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Judge says bucket-banging screamers shouldn't have been arrested outside mayor's house
By adamg on Tue, 09/06/2022 - 9:20am
The Herald reports a judge in West Roxbury Municipal Court dismissed the case against the first screamer arrested outside Michelle Wu's Roslindale home in April for violating the city's new ban on "targeted" demonstrations before 9 a.m. because the ordinance called for fines, not arrests.
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Comments
Seems like a bad idea
So if these nitwits can get financial backing from Jim Davis or some other anti-Wu person, they can just do this all the time with impunity?
It's in the ordinance
So if the City Council wanted to have people arrested, the members should have put that language in.
At the same time, though, it's hard to justify wanting to arrest people when one also supports do-not-prosecute decisions for most non-violent crimes.
Good point
It's a messy situation.
So much of city living comes down to mitigating the impact of people who are just assholes.
Yeah pretty much but you
Yeah pretty much but you could say that about lots of things.
Maybe I'm just stubborn but if this was happening in front of my house and I had the power I would find them using the ordinance then use the money from the fines to double down in funding whatever it was they were yelling about. Don't like masks? I'm using the money to buy masks lol
"Pledge a picket"
There should be a fundraiser where people pledge a certain amount of money for each picketer who shows up, with the proceeds going to whatever cause they are there to oppose. Has worked great for Planned Parenthood in some cities. Use their own tactics against them.
That's what LGBTQ groups did
That's what LGBTQ groups did with Westboro and it drive the church nuts. Everytime they went to cause a scene about gay rights someone locally would launch a fundraiser and make a fortune for gay rights. This was before everyone was on social media even.
Although Westboro was a unique thing , hated by a huge coalition. Obviously people who supported gay rights disliked them but they also made a point of crashing military funerals too. So they had the gays and the vets and bikers and a list of others who despised them.
City attorney incompetence?
I've been watching some of the arrest videos from the protestors when these things happened. The cop clearly arrested them under the 272 Sec 59 of the MGL which says if you remain on a public way in willful violation of an ordinance of that town, then you can be arrested without warrant.
He first informs them they're violating the ordinance (which carries the fine) and when they ignore him and continue to violate the ordinance, he arrests them under the MGL.
So, how does the judge get to ignore the fact that they were arrested under Section 59 and just say that if you violated the civil ordinance all you should have gotten was the fine? Did the public attorney try to put them in court over the ordinance violation and not the MGL violation?
Find out where the "protesters" live...
...and bombard them with the same treatment. Perhaps *their* neighbors might be able to exert some pressure.