assessment.
“[Expletive] the police though, peiod,” Luening wrote. “We need to abolish a system that acts to detroy the people.There are no ‘good cops’ in a system built on white supremacy, patriarchy, and hate. I’m with Angela Davis on this one: Abolish prisons and abolish the police.”
Faria pushed back against abolishing the police but agreed with abolishing prisons.
“Talia Luening If they are doing their job to protect and serve I am fully fine with having them do that,” Faria wrote. “I know a lot of really good people that are police men and women that really do serve their communities … but it needs to be drastically fixed in most places. As for the penal system … yes, I fully agree, no question at all.”
No Republican is running for the seat, meaning the winner of the Democratic primary will likely win the general election. It’s the seat that state representative Dylan Fernandes (D-Woods Hole) currently holds, but he is not seeking re-election. Fernandes is running for Massachusetts Senate in the Plymouth and Barnstable District.
The Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket District, which Faria is running to represent, includes the southern part of Falmouth (Precincts 1, 2, and 6), all of Martha’s Vineyard (Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Gosnold, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury) and the Elizabeth Islands (Gosnold), plus Nantucket, according to the state legislature’s web site.
Faria is not the only Democratic primary candidate in this election cycle who supports abolishing prisons. Stacey Borden, a Democrat for Boston running for the Massachusetts Governor’s Council in the state’s Fourth District, also supports this position, as NewBostonPost previously reported. Borden and Ronald Iacobucci of Quincy are challenging the incumbent, Christopher Iannella, in the Democratic primary.
Faria could not be reached for comment on Monday or Tuesday. Nor could Moakley.
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