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Covidbreathers bang their buckets outside the house of a city councilor's mother
By adamg on Mon, 03/21/2022 - 6:47pm
Photo via Ricardo Arroyo.
They've already screamed their lungs out at the young children of the mayor, so the anti-vax brigade decided to mix it up this morning, by going to City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo's mother's house in Hyde Park and screaming at her even though Arroyo himself no longer lives there - and was not there this morning.
Arroyo supports Mayor Wu's proposal to limit protests outside a particular person's house, but his mother, Elsa, 70, is a retired school teacher who holds absolutely no government position whatsoever related to Covid-19 regulations.
Arroyo, who chairs the committee studying the proposal, spurred by more than two months of early morning bucket drumming and racist chanting outside Wu's Roslindale house, and who is also running for Suffolk County DA, tweeted today
She told them it wasn't my home but they ignored her & kept on for hours. City Hall is open and they can protest there. It's clear the goal isn't protest but targeted harassment and its wrong.
Wu tweeted:
Cruel & disgusting. Leave our moms, families & neighbors out of it.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Suggestion
Someone needs to dox these motherfxxxers and start harrassing them at their homes. Just a suggestion.
As a start
As a start, I'd settle for finding out where their homes are. This is an astroturf "movement".
Expose and disrupt the money
Whose payroll are these people on?
Disrupt the money?
No offense, but this group doesn't look like a well funded bunch to me.....
Dirty deeds
...done dirt cheap.
There's always a financial gain/grift for these relentless astroturf campaigns. These people aren't out grinding every day for the love of the game.
In other cities, out-of-work actors have been "cast" for their roles as "grass roots" right-wing protestors. Perhaps the talent pool of those both out of work and willing to routinely debase themselves isn't as deep in the Greater Boston area? https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1421931374567563264?s=20&t=n_rbkBm_...
Oh I get that…
There are people who think those “Nazis” at the St Pattys day parade are paid for (or even feds) but these guys? my experience tells me they are just off their rockers…..
Two things can be true
They may very well be off their rockers, and also funded (which is not the same as "paid") and enabled by someone else. Funding an astroturf campaign doesn't mean handing out dollars to the dumbass foot soldiers.
Dianna’s made that easy. She
Dianna’s made that easy. She’s running for Governor.
If their goal is to get media attention
It's working.
I think you are giving them a lot of credit
I don't think they are capable of planning or strategy. I have seen no agenda from them to indicate they even know what they want. They are just miserable people and are sharing their misery.
I find them imbecilic
My guess is their goal is simply to make "liberals" unhappy. It's the same goal as most of the GOP at this point.
They have the same mentality as the dipshits who go to school board meetings to scream about "CRT" without any knowledge or care what that means or any other aspect of the school. It's just something to do to make them feel like good soldiers in some imaginary culture war.
There's at least two levels of "they"
There's at least two levels of "they", and you've definitely identified one of them. The other level understands that the first level is easily manipulated to be their brownshirts, or useful idiots if you prefer. They're not a whole lot smarter themselves to be honest -- there's at least one more level beyond that.
On the contrary
On the contrary, it’s a well orchestrated campaign to make school board members’ experience miserable enough that many resign, making room for the election of those who share the protesters’ ringleaders agenda. Phyllis Schlafly’s highly successful long game from the 1970s was to recognize that today’s school board member is tomorrow’s city councilor, next year’s state rep, next decade’s congressional rep or US Senator.
Voucher Program
Don’t forget about the voucher program for charter schools! The Koch funded federalist society, CNP & heritage foundation have,unbeknownst to many of us, been planning this for decades. With all the craziness at school and town meetings people started poking around ,what the hell is going on here? They want to eliminate the DOE, open *Christian*charter schools all across the country (and are in the process of just that, look at NH, it was presented as a great opportunity for a mere 140k-now over 7 million on the taxpayers dime. These schools have no rules or regulations of who and what is taught, they also have no plan for their students higher education as many are not accredited.
If you’re seeing this please read and share this proposal to Trump by the CNP Director, outlining their exact plans, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but thank God Trump did not go ahead with it, big win for him.
https://www.eclectablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ERR-CNP-Site.pdf
If their goal is unfettered scumbaggery
It's working.
Always remember
Two things can be true at once.
Goal?
These idiots don't have a goal. Just like they apparently don't have jobs, or lives, or anything meaningful to do during the day. Hate-filled harassment is all these poorly educated fools appear to be capable of doing.
And this is why.....
We need that f*cking anti-harassment law. If this was me who showed up outside any random person's house and ranted for hours, I'd get hauled away in a second. (As I should.)
This crap is a step away from domestic terrorism.
It might be crass, but isn't & shouldn't be illegal
Their protest target and argument (do they even have one?) is nonsensical once you peel a single layer on their argument & they're a bunch of loons, but residential picketing ought to be (& is - with asterisks) protected speech. Just flip some details around - if the mayor or councilor were promoting a policy of school segregation, would you still say picketing at the residence of them (or people who have influence on them) should be illegal?
Time (outside reasonable waking hours), place (obstructing a walkway or roadway, or on their private property), and manner (excessive noise) are all fair game; but a blanket ban on residential picketing can not, and should not, be passed. (Well, they can pass it, but it sure won't be upheld*)
* Unless it's of a toothless, easily bypassed variety, see Frisby v. Schultz; but even then you can demonstrate at a residence, just so long as you include marching in front of the adjacent homes, too.
It's not a blanket ban
The city is using Frisby v. Schultz as a guide to ensure that any suit filed against it gets shot down hard at the lower level due to precedent. If the law goes in and they continue doing what they are doing now they will be arrested every time. Not sure how you call that toothless.
Link about recently enacted legislation in LA
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-14/la-city-council-pass...
The council voted 12 to 2 to pass an ordinance prohibiting picketing within 300 feet of a targeted residential dwelling, replacing a current law that prohibits such picketing within 100 feet.
The ordinance also allows anyone who is “aggrieved” by the unlawful picketing to seek up to $1,000 for each violation. Aggrieved parties could include the target of the protests, as well as neighbors.
Sari Zureiqat, an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, said the law will make it harder for protesters to make their messages heard by their intended targets.
Write this stuff up however you want. It is people who have power taking it away from those who do not have it. This will always come back around to hurt causes you believe in, regardless of what they are.
Glad to see one other person who values free speech
What's progressive about a powerful politician seeking to ensure that they never have to really hear dissenting speech? Seeking to ban public demonstrations? Arrest protesters? This isn't progressive. It's the type of move I associate more with people like Putin than supporters of liberal democracy and the US Constitution. That it gets so much support from people who fancy themselves liberals is terrifying. Has the ACLU come out against this proposal? I hope they do.
there’s a good point in what you’ve written
of course, Wu is *not* seeking to ensure that she never has to hear dissenting speech. neither is she seeking to ban public demonstrations or to arrest protestors. there’s really no need for hyperbole.
I'd like to see politicians bear this cross a bit more patiently
After all, there are Bostonians who have to live year-round in more crowded, noisy and chaotic neighborhoods that no hasty new law will ever transform into suburbanish paradises of tranquillity...and after all, this is the city and what's the city without a little noise, odor, hustle and bustle? I would argue that Government is more heavy-handed and powerful now, in terms of its control over the individual and intrusion into aspects of daily life, than it has ever been in a non-wartime/draft situation, and it has been this way now for a pretty long period of time. A little protest about this situation, directed toward powerful public officials, is healthy and should be expected and even respected. Also, does Arroyo still live in the district? If so, where? Is there general confusion about this or am I misreading it? I think this is supposed to be a matter of public record.
Yea there are lines here Dan for sure.....
Disturbing the Peace:
Disorderly Conduct:
All sorts of subjective concepts in there.
Charges To Be Declined list
https://rollins4da.com/policy/charges-to-be-declined/
Disorderly conduct
Disturbing the peace
And 3 guesses who helped develop the list?
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2022/02/08/ricardo-arroyo-announces-run-f...
You realize
Rachel Rollins is no longer the DA, right?
(also, note the "unless supervisor permission is obtained" part of that "charges to be declined. The idea that there would never ever be charges for these things is a weird right-wing hateboner fantasy.)
Do you live in a neighborhood where this happens?
You might have a different take on the line between free speech and targeted harassment if you had to deal with these jerks on a daily basis. The Mayor's neighbors shouldn't have to put up with this, nor should Mrs. Arroyo or her neighbors.
they are protesting policies
that aren’t in place anymore. i’m not necessarily in favor of the expanded dnd hours – i am suggesting that this group is currently abusing the freedoms the laws allow.
there is no hypocrisy in acknowledging that what Cottone et al. are doing bears no resemblance to the other protests of recent years.
The proposed restriction meets those criteria
It does not ban protests outside residences. It limits their hours, taking two hours off in the morning and two hours at night, compared to current law.
Aren't harassment and threats
Aren't harassment and threats on our Decline To Prosecute list?
"our"?
Come on, kid. You can do better than that.
Probably picked his mom's
Probably picked his mom's house because it's women of color that really get them riled up. I sure hope these people aren't from Boston and are just a bunch of children of 1970s white flighters who rolled in from Keene.
You sound racist
You really do
I suppose we can take some solace...
...in the fact that they're more likely to be dead in the near future than the rest of us, and that it is strictly the results of their own decisions.
Don't forget, however, that these anti-vaxxers
Don't forget, however, that these anti-vaxxers also put others at risk of becoming really, really sick, ending up in the hospital, or even dying from Covid-19 itself. These creeps don't give a shit about anybody but themselves.
More biased reporting from UHub
Adam, the reason they were at that address is because that's the home address he listed on his filing oapaer for DA. If he lied about his address, thats his problem. I don't agree with protesting at homes, but you are purposely spinning this one like always. Typical.
Yes he did live there
And his *committee* uses that address. But I gather you don't believe his mother and so just kept on banging your buckets.
Poor Ricardo - he's really living in tight quarters now
From OCPF:
CANDIDATE & OFFICE INFORMATION
Office/District Sought: District Attorney, Suffolk District - Suffolk County (613)
Office/District Held: City Councilor, Boston (5035)
Party Affiliation: Democratic
Candidate Address: PO Box 365493 Boston, MA 02136
Gee
I can't imagine why any Boston politician of color wouldn't want to publish the address where they actually lives with their family.
The reason they were at that address...
...is because they are unhinged assholes. Fixed it for you.
I think Adam has a bias against unhinged assholes...that I fully support. It's OK to be biased against these assholes; try it some time. It's good for you.
I would argue
That publishing these articles may even be helping their cause….whatever that may be.
Other than getting a rise out of people, what purpose does promoting a cause you don’t like serve other than promoting yourself?
I would have no idea they even exist if the media didn’t publish it. They would probably quiet down faster as well.
The mayor or any other politician should not need the protection of media. That’s a cabal.
I don't know.....
Ignoring these creeps will only give them more opportunity to continue to do their dirty work. These people are putting everybody else in danger, as well, and they get ignored at everybody else's peril, if one gets the drift.
Oh, this tired old non-argument
This is one of the non-arguments that are perennially made by those with no skin in the game. "You're just giving them what they want" "You're just making their point for them" "You're descending to their level" "Why not just go somewhere else away from [insert hate group name] and do something positive instead?" et cetera ad nauseam.
I have no doubt that the first sentence is true, and that the second is false. This has been proven over and over again.
"Neutrality favors the oppressor, not the oppressed. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Wiesel
Hmm….quote choice
Our mayor is tormented? A victim?
Yes, everything you disagree with must be tired and old.
I live in Boston and do have skin in the game.
Really unbelievable you chose an Elie Wiesel quote, one of the great human rights activists in history, to defend a government. You should have included this one as well:
Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe,” he said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on Dec. 10, 1986.
Oh it's a GREAT quote choice
Really unbelievable you think Elie Wiesel was against government as such.
That's nice, dear. Relevance?
The sociopaths you're caping for are not persecuted. You're just being a chump.
You’re saying that’s nice dear to an Elie Wiesel quote
You continue to insult. I am not insulting you.
The relevance is a government trying to take away the rights of people to stand up for what they believe in.
I do not want to continue to invoke Elie Wiesel in this conversation if you would like to continue. It is a disservice to what he has done.
Keep reaching
No, I'm saying "That's nice, dear" to your irrelevant use of it in a transparent attempt to claim Wiesel's mantle in support of your spurious arguments about rights.
Tell me where you live. I will arrive in time for dinner and I will stand up for what I believe in in your dining room. Expect it to get loud.
You may not like it, but my use of the quote was exactly on point in response to your absurd attempt to make victims be silent in response to their abusers' misconduct. Sorry if it stings.
You’re welcome to keep defending those in power
Your use of the word victim is laughable. The mayor is not a victim and neither is her family or neighbors. We will have to agree to disagree on what a victimized person is because we clearly won’t get past that. If anyone feels victimized by people protesting, it is their own problem. A business owner getting their building burnt down by protesters or a person getting assaulted by protesters would be a victim.
I can’t stop you from defending those in power who try to abuse it to squash dissent and you’re welcome to keep going, as unfortunate as that may be. You don’t seem unintelligent, just maybe, as they say, willfully ignorant?
Laughable?
What's laughable is your blind kneejerk defense of incoherent mouth-breathing spit-spraying haters as brave free speech warriors.
And I can't stop you from beating your dog, and you're welcome to keep going, as unfortunate as that may be. See how this works? You make shit up, I can make shit up too.
The thing is…
1. I am defending a right, no specific people. I certainly never called them warriors. You are lying and making things up.
2. I am not making anything up. You’re defending those in power. That’s all I’m saying. I suppose I could say blindly defending to keep the insults going but enough of that.
The thing is...
I am defending a right, no specific people. I am defending the right to not have incoherent jackasses screaming outside your house early in the morning.
I am not making anything up. You're defending assholes, and you're lying when you say I am defending those in power. I suppose I could say blindly defending because that is in fact what you are doing but enough of that.
You’re willing to diminish the rights
Of those you disagree with and don’t like personally. I get it.
Wtf?
So if, instead of posting this story, Adam ignored this incident, he would be be “protecting the mayor” and therefore a part of a “cabal”?
Get a grip. Also, maybe chose a word that is a bit more subtle than cabal when taking a dig at specific media personalities. You’re showing your hand.
All media is protecting a politician when they do this
I’ll show my hand gladly and here are the cards.
By making protesters the bad guys, the media is protecting the mayor. I am not singling anyone out. Other media outlets are doing the same.
Here is the definition of cabal:
A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unbeknownst to those who are outside their group.
The only difference here is it is unbeknownst to those inside their group.
If that word is a problem, we can use a different one. You can pick it. Here:
Faction
Group
Band
Party
Camp
Gang
We see you for what you are
The fun part about choosing coded language is playing dumb after fact.
Also, using a version of “you’re the real racist” argument above further tips your hand and let’s everyone know how unserious you are.
Keep seeing coded language…
I’m just using basic English. There are no codes and I’m being serious. You are welcome to write that off however you would like, however calling people you disagree with as nothing more than a conspiracy against your thoughts will only get you so far. It’s actually part of the reason why I am writing these things. Democrats need to wake up now if they want to maintain power in this country and it seems like they can’t get out their own way. Everyone here in your collective “we” is welcome to shoot the messenger, however I don’t think that path is working and is detrimental to the party.
LOL @ “basic” English
Funny that I never saw “cabal” on any of my K-12 spelling tests.
Sure
I hope you aced those 12th grade spelling tests. They were less than 5 letters?
That’s just sad
You got a poor education.
Waquiot sticking up for…
bigotry.
That’s not surprising.
Bigotry my ass
Words exist and I am sorry you don’t like some of them. Do not twist this into something else in your efforts of censoring thoughts that make you triggered. That’s a big problem right now.
this comment
is this a bret stephens parody account?
Nope
Just surprised that in 13 or so years of primary and secondary education, you never learned the word “cabal”. That’s a sixth or seventh grade vocab word.
As for the assumption that I am sticking up for bigotry, I’m also guessing that you never learned what happens when one assumes something.
Did I call your name?
It’s shitty that I have to explain this to you, a college-educated man, that the root word of “cabal” comes from the Jewish mysticism word “kabballah“ and it has been an used as a derogatory anti-Semitic epithet for generations.
Google “Jewish cabal” and you may notice that it is an epithet directed at the “Jewish media”. It’s so shitty; if it’s an honest mistake, then just apologize and don’t double down. We all fuck up.
I mean, no one called your name, yet you felt the strong need insert yourself and defend this anti-semitism and denigrate my education. Why do you feel personally offended that I called out someone else’s bigotry?
I am aware of the root origin of the word
And it’s translation to Latin and then French and English. I am also quite aware of the phrase “Jewish Cabal.” I did not say that. Cabal is a word that can be used without denoting hate.
https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/cabal
Perhaps you should be emailing this company for your grievances
https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/17/big-cabal-media-parent-company-of-tech...
https://www.bigcabal.com/
They ARE the bad guys/gals
For me, the root problem with all this is not what they are protesting about, but the ways they are doing it. REGARDLESS of what position you are promoting, you should not be allowed to disturb the peace, targeting a specific person's home, very early or very late at night. I'd like to think that the media would give the same coverage if the target was male or white or Republican.
on the contrary
the problem is exactly that they are abusing the right to assemble to protest policies that do not exist anymore. there is no hypocrisy in acknowledging this.
Don't confuse us with
Don't confuse us with technicalities and facts.
Sure thing, chief
And then they were informed that he didn't live there and would not be there for the entire day (and into the foreseeable future too)...
So, they left to figure out where he was (probably City Hall) so they could protest at him where he was actually located.
The End.
Oh, wait. They didn't. They continued the protest at the location that they had arrived even though he wasn't there to hear their protests and they'd been informed of their error.
If they had the wrong address, that's their problem. But they don't think they can make errors or do any wrong. Typical.
what is there to spin or be biased about?
spin and bias don’t mean to “say things i don’t agree with”
people showed up at the wrong house to protest about policies that aren’t even in place anymore. when they were told they were at the wrong house, they stayed anyway. what’s the spin? where’s the bias?
Obviously
Adam is deliberately not reporting on all of the many other groups that are protesting at the residences of the mothers of elected officials. /s
As someone who had to move frequently
(mostly due to the inability to find consistent and reliable cheap housing in Boston)
I used my parents address for official stuff for years, since its really helpful to have an address that you know you'll be able to get mail at months or years later. Given that he's apparently using a PO Box now, I don't think listing his parents address for mail means that he's "lying" about his address.
In fairness
Having seen Arroyo in council hearings, I too would assume that he is incapable of living on his own.
After all of that privilege too (joke)
Voting for the sons of previous politicians is borderline nepotism, whether it is the governor of New Hampshire or New York. It often does not end well. See Felix G. Arroyo. See Andrew Cuomo. See George W. Bush. These are actually the last people you want to vote for. The term is overused but they are grifters working the system because they can.
Listing his mom's house as
Listing his mom's house as his address is suspect.
Anyone have a fog machine
And time to troll this walking contagion colony?
I think it would be fun to fog them out with simple water mist and have them claim all sorts of magical things about the nature of the fumigant.
Be interesting to see the Supreme Court weigh in
I for one am not the type to call the police on everything I find annoying (loud parties, aggressive solicitors, etc) , because I like living in a free society with wide protections for speech, diversity of opinion and lifestyles, and dissent. But I know this isn't a popular opinion anymore. Now people only support speech they personally agree with, the louder the better, while wishing to curtail and shut down speech they hate. It's some kind of weird generational thing or something.
Gonna guess...
...that you live in a nice quiet suburb and not next to an Allston party house.
Let me know if this is hard to read
It's probably small print from as high of a horse as you're riding.
A "free society" with "wide protections for speech" doesn't mean I get to put my manifesto on boulders and lob them from a bridge over a highway at the passing cars ("What? Don't they like my free speech?").
Then again, I'm not interested in seeing a ban of "residential protesting" in a city with EXTREMELY mixed zoning. BUT there *are* times and methods that are restricted already. My bet is they're violating 2-3 of them every time they show up at someone's mother's house and start yelling nonsensical things.
We've also reached a nadir in our "free speech" experiment. Between giving everyone a megaphone and then having zero chance at negating popular lies and making money equal to free speech and people being so inundated with "free speech" from false testimony, false experts, and disruptive instigators, we've created a society where it seems like the only way to get the truth out is to shutdown the lie machines before they can get started. So, yeah, curtailing and shutting down certain speech becomes seemingly the only way to stop it from being detrimental to us all. If you've got a better way, well, use your free speech...but "the truth will set us free" has been proven wrong by the past 10-20 years or so and it's only getting worse.