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Protesters gather on Common, move through downtown, Charlestown, finally succeed in shutting something down
By adamg on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 8:31pm
Protesters on the Common. Photo by Charles Kirschner.
The Green Line tracks at Park Street were cleared by 11:20 p.m., and the T resumed Green Line service - but trolleys bypassed the station.
After repeatedly trying to shut down the turnpike, the O'Neill Tunnel and Storrow Drive, protesters against a New York grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in Eric Garner's death swarmed the Park Street T stop around 10:30 p.m. and managed to shut down the Green Line - by standing on the tracks before having a die-in.
The T shut down the station and had Red Line trains bypass it. Downtown Green Line riders were told to take the Orange Line.
Evening protests began around 7 p.m. on the Common - where police maintained a cordon around the Nova Scotia tree-lighting ceremony, which started at the same time.
Protesters then moved to City Hall Plaza, where they held a die-in before moving to Surface Street in an attempt to get into the O'Neill Tunnel.
The group eventually split in two. One headed across the North Washington Street Bridge into Charlestown, where, after being turned away at I-93 ramps, they held a die-in in City Square.
The other moved to Dewey Square, where they were also turned away from O'Neill Tunnel ramps - although about 200 did briefly make it onto the turnpike before being moved back by State Police , and another 200 or so made it onto the ramp at Haymarket. State Police made several arrests on the turnpike; Boston Police arrested two at Haymarket.
Traffic across downtown and in City Square came to a halt, both because of protesters marching in the streets and because police shut streets to keep increasingly angry motorists from battling with protesters or just plowing into them. At one point, however, motorists and protesters duked it out at Boylston and Tremont. Police also had to move in to separate angry motorists and protesters in City Square, although no blows were exchanged there.
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Eric Garner's death
is legitimate to protest, imo. I do believe he shouldn't have died, police involved knew he was in danger of dying, and acted inappropriately. Plus, what he was arrested for, selling infividual cigarettes, is beyond sad. A trivial hustle that is only possible because of the extremely level of taxes on cigarettes in NYC, which has of course created a gigantic black market for organixed criminal gangs and at the bottom, people like Mr. Garner. I do object to this in any way being used as a racial issue, because all manner of people, of every skin tone and ethnicity, are sometimes victimized by law enforcement where they end up dying while in custody. Of course, like everything else, it's mostly those on the margins if society, or who have mental illness, who end up like Eric Garne, Kelly Thomas in California, or Keith Vidal in North Carolina.
Michael Brown, from what my understanding of his case is, was shot and killed while resisting arrest, and the officer was legitimately in fear for his life by the physically huge Michael Brown. More conflicting information about his death is coming out, and perhaps I'll change my mind, but Michael Brown was no Angel, and had a violent criminal past and involvement in violent street gang. The violence that followed in Ferguson and elsewhere is not in any way legitimate.
Again, the race angle to these protests bother me because black males are hardly the only victims of police misconduct.
OINK!
Can you show a pattern of this happening to young white males?
BTW - all of you enjoying this / think the cops are right, just know what the world thinks of us and our standing. Nothing classy or admirable about being racist pigs.. good luck trying to bomb another country for also being pigs.
The unspoken assumption in
The unspoken assumption in your statement is that there *is* a pattern of this happening specifically to young black males, and that's because cops are racists.
The evidence does not actually support that assumption.
"Evidence"
Your link goes to some guy's blog, who cites a magazine published by the right-wing Manhattan Institute. "Evidence" it isn't.
Of course you won't
No, you won't find a pattern of this happening to young white males. Because young white men don't test the police. It's the hard truth that no one wants to admit. Black men pride themselves on being defiant towards authority, especially white authority. There is way too much emphasis on swagger in the black community. Other communities realize that not every incident is worth a life risking altercation. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. Eric Garner, Michael Wilson, they all could have backed down instead of escalating the altercation.
See black defiance all the time
Just count by race who jay-walks in Central Square, for example - and blacks walk slowly unlike white (non-elderly) people who are more likely to walk quickly if jaywalking.
Though in Davis square, today, it was white people - probably because there are few blacks there.
Yes, MarKKK! Black people will cross the street,
by any means necessary!
Oh, I get your point
Those "walk" signs show a white person crossing, so doesn't apply to others. The orange hand is for orange people to wait, thus doesn't apply to others either, so that's when they cross!
While you're on a roll
...may as well criticize them for having dark skin which isn't reflective enough for the average driver to see them.
You responded to my original post
The statistical fact is black males, especially young black males, as a specific demographic, commit a hugely disproportionate level of violent crime. Police heavily patrol neighborhoods with large black populations for this reason, it's where a lot of street crime and violent crime, especially shootings and homicides, occur. It's not because of 'racism'. A good example: Police in Atlanta recently reported all (100%) of murders in the City of Atlanta (several hundred vs Boston, a city with over 200,000 more people than Atlanta, and which averages 50-60) were committed by black males. In Boston, the vast majority of murders are committed by black or other minority males, as are most gun related violence. This is a basic fact of life in urban America, has been for a long time, since at least the 1970s. And Boston's murder rate has always been relatively tame vs similar sized big cities with majority black populations like Washington D.C. or Baltimore, which peaked at 500 odd murders a year vs Boston's peak of around 175.
I think I got Bingo!!!
I'd make one change
Switch out Jesse Jackson for Al Sharpton. Nothing (except maybe Jane Fonda, and then only if they're over 75) gets steam coming out of right-wing ears like the possibility of Al Sharpton showing up in town.
Jackson is useless
Sharpton is another case. He started out as a race baiter, but got away from using that card for a while. Unforuntately he's gone back to his Tawana Brawley days . It's too bad, he was instrumental in turning around homophobia among black folk. I also remember listening to him on black radio station WWRL in New York, going off on the hip hop community. He called-out the hypocrisy of young men wanting respect when they call each other thugs.
I miss the old Al Sharpton
As a short, fat guy in an Adidas track suit wearing a gold chain and looking like the only thing he ran was his mouth! Ah, the mention of Tawana Brawley sends me back to my college days in NY and reading the Times.
Who is this little, old, skinny guy today?
According to this garbage
According to this garbage which takes no thought to post, all police officers must be racist and all black police officers must be race traitors since according to this the fact that some might be bad is a laughable excuse and saying so makes you racist. What utter crap.
I'm glad you stopped just
I'm glad you stopped just short of calling black police officers Uncle Toms, or are you the white girl lecturing the black police officer on race in that video going around.
Police misconduct doesn't happen as often to whites,
but it does happen, nonetheless. Whites who are on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, too, are at risk for being brutalized by cops, and they are. I recall witnessing such an incident back in the spring of 1974, when I drove myself and some friends from undergrad school downtown to have dinner. A young white male was stripped to the waist, and was being restrained and brutally beaten by white Boston police officers around the torso, the face and the head with nightsticks. I told my mom about what I'd witnessed, and she called the (then) Boston Police Comissioner, Robert DiGrazia, the next day.
That's not the only incident, I'm more than sure, but if one thinks that only non-whites are victims of police misconduct, s/he might want to think again.
But
The fact that there was conflicting information about Michael Brown's death is exactly why there should have been a trial...
We all need to protest this
The situation is far worse for black people, but that is not to say the system is fine and acceptable the way it is for everyone else.
A broken justice system affects everybody. Police brutality affects everybody. Wrongful use of SWAT teams, civil asset forfeiture abuse and militarized, hyper aggressive policing affects everybody. Police killing family pets affects everybody. Police unions who fight to reinstate bad cops affects everybody.
These should all be protested against by all good citizens. We should all be voting in politicians who are committed to fixing this issues from above. The police will not fix themselves.
Is everyone going to South Berwick ME after this?
Someone call Rev. Al. Two white cops killed a 55 year old white woman there today, only 70 miles from Boston. Granted she was waving a gun and in need of mental health care but I doubt The Causeosphere blocking traffic will care about that shooting. It's not sexy enough.
In 2012 death by police shooting
Black 124
White 324
Look it up, CDC!
Still disproportionate
African-Americans make up 12.6% of the US population, with whites at 72.4%. Police need to kill waaay more white people before I'm satisfied.
edit: I guess everyone's posting songs from YouTube now, so
Here's a few more to help negate your unjustified opinion
http://news.yahoo.com/3-indictments-against-sc-officers-past-4-months-09...
All in racist SC!
Are you satisfied that cops kill too many people?
Cops kill many more black people than white people per capita. But nobody knows for certain how many because records aren't even kept.
But look how many people cops kill in other industrialized countries each year. Zero.
A few.
Maybe a dozen in bad year.
This country is out of control.
Wow, a lot of Bill O'Reilly
Wow, a lot of Bill O'Reilly viewers on the internets, huh?
If you don't know how math works, just say so.
white women being killed by
white women being killed by police certainly occurs- but it is not a widespread, systemic problem in the US (that's why it's not being protested)…and the fact that you'd imply that the death of Eric Garner is somehow "sexy" is disgusting. What the hell is wrong with you???
And these children that you spit on
... as they try to change their world are immune to your consultations, they're quite aware what they're goin through ...
Some of these so-called "children" deserve to be spat on,
when they go too far, as the protestors have done recently, when they've shut down subways, and, more recently, blocked access to a hospital, and even went so far as to cause a traffic jam that prevented Emergency Medical Technicians from responding to a heart-attack.
You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire
I was talking with some South African friends today - a couple, white, non-Boer, who fled South Africa when it became untenably evil.
They pointed out that white people need to speak out to stop the violent policing of black people, for our own good. Why? Because the police state ALWAYS starts with the disenfranchised, but then moves on to those who don't toe the line within their own caste. That meant, for them, that the Boers turned from persecuting blacks to persecuting English heritage people, because they were not of the right caste or clan.
Police state activity does not stop with the marginalized. We all must fight it for our own good. Their parents saw it happening and they lived it.
No Justice No Service
The protestors figured out the Achilles heal of Public Safety , they were repelled from the state house they failed to shut down the highways but they shut down the subways because the Transit Police were riding bicycles upstairs.
Any police bicycles stolen?
Being outside a transit stop and all.
Notice how visible the cops jackets are?
Even in low street lighting, they are visible from helicopters in the air. That's why people who value their lives as pedestrians should wear reflective stripes on clothing at night, if not full ANSI level 3 safety gear.
Saw a really nice hi-vis
Saw a really nice hi-vis jacket at the Army Barracks store the other day; almost bought it, but it would be a bit heavy for bicycling. It was definitely police surplus, someone had very sloppily trimmed out the "police" insignia (which if you bought it, you could do a better job to finish trimming it out more neatly), but other than that was a very nice jacket. Would be nice to get something like that that was light and breathable enough for bicycling.
When i ride my unicycle i always wear my special hat
Where's the texting, transgendered trolley operator when needed?
Seeing those trespassers on the Green Line tracks, one wishes
GeorgiaAidan Quinn was driving a trolley into the station while texting again. Aidan, we hardly knew ye.Let me get it straight, you
Let me get it straight, you're advocating violent mass murder/trauma because of people standing on trolley tracks? Hope you work in a dead-end job where you don't have any influence on the real world.
Silly anon.
Silly anon. As the name implies, FISH is a cop! (Possibly retired) His life is a largely-unknown tableau of far-right rage toward the Others he has dutifully policed lo these many years. No one has ever coerced out the full O-FISH-L story, quite possibly because he knows the legal retaliation that awaits him if his real name ever becomes attached to the horrifying things he posts here regularly. Dig through his comment history some time! It's a whimsical stroll down the lane of a man fifty years out of his comfort zone, pining desperately for a return to the normalcy of colored bathrooms.
If you want a full picture of what this gentleman, and many of his minority-shooting compatriots, is about, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.
How do you
equate FISH with a cop. Unless you've been watching Barney Miller reruns again.
Adam, I love this site dearly
But maybe it's time for that Block button.
Yes.
I was momentarily excited to see that this site has clearly the best coverage of the demonstrations on any professional news site. Then I scrolled down to the comments and saw a bunch of racism with dozens of upvotes. Oh, and a transphobic comment. There's a reason many people in communities of color stick to POC-run news sites.
Advice to everyone: You're gonna be offended
People retreating to the safety of news sources or online communities that represent only views with which they agree, is a huge mistake, and is, in the eyes of many, a very dangerous direction for society to be taking.
More stupid tactics by the protestors:
Completely shutting anything down, especially the subways and thoroughfares, especially during the rush-hours, is asinine enough, but standing directly on the railroad tracks is way over-the-top asinine.
What's wrong with these people?
I know
Yes! How dare they not like institutionalized racism.
I think you're missing a point, BlackKat:
One doesn't have to like institutionalized racism (or any kind of racism, to boot), in order to realize that the protestors have been engaging in rather inappropriate, stupid behavior that has endangered the lives of ordinary people, and have also helped harm the cause they're involved with.
Harm the cause?
It's been 12 hours.
12 hours after the March on Selma, I bet the majority opinion in Selma was "ugh, they made it so hard for me to get around". And now they have a museum there.
Something you might want to read
History.
Like, what happened at the State House and in Boston about 240 years ago.
And, that first amendment to the US Constitution.
After that, consider the history of the Civil Rights movement.
Sounds like you need a refresher.
I'm aware of the history of the Civil Rights Movement, SwirlyGrr
I'm also aware of the fact that, back then, people had the great, good sense not to block access to hospitals or cause traffic jams that impede EMTs' ability to get to somebody with a life-threatening illness/injury such as a heart attack or a stroke, for example.
MPLO, do you vote?
Please note that the Civil Rights struggle didn't happen in books and brief paragraphs. It happened at lunch counters, buses, bus stations, and in the streets. You would be the one complaining that Rosa Parks was delaying the bus by sitting down, and she shouldn't do that because it isn't responsible!
I assume that you didn't vote or ever vote. Because then you would be using a RIGHT that was (gasp, ZOMG!) WON BY PROTESTERS!
Wouldn't want to encourage people in real life to actually take to the streets, block traffic, chain themselves to things, hunger strike, and all that NASTY INCONVENIENT STUFF in order to be treated like human beings by actually benefiting from people who did exactly that in your history books!
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/100-years-later-lessons-from-the-su...
Yeh, creep...I vote! So what?
I'm now an independent, because, imho, the Democratic Party at large, let along the GOP, has also been bought out by the war chest and the big corporations.
The Civil Rights movement was an absolute necessity, because people born and raised up here in this country weren't getting even their most basic needs/rights, including the right to vote met. You think I'm THAT stupid, babe? You might want to think again.
The protesters over the killings of Michael Brown and the other guy, imho, had no right to block access to hospitals (as they did here in Boston, and as far south on I-95 as Providence, RI., or to cause traffic jams that impede emergeny medical peoples' ability to respond to life or death matters. Therefore, I stand my ground regarding all I've said so far on this subject.
Okay Miki
So it is okay for people in history books to fight for their rights.
It is okay for people in history books to fight for your rights.
But it is not okay for people in your time and place to fight for their rights because it inconveniences people in your time and place.
Makes perfect sense - or, as Jello Biafra says "Give me convenience or give me death!"
I don't give a rat's ass what you think, SwirlyGrrl.
I stand by what I've said here, and that's all there is to it! Jello Biafra's quote "Give me inconvenience or give me death was right.
It's not okay for protestors to block traffic and access to hospitals, or to cause traffic jams that impede the ability of drivers of emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire engines, or cop cars to do their job; saving people's lives.
Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it, SwirlyBaby!!!
I'm grateful
I'm so thankful to mplo for educating me that "people back then had the great, good sense not to block access to hospitals or cause traffic jams." That must be some of the lost knowledge that earlier generations had -- how to hold a mass demonstration without causing traffic jams.
Oh, wait:
So that's how they did it!
Ha ha ha!
You and your protestor buddies don't seem to realize that, after a certain point, it ceases to be free speech, or the exercising of one's first amendment rights. Elective surgery is one thing. On-the-spot emergency care, or any type of emergency care, for that matter, is a whole other matter. You're either too stupid or too willfully ignorant to realize that, not to mention the fact that the protestors really did cross a line that absolutely should not have been crossed when they blocked access to hospitals and caused a traffic jam that resulted in the delayed arrival of paramedics for a heart-attack victim that suddenly went into distress, and that this was a life or death matter. Protesting is that important to you? Go through normal channels to do it. You and SwirlyGrrl make one hell of a pair.
Normal channels?
What the hell does that mean? The First Amendment exists for a reason, and suiting the whims of a bunch of government bureaucrats is not it.
C'mon guys....
You're attempting to debate with Miki.
Seriously?
Point taken
You're right. It's a waste of time. I'm new here, and it took your comment to make me realize she's one of those.
Thank you for pointing out to me what "normal" is, perruptor.
If being "normal" means being like you, SwirlyGrrl and a whole bunch of other people on this forum, then I'd rather not be normal.
'Scuse me?
I did what, now?
You heard me loud and clear, perruptor.
You've just pointed out to me what "normal" really is. Thanks for doing so, and for proving my points.
Sorry, but no
I have not used the word "normal" anywhere here. I did not attempt to point out to you what it is, and I wouldn't claim to know anyway. Your points are going to have to find some other support.
You've got the "loud" part down, but the "clear" part is largely absent.
If people want to hold a protest,
they should go to the City Hall and to the police department(s) in the city where they plan to hold a protest and do what they have to do to procure permits to get specific streets closed off to vehicular traffic, so that the cops can re-route the traffic around the march. What's so hard or inconvenient about that?
And what if City Hall says no?
Because they don't like your message?
You're fond of the '60s civil-rights marches. You really think the Selma march had a permit?
You really believe things are the same today as they were back
Do you really think that things today are the same as they were back in the early 1960's, when the Civil rights Movement, including the Selma to Montgomery, AL March?
Things were way different back then, and citizens who were born and raised here on United States soil were being denied their most basic human rights, plus the Civil Rights Movement, on the whole, had people of all denominations, ethnicities and races participating in it. People even came from other countries to participate in the Civil rights Movement.
The protestors of the most recent marches, today, are mainly white, middle to upper class college students, who, as I pointed out earlier, are the siblings and/or offspring of the late 1960's-early 1970's Flower Children, who grew up during the very Conservative Reagan/Bush years, and have developed an even greater sense of entitlement and a meaner, nastier streak to them as a result.
It doesn't matter
You said people should just go down to City Hall and get a permit. I replied the Selma marchers couldn't get a permit if they wanted and you go ranting about mean kids born under Bush.
Emily Littella does Ann Elk
yeah.
Wait. What?
7:00-11:00 PM is rush hour?
Hope u already miserable
Hope u already miserable protestors enjoyed the cold temps last night
Like the Police response to
Like the Police response to the Occupy campout on the Rose Kennedy greenway, I am impressed how the various police agencies handled the protests last night. They didn't impeded the largely peaceful and legitimate protest, but drew firm boundaries at the State House and highways.
Certainly the Boston police are not perfect, however they are light years ahead of where they were in earlier decades (newbs, please google Charles Stewart murder and read about the police response). My sense is that the leadership of the police agencies takes institutional racial issues seriously and that is reflected in it's planning and training.
I for one believe that there is a huge difference between well led, well trained policing such as we saw last night and departments that have different motivations NYPD or lack training in leadership such as the Saint Louis police response.
Having said that, like the Occupy movement, the Ferguson/New York protesters do their cause no good when they get carried away with a mob psychology Shutting down interstates or the MBTA may demonstrate the anger of the demonstrators, but it does not help to educate and persuade the general public.
I make this argument because I believe that any objective look at race matters in the US shows that young black men are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system and simply put, this is simply wrong. I am glad that there are nationwide protests about bad policing. Fixing this wrong will only happen when a majority of Americans come to understand this and not be able to fall back on the easy, "he was no angel," type of excuse.
My hope is that unlike the occupy movement, the protesters against bad policing start thinking strategically with the goal of effecting positive change rather than simply demonstrating that they are angry.
My $0.02.
Tactics
Good post.
"They're not helping their cause!" is a lame complaint. You're better off saying "I don't want to hear about it," because that's the actual attitude.
The reality is that the issue of institutionalized racism and oppression is something you can talk about and write blog posts about and go protest in the sanctioned "free-speech" zones, but that really doesn't get you far.
Disruptive protests get attention and force people to focus on the issue. It sometimes ends up with lame-ass political posturing and gestures of appeasement, and sometimes ends up with real change. The civil rights movement of the 60s met the same response when protests and sit-ins occurred. When the anti-apartheid divestment movement started being disruptive, pressure starting to get applied. It had results. Politely pointing out racism and unequal treatment does not typically get you far.
I'm just glad to see people riled up and doing something as opposed to the apathy that characterizes most of society. Hopefully all of those marchers now direct that commitment and energy into other, less flashy tactics that are harder to match up with chants and social media posts - like actually voting in elections or strategically boycotting parts of the system.
No, I disagree. They lose
No, I disagree. They lose support for their cause when they negatively affect innocent bystanders like those at the tree lighting ceremony.
In Seattle, there was the annual Childrens Christmas event ended up with children crying due to the protesters descending upon their event and playing over the children's choir. These are innocent children of all races and their families.
The protesters get very little sympathy from me when they resort to such tactics.
As far as last night, they actually tried to get on 93? How many people would've gotten seriously hurt by that stunt? Glad the police put a stop to that idea and whomever came up with that brilliant thought shouldn't be a spokesperson for the protesters.
Good post well taken, Patricia.
More to the point, however, the protestors lose more support for their cause when they endanger people by blocking access to hospitals and cause traffic jams that impede the ability of EMT's and other emergency medical people who regularly deal with life or death matters/emergencies that suddenly occur in the streets, or in office buildings and/or other public venues.
I Agree With The Protests, But Please Protest Properly
This a great thing to protest against. The fact that those cops weren't indicted pisses me off and the justice system needs to be fixed. However, blocking out roads, train tracks and highways is not making a point.
What if an ambulance needed to get on that ramp and had to divert because of these protesters? Protesting needs to make a statement without causing undue danger to the public.
Protest "properly"???
How about "drive properly"
Cars blocked the ambulance, not protesters.
Driving is a privilege, free assembly and protest are rights.
Cars blocked the ambulance
because of the DELIBERATE ACTIONS of the protesters. Sorry, but the First Amendment is NOT absolute. One person's right to free assembly ends when it directly interferes with other peoples rights to conduct their normal lives.
Sorry, but your argument that "bad traffic happens every day" is totally irrelevant to the issue at hand - the protestors WENT TOO FAR by taking actions that forced the police to block streets and the MBTA to suspend service. And for what - to protest events that didn't even happen in Boston.
And, at rush hour
Cars block ambulances due to deliberate actions of drivers entering a saturated roadway system.
your point?
You are very silly in saying that exercising first amendment rights is not okay, but partaking of an oversubscribed privilege is perfectly acceptable.
And, at rush hour
Cars block ambulances due to deliberate actions of drivers entering a saturated roadway system.
your point?
You are very silly in saying that exercising first amendment rights is not okay, but partaking of an oversubscribed privilege is perfectly acceptable.
Good, sensible post, roadman!
Way to go! I couldn't agree with you more!