Re: Boston Police Arrest 100 Anti-Wall Street Protesters

Evans gave one more warning, and police then began the
arrests.
---
case closed

they were granted the right to protest but weren't afforded
lawlessness.
obey the law or pay the price

On Oct 12, 10:34 am, excalliber stevens
<excalibur.stevens.bis...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Boston Police Arrest 100 Anti-Wall Street Protesters
> By Kate Randall
> 12 October, 2011
> WSWS.org
> Boston Police arrest protesters PHOTO COURTESY OCCUPYBOSTON.COM
> Boston Police carried out an early morning raid on anti-Wall Street
> protesters Tuesday, arresting 100 people in a violent attack on the
> Occupy Boston protest. The police operation began at about 1:20 a.m.,
> when officers in uniform and riot gear moved in to clear protesters
> from a section of land in the city's financial district.
>
> The police action followed a day of protests Monday in which several
> thousand Boston-area students came out to rally in support of Occupy
> Boston. As in protests that have spread to dozens of cities across the
> country, participants are being driven by a profound anger over
> unprecedented levels of social inequality and the domination of
> corporate power over all aspects of social life.
> The brutal police assault on the Boston protesters expresses the real
> attitude of the ruling elite to this growing movement, and is an
> indication of the methods that will be utilized against protesters in
> other areas as it continues to gather momentum. Boston Mayor Thomas
> Menino, a Democrat, stated, "I understand they have freedom of speech
> and freedom of expression, but we have a city to manage… civil
> disobedience will not be tolerated."
> Boston Police arrest protesters PHOTO COURTESY OCCUPYBOSTON.COM
> Now nearing its second week, the Boston protest has steadily grown in
> numbers. Occupy Boston protesters have set up a tent city in Dewey
> Square on a section of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, with hundreds of
> people sleeping overnight on a regular basis. On Monday, protesters
> began expanding their occupation to an adjacent area of the Greenway,
> erecting new tents.
> Until Tuesday's early morning raid, the Boston Police Department had
> adopted a generally hands-off approach to the protest. But on Monday
> afternoon, protesters began to notice a heavy police presence in the
> area. Police told protesters Monday evening that they would face
> arrest unless they vacated the area of the Greenway where they had
> expanded their protest.
> At about 1:20 a.m. Tuesday, Police Superintendent William Evans and
> Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis stood across the street from the
> new occupation area. Speaking over a bullhorn, Evans gave the crowd
> two minutes to disperse, warning they faced arrest if they did not
> comply. Police lined up on Atlantic Avenue and minutes later dozens of
> sheriff's vans and police wagons arrived. More than 200 officers
> surrounded the section of the Greenway occupied by the protesters.
> An Occupy Boston protester told the World Socialist Web Site later
> Tuesday, "They came down with dogs, batons, riot gear, scare tactics.
> It was just disgraceful!" The group responded with chants of, "The
> people united will never be defeated," "This is a peaceful protest,"
> and "The whole world is watching."
> After about 10 minutes, the police entered the park and surrounded the
> protesters. Evans gave one more warning, and police then began the
> arrests. Each protester was shoved to the ground on his or her
> stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off to waiting police vans. Members
> of Veterans for Peace had formed a line in front of the mostly young
> protesters and police broke through their barrier. Vietnam Veteran
> John Niles, 74, was knocked down, but evaded arrest.
> Protester James Woods, 52, told the Boston Globe that he saw police
> "aggressively manhandling women," and that police had used pepper
> spray on some people. As protesters were hauled away, their tents,
> clothes, cameras and other belongings were thrown into a dumpster.
> Police use stick on Occupy Boston protester PHOTO COURTESY
> OCCUPYBOSTON.COM
> Urszula Masny-Latos, who was on the scene as a legal observer, told
> the Globe that the police "really attacked. They used force that was
> completely unnecessary… it was just brutal. I have no idea why they
> arrested us with such force."
> To her surprise, she was arrested herself, although she was wearing a
> green hat with the words "legal observer." She said the Boston police
> usually respect the rights of legal observers at public protests. Four
> medics were also arrested.
> Masny-Latos also said that the violence of the arrests was contrary to
> the technique routinely used at other peaceful protests, in which
> police approach the protesters, inform them they are violating the
> law, and the protesters may then submit to be taken into custody.
> The male arrestees were held in custody or ordered to appear in court
> Tuesday. The first group of men made appearances yesterday afternoon
> in Boston Municipal Court. All of the women arrested were released by
> police and were due in court Wednesday or Thursday.
> As of mid-Tuesday, 10 men who had been released by police and nine who
> were still in custody were notified that Suffolk County prosecutors
> had requested that charges against them be changed from criminal
> violations to civil infractions. The protesters were ordered to pay a
> $50 assessment fee to the court.
> Boston Police move in to arrest Occupy Boston protesters PHOTO
> COURTESY OCCUPYBOSTON.COM
> The day after the arrests, Police Superintendent Evans defended the
> heavy-handed methods of the police. Elaine Driscoll, a spokesperson
> for the Boston Police Department, justified the repressive tactics
> used on the peaceful protesters saying the police "have the right to
> protect themselves" and claiming that "all our officers were
> respectful and proportional."
> Mayor Menino defended the police while at the same time claiming to
> sympathize with those who had been arrested. Echoing the comments of
> other Democratic politicians on the anti-Wall Street protests, Menino
> said, "I agree with them on the issues. Foreclosure, corporate greed.
> These are issues I've been working on my entire career."
> However, he said protesters had "crossed the line" Monday, when they
> marched on a bridge in Charlestown following the student rally and
> threatened to block traffic, and then expanded their campground to the
> newly renovated area of the Greenway and refused to leave.
> The police crackdown in Boston, following mass arrests in New York,
> Des Moines and other cities, represents one element of a two-pronged
> strategy being employed by the ruling class against the burgeoning
> anti-Wall Street protests. On the one hand, the Democratic Party,
> utilizing the services of the trade unions and their pro-Democratic
> pseudo-left allies, have sought to co-opt the protests and channel the
> genuine outrage expressed by the participants behind that big business
> party and President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign.
> This would render the incipient movement against social inequality and
> the domination of the banks and corporations politically harmless and
> transform it into a another prop for the capitalist two-party system,
> just as the movement against the war in Iraq was subverted and then
> shut down by tying it the Democratic Party and its various election
> campaigns.
> After three years of right-wing, pro-corporate policies, the Obama
> administration is engaged in a demagogic public relations campaign to
> portray itself as a populist friend of the "middle class." The
> centerpiece of this effort is Obama's "American Jobs Act," a pro-
> business bill that would provide only a token number of jobs and do so
> by draining Social Security of funds and extending more tax breaks to
> the corporations.
> This measure is linked to an austerity plan that would cut hundreds of
> billions of dollars from social programs, including Medicare and
> Medicaid. And in Orwellian fashion, Obama is pretending to support
> higher taxes on the rich even as he pushes a bipartisan tax "reform"
> scheme that would slash tax rates for corporations and the wealthy.
> Obama is combining campaign-style town hall meetings in various cities
> to promote his phony "jobs bill" with fundraisers at which he collects
> pledges and checks from multi-millionaire corporate executives and
> bankers.
> Typical of the cynicism of the Democrats' attempts to portray
> themselves as allies of the anti-Wall Street protesters were the
> remarks of Obama senior adviser David Plouffe. Interviewed Tuesday on
> ABC's "Good Morning America" program, he said, "If you're concerned
> about Wall Street and our financial system, the president is standing
> on the side of consumers and the middle class."
> In their effort to corral the anti-Wall Street movement and prevent it
> from developing into a broader movement of the working class outside
> the control of the Democratic Party, forces allied to the Democrats
> are seeking to take organizational control of the protests. The New
> York Times on Tuesday pointed to the role of the Center for American
> Progress, headed by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John D.
> Podesta, in "sometimes working in recent weeks with labor unions… from
> talking points to the realm of organizational guidance."
> But as the anti-Wall Street movement spreads, the political
> establishment is becoming increasingly concerned that the protests
> will move out of the orbit of the two big-business parties and in an
> increasingly anti-capitalist direction. Thus the supposed "support"
> for the movement is combined with violent police attacks intended to
> terrorize and intimidate, and deter new forces from becoming involved.
> In Des Moines, 32 demonstrators were arrested Sunday night and charged
> with trespassing after Republican Governor Terry Branstad ordered
> state police to enforce a requirement to close state capitol grounds
> at 11 p.m. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, the city manager has threatened
> similar action against Occupy Grand Rapids demonstrators.
> On Tuesday, in Washington DC, six people were arrested at the Hart
> Senate Building after about 100 protesters filled the building's
> atrium, ...
>
> read more »

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