One of the first protesters to be arrested is led to a prisoner wagon.
A group of West Roxbury residents and students from Hampshire College and UMass Amherst briefly blocked construction of a trench up Washington Street for a high-pressure natural-gas pipeline this morning before they were cuffed, put in prisoner wagons and taken down to District E-5 for booking.
It's the third such protest against the pipeline and the largest number of protesters arrested at one time.
Starting shortly after 9 a.m., the 12 separated from about 20 other protesters on the sidewalks and walked to the trench where the 750-psi pipeline will go, on its way from Dedham to a transfer station at Grove and Centre streets, where it will connect to National Grid's local distribution system. Protesters say the pipeline will be a menace to the neighborhood, especially the transfer station.
They held hands and chanted and sang against the pipeline and against Spectra, the company building it, for about 15 minutes. Workers stopped extending the trench from the inbound side to the outbound side of Washington, just past Rockland Towers.
Then, a protest organizer who had just talked to E-5 Captain Joseph Gillespie told them police said they could only continue protesting until a second prisoner wagon showed up to join the one already stationed there. About ten minutes later, it arrived, and Gillespie gave the protesters one last chance to disperse.
When they didn't, an officer got out a cache of plastic cuffs and the protesters were put in them, taken to the wagons, pat frisked and loaded into the wagons to await their ride to the local police station.
As the last of them was put in a wagon and the doors shut, supporters chanted "We'll be back! We'll be back!"
Before the work stoppage:
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Comments
You are correct, Pete
By Waquiot
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 3:00pm
But the fearmongering of the pipeline passing the quarry (I don't believe the studies and the studies are a bit less than independent, but I cannot deny they exist) is stronger than "hey people, fracking in general is bad since it could pollute water supplies." I don't know what goes on in gasland, but my guess is that were a new set of wells going in by an aquifer, people would be getting arrested.
As for the arresting, yeah, it's easy at first. A friend was out there at the start of the second Iraq war. He was warned to bring his credit card for bail.
No independent studies have been done.
By n
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 3:18pm
Only studies contracted by Spectra. That's a major, major, major part of this protest for area residents and the main focus of online and offline petition drives. What is unreasonable about requesting an *independent review* of the health and safety effects of this project?
See http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-the-west-rox...
The process is essentially self-certifying, and we all know the benefits of *that* policy - see http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=VLKAY
We do all realize that it is in the best interest
By JP Runner
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 9:18am
of Spectra to keep everyone safe, correct?
Safety is paramount for a natural gas company that runs high pressure pipeline, and especially in close proximity to residential areas.
Another good point JP Runner.
By Pete Nice
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 9:59am
If a survey company tells spectra that there is a chance of an explosion, (meaning jail time and possibly millions of dollars in fines and lawsuits), Utility companies aren't going to risk that.
Historical perspective
By ckd
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 1:53pm
I'm sure the Purity Distilling Company would have made the same argument. "Our tank can't be unsafe, it's in a residential area. Please ignore the fact that we had to paint it brown to hide the leaks."
Well,
By JP Runner
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 10:19pm
You don't think there would be a bigger s*"', or molasses, storm to deal with in 2015 then there was way back then for a "cover up" of a neighborhood hazard?
There is no "painting over the leaks" in a high pressure pipeline.
No 21st century fuel transportation company
By ckd
Sat, 10/24/2015 - 1:07am
So no modern, 21st century, company involved in transporting fossil fuels would ever risk causing a horrible accident because it would be bad for business?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-Mégantic_rail_disaster
Pipelines are way, way safer than via railroad .
By JP Runner
Sat, 10/24/2015 - 3:37pm
Fuel needs to get where its going (to us/for us for power generation) and the far safer option is by pipeline.
Buy the quarry
By BostonDog
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 12:06pm
So why hasn't the pipeline company just purchased the quarry and turned it over to the city as a park yet? Doing so would take away the biggest argument against the pipeline.
The cost of the quarry site would pale in comparison to how much the pipeline is costing and how much they plan to make from the gas sale.
They don't have to
By Local
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 12:13pm
That would be nice, but why would they bother?
Spectra can do anything they want related to installing their pipeline. They didn't even have to go through any sort of city permitting process for it - they just claimed rights to the streets using eminent domain.
Quarry doesn't want to sell.
By anon
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 12:58pm
Quarry doesn't want to sell.
You kiddin' me?
By Gary C
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 1:20pm
That quarry would go for millions. Not chump change.
They sold a plot to RL for $21.1M
By Anon
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 4:04pm
http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20081028/News/3...
Good
By Kathode
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 12:17pm
on them!
I love
By anon
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 3:09pm
How any time someone decides to exercise their right to free speech, someone chimes in with the cliche, about how its great the protesters don't have to work. Ironically, if it's something like the Tea Party, or some sort of right wing concern, all worries about employment seem to vanish.
The Boston Tea Party
By Waquiot
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 4:54pm
happened in the evening.
Learn your history.
Another thing about the Boston Tea Party
By Johnny Remain
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 5:18pm
is that it was a protest against taxes. Something Massachusetts residents have not done since.
What are you, 15?
By adamg
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 6:02pm
Never heard of Prop. 2 1/2?
taxing memory
By bobsyouruncle
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 12:18am
Last November, Massachusetts voters repealed the annual inflation adjustment on the gas tax, which will reduce transportation funding by $1,000,000,000 over 10 years.
The ballot initiative was sponsored by a tea party republican in the House of Rep who was kicked out of leadership in the minority leader.
The inflation adjustment would have cost the average motorist about $12 a year.
Interesting
By JP Resident
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 8:55am
And the price of tea in China today is £ 1.15.
I remember Prop 2 1/2, and it didn't last long.
By mplo
Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:16am
When Prop 2 1/2 was implemented and people also found that their police and fire protection were also cut, they howled, so the police and fire stations in question were re-opened, to at least make it look like they were re-opened.
Prop. 2 1/2 also resulted in the cutting of teachers, etc., and other services. When people realized that their vital services, including snow removal in the winter, police and fire protection, etc., were being cut, they realized that Prop. 2 1/2 was really bad news, so it eventually was voted out.
No, no, just no
By adamg
Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:26am
Prop. 2 1/2 was NOT voted out, it's very much in place.
What happened in the years after its passage was the state economy improved and the state was able to replace a lot of the education money that was lost (you may recall the "Massachusetts Miracle" that got Dukakis the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988) , and places like Boston saw a building boom (granted, nothing like what we're seeing today, but still) and saw their property-tax revenue increase.
But 2 1/2 is still very much the law of the commonwealth and cities and town still cannot raise their total property-tax revenue by more than 2.5% each year. Communities that want to exceed their annual 2 1/2-based cap on property-tax revenue for building a new school or police station or whatever still have to hold an override vote.
It's Terrible
By JP Resident
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 4:13pm
It's awful that these shills of the Home Heating Oil Delivery Companies are protesting cleaner burning fuel in support of their dirty oil for heating our homes. They want us to have to live forever with those awful diesel trucks spewing particulates all over our neighborhoods, double parking and blocking our streets all so they can make money off delivering their dirty solutions. I hope they file a RICO statute violation.
What?
By Fat Eric
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 6:32pm
I don't think you've thought this through. They protesters do not want ANY fossil fuel to be burned - switching from oil to gas is somewhat cleaner but is short sighted.
Sarcasm
By JP Resident
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 8:00am
Ever heard of it?
when sarcasm fails
By John-W
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 9:22am
The problem with that piece of sarcasm is it has no hyperbolic snap! The argument is totally within the realm of the gas line proponents' ideas. In fact you may have given them a tactic! Life has gotten so asinine that satire, sarcasm and other tricks of the snarky trade are getting lapped by the absurdity of reality. Thank god we still got The Onion.
Fun Fact , maybe of interest
By kvn
Fri, 10/23/2015 - 10:07am
Fun Fact , maybe of interest to JP Res.
In my travels, I saw a Devaney Oil truck. They originally were from McBride Street JP, and just past them was The Boston Gas Company. Dueling fuel suppliers , even back then.
You might want to talk to some of them
By adamg
Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:28am
About how their homes are heated and what their concerns are.
True, that would require actually going to one of the protests or vigils they hold on the regular, but JP isn't that far from West Roxbury, really. I actually know at least one JP resident who has even participated in some of the protests.
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