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The battle of old North Washington bridge
By adamg on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 7:58pm
Their ranks swelled with local college students, Occupy Boston had its first major confrontation with Boston Police today, at the North Washington Street bridge to Charlestown, which police refused to let them cross.
As protesters milled about, some shouting to take the bridge, police brought in every prisoner transport wagon in the city and reinforcements from across the city to join the downtown and motorcycle cops already on scene. Even drug and gang officers were summoned to the area between Haymarket and the bridge, just in case.
In the end, however, protesters marched back to the Occupy Boston encampment at Dewey Square, spurred, in part, by a rumor that police were taking down the tents. Tonight, protesters await what they say is a midnight deadline from Boston Police to remove tents in a different part of the Greenway, north of that Big Dig structure, that had been empty or police will move in and take out the entire tent city.
Boston Police have turned to Twitter to ask protesters to take down the new tents. In a series of tweets tonight, BPD explained;
BPD requesting protestors return 2 original @Occupy_Boston site on Greenway to continue peaceful protest. Thank you 4 ur cooperation.
BPD seeks to curtail additional damage to newly developed green space at second site. Please adhere @Occupy_Boston. Thank you.
@Occupy_Boston: the Greenway Conservancy recently invested over 150k in new plantings 4 all to enjoy @ 2nd site. Pls return to original.
Earlier in the day: Protesters return to Dewey Square.
Photo by FishHeadNed posted under this Creative Commons license.
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Comments
In Romney's Front Yard!
They were right in front of the fortress of solitude -- Mitt Romney National Campaign HQ and it's infamous parking lot! They should have occupied Mitt's parking lot. Would the 2 palookas that he uses to scare off women and children have been able to fend off a thousand college kids? Sadly, we'll never know.
http://www.universalhub.com/2011/mitt-romney-has-p...
Reasonable
Seems like a very reasonable request by the police/City of Boston.
in a follow-up tweet,
in a follow-up tweet, @Occupy_Boston said:
"Hey @Boston_Police, the Greenway keepers just told us we can stay as long as we take care of the plants. So we good? Want us to water them?"
and on facebook, Occupy Boston said:
"Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy just told Occupy Boston we can stay in both camps as long as we don't destroy the plants."
Unless the Conservancy is now
Unless the Conservancy is now entrusted with maintaining public order, then these ridiculous "protestors" need to do what BPD says.
By the way, how clever of the asshat "protestors" trying to highlight the terrible brutality of BPD by ginning up a "he said/she said" rumor.
Cripes. Go volunteer at a homeless shelter.
It's the Greenway's land, not the police's
so if the Greenway Conservancy has decided that Occupy can coexist peacefully with their landscaping plan, the police should respect that decision and not try to overrule it.
In return, the Occupiers should pledge to make good any damage they cause to the landscaping, maybe by raising the equivalent of a 'bond' from their members.
This event is actually the first productive use ever made of the Dewey Square lawn, which was originally intended to be the site of MassHort's Garden Under Glass.
"the first productive
"the first productive use"
LOL
use of Dewey Square
What about the Figment Boston festival last June?
It had less energy dispersed along the Greenway than it did when it was along the river in Harvard Square. But it was still worth checking out.
follow-up
in a follow-up tweet, @Occupy_Boston said:
"Hey @Boston_Police, the Greenway keepers just told us we can stay as long as we take care of the plants. So we good? Want us to water them?"
and on facebook, Occupy Boston said:
"Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy just told Occupy Boston we can stay in both camps as long as we don't destroy the plants."
Fix This Bridge
was a large banner I saw displayed on the live 7News helicopter camera feed this afternoon.
Whoever made that banner is right. The bridge is in disgraceful shape, its middle lanes having been closed years ago for structural reasons. The DCR is in various stages of planning or construction for the Cragie, Longfellow, BU, River Street, Western Ave, and JFK Street bridges, but I've heard of no plans whatsoever to fix the Charlestown Bridge.
It currently stands in shocking contrast to the gleaming new Zakim Bridge next door.
For some reason the City of
For some reason the City of Boston (not DCR) has jurisdiction over the maintenance of this bridge.
As described in the link below, the upgrades to that bridge are currently in the preliminary design stage and are projected to be done in the winter of 2015/2016.
http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/ProjectInfo/Main.asp?AC...
Criticism of Menino's bridge = BPD crackdown
The North Washington Street Bridge is owned and operated by the city which is headed by Occupy Boston's chief enabler, Mayor Tom Menino. I agree that the bridge, part of the Freedom Trail no less, is in disgraceful shape and has been for Menino's 19 years at the helm. Still, the Occupy protesters needn't bite the hand that
feedshouses them. No coincidence on the day the protesters (unknowingly?) embarrass Menino, a crackdown on the Greenway is threatened. FWIW, the city gives a "winter 2016" start date for rehabilitation of the bridge, which will be Menino's 23rd year as Mayor.-------
@adamg: Sure, college students may have bolstered the ranks today, but there were plenty of union thugs out there too, looking to um, dare I say it, make money on the bridge job. No mention of them?
pussies
dont break the plants! lol
Rose Kennedy Greenway Mobile Food Fest - Saturday 10/15
A food truck festival is scheduled for Saturday on the Dewey Square Plaza pavement and also on what I think is the Occupy 'Expansion' camp land.
One of the scheduled vendors is Ben & Jerry's -- which has publicly declared its support for the Occupy movement.
Could be interesting this weekend.
Cool Heads on Both Teams
This isn't World War II. The protesters didn't need to take the bridge and the BPD didn't need to stand and deliver. Either side could have acted implusively or antagonistically and set all the wrong dominoes in motion, making both sides look really bad, but they didn't. That suggests good things about the OB and BPD leadership.
The job of the police
The job of the police department is not to harass and intimidate. A "show of power" by bringing in all those units is simply an abuse of power, and a huge waste of our tax money. Whoever ordered that should be fired and investigated.
If a crime is committed, arrest the criminal. Protesting is not a crime.
"But bu bu crowd control!"
40,000 people at a time visit Fenway Park every night during the season. These people are having lawful entertainment. There is some police, but not much. It's an accepted all-american activity. Crowds don't mean crimes.
Meanwhile, when a few thousand people set up lawfully to protest....the SWAT team is called in? protesting is an all-american activity. Crowds don't mean crimes.
All this giant deployment does is just incite anger. Send this same amount of police presence to a pats game....and the people will grow restless and defensive.
The police were there
The police were there blocking off traffic for you as you marched during your protest. They were there to restore order in case anything bad were to happen.
Also, with Pat/Red Sox games... just because you don't notice a huge police presence doesn't mean that they're not there. And a protest is MUCH more hostile than attendance at a sports game.
"Protesting is an all-american activity" - LOL.
I want to start a protest of
I want to start a protest of the protest. These people are a bastard. (In a literal sense: a movement without a parent.)
What do they think the end game is? An indefinite presence in Boston, NYC, elsewhere? What would be a "win" for their cause? What IS their cause?
Cripes.
(I'm actually not being snarky, just frustrated that no one can articulate a goal. I like goals. Randomly sitting around being like, angsty, is ridiculous.)
A protest is more hostile?
A protest is more hostile? really? So a group of college students and hippies walking around a park = hostile....
But tens of thousands of drunk jocks high on a win/loss = not hostile.
Wonderful.
And if order needs restoring, someone can call 911. Like during every other day. What does BPD do on black friday? Are the paddy wagons deployed to best buy in case order needs to be restored?
And you're right, there's nothing american about protesting. It's not like it's in one of those pesky amendments or anything. - LOL
Protest what, exactly?
Protest what, exactly? "Them?"
Are there three concrete talking points where "they" could cede ground to the "protesters?" No?
Okay, call me when someone thinks up at least one.
Cripes.
All day-
with the helicopters- and maybe all night. Getting tired of this- and I don't mean the protesters.
Live video and BPD feed
Live bird's eye video of the second encampment, the one police want shut.
BPD radio feed - with the caveat that if there's a big operation, as there was at the bridge, they'll probably switch to "Channel 1," which this service doesn't carry (it's not a conspiracy; BPD normally has several dispatchers on different channels for different parts of the city; a single channel is used to coordinate large numbers of officers who aren't all from the same district, the SWAT unit, the barrier truck, and yes, BPD has a truck full of barriers, etc.).
Barriers
Some more barriers were delivered to the original encampment yesterday. They got promptly used as additional bicycle parking, with a sign thanking Mayor Menino for the bike racks.
What's with the Globe's future-reporting?
Visible on the Globe website as of 11:30PM:
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/boston/downtown/gal...
"Davis was on the ground Tuesday directing the police response and was seen in Downtown crossing taking cellphone photos of demonstrators."
Huh? It's Monday, still. The entire gallery consisted of photos and descriptions from today's protest marches...so why is the story claiming in advance that Davis is "on the ground" (wtf does that mean, anyway?) Tuesday? Did BPD or the Mayor's office push this to the press?
So . . .
. . . I ambled down there tonight and just got back. The police came out in numbers- and they seemed to be arresting- peacefully from what I saw- protesters who had spilled over into another section of the Greenway. Really milled around there tonight and talked to a number of the people there- range of different politics than spans the spectrum- even some Paleo-conservatives- but pretty much standard on being against the Federal Reserve and against the wars and for accountability among the high and mighty. BPD seemed to be doing a professional job and the protesters seemed to be non violent when I left.
Police stopped march because it would damage the bridge?
When I visited Occupy Boston this morning, someone told me that the reason the police stopped the marchers from crossing the bridge was a fear that having so many people on the bridge might actually damage it further. An article at Charlestown Patch supports this claim, as does this short item at BostonHerald.com.
If true . . .
. . . that's just depressing.
Protesters on the bridge
perhaps....but others (not me) might have been in favor of allowing as many protesters as possible onto the bridge as it possibly could have addressed two "problems" at once.
Actually, maybe three - didn't the state recently sow some clams or oysters over there that need to be checked on?