The Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports Boston Municipal Court Judge Richard Sinnott refused to let its prosecutors drop charges against seven people arrested during protests Saturday over the pro-Trump bigot march through Back Bay and downtown.
All seven were charged with disorderly conduct, some also with resisting arrest. Sinnott did allow prosecutors to drop the cases against two protesters for whom "the police reports did not present probable cause to support charges," the DA's office reports.
DA Rachael Rollins vowed to seek a reversal of Sinnott's decisions:
By compelling arraignment in every case, the judge punished the exercise of individuals' First Amendment right to protest. At my request, prosecutors used the discretion constitutionally allocated to the executive branch to triage cases and use our resources most effectively to protect public safety. Make no mistake: some people were appropriately arraigned and will be held accountable for actions that put the safety of the public and law enforcement at risk. For those people now tangled in the criminal justice system for exercising their right to free speech - many of whom had no prior criminal record - I will use the legal process to remedy the judge’s overstepping of his role.
Prosecutors did move forward with more serious charges against seven other people - who were charged with offenses that included assault and battery on a police office, carrying a dangerous weapon and accosting.
Separately, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association fired off an angry letter to US Rep. Ayanna Pressley for her support of a fund helping 34 protesters pay for bail and legal expenses.
In the letter, BPPA President Michael Leary told Pressley that, if anything, she should be convincing people to respect the police:
My members have informed me that the individuals who were arrested on Saturday were not peaceful protesters but were committing crimes of assault against Boston Police Officers. In fact at least four officers were injured by actions of some of the protesters. These officers were screamed at, abused and fought by these so-called peaceful protesters. Your actions in support of these individuals serves only to encourage criminal and disruptive behaviors such as those suffered by my members this weekend. This attitude also further contributes to the growing we/they attitude against police officers in this Country. As an elected official and particularly as someone who has historically worked with the Boston Police Department and the BPPA as a member of the Boston City Council you should be working to encourage Boston city residents and visitors to respect and cooperate with Boston Police officers who are there to serve and protect. The BPPA supports the right of free speech, but free speech does not include the right to abuse and assault the men and women who are appointed to keep the peace. ...
I urge you to reconsider your support of the protest bail fund. Instead, I hope you will make it clear to your supporters that you don't approve of violent behavior against public safety personnel.
A list of the arrested people and their charges show that, in fact, most of the people arrested Saturday were not charged with "committing crimes of assault against Boston Police officers."
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Comments
Per my point above
By Stevil
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 2:13pm
We are not talking civil disobedience like sitting quietly at a lunch counter.
we are talking about uncivil disobedience. Again, sharp point meets dull object.
Again You Miss the Point
By Pete X
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 5:00pm
All disobedience is uncivil in the opinion of many authority figures. Being an old, privileged financi...sorry major leaguer! you seem to be incapable of grasping this. You think you will never be in a situation where you will be poorly treated by authorities and you apparently lack any empathy for people who are not like you and find themselves either by necessity or conscience disobeying.
But keep up with the childish insults, JD. They suit you perfectly!
You have to make a point before I can miss it
By Stevil
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 7:23pm
You argue that civil disobedience is uncivil disobedience. Let me guess, you know how to make a square circle too!
dude you can shut the hell up now
By berkleealum
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 9:55pm
Seriously, you’re doubling and tripling down on pure nonsense.
A black person committing the act of “sitting quietly in a diner†in the 1950s American South would be considered uncivil. There are myriad essays, books, documentaries et al. that tell us this.
It is inconceivable to me that you think the attitude you’re displaying is at all different from intolerant whites of that time. You think they didn’t fancy themselves as nice and honorable people?
I win
By Stevil
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 10:52pm
U played the race card cuz you got nothing.
And trying to equate MLK, Rosa Parks and the lunch counter protests to antifa is a tad ludicrous.
You need to stop following the knee jerk liberal talking points and take a more objective view. You sound like the liberal version of my Fox News loving conservative friends. Just as extreme, only in the other direction.
ok buddy
By berkleealum
Fri, 09/06/2019 - 4:15am
ok buddy
...where they at least
By berkleealum
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 11:02am
I’m not sure what you’re doing with that aside. A major theme here is that Massachusetts is not as progressive as its voting record suggests.
who was trying to start a riot?
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 12:28pm
People standing there?
Or cops assaulting people with pepper spray, slamming bicycles into them, attacking first aid people, etc.
The cops LOVE to start riots in this country - especially when their feelings are hurt and they are facing evidence of their rampant corruption.
"nutjobs"
By Refugee
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:03am
It's not unreasonable to call someone a nutjob for thinking that [i]physically[/i] pushing back against a troll parade is a smart thing to do. There are better ways to make a difference in politics than jumping into confrontations.
That's true for Charlottesville and for Boston.
O rly
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 12:35pm
Then the police are nutjobs for attacking, brutalizing, pepper spraying people who were within the areas where they were told to be.
Stop enabling fascists.
BPD and details
By Daan
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:25am
If the BPD endorsed Trump then that gives ammunition to eliminate details. The BPD would sacrifice whatever good will they have by endorsing a man who makes is clear he wants to be a dictator.
Sorry and pity for you Mr. Fish for your willingness to subject yourself to a corrupt authoritarian ruler such as Trump. Maybe in a another life you will learn what it means to be a democratic citizen.
Daan the city wants details.
By Pete Nice
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:33am
I say get rid of them I agree. Go to what places like Suffolk County, NY, Conn State police and NYPD does. Forced OT when needed and pension it all.
The City on the other hand saved millions in health insurance co pays and plans which were bargained away by the unions for details and other extra work benefits.
Or...
By Rob O
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 9:07am
Call me crazy, but we could do something besides have cops guarding holes (whether on detail or OT) at their exorbitant rates.
Again I agree.
By Pete Nice
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 9:09am
If there is a need for someone to help pedestrians around, do what NYC does and have a separate department run it or make the company hire someone to take care of it.
Science behind it
By Lanny Budd
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 9:58am
People with lower emotional intelligence are more likely to hold right-wing views, suggests new Belgian study (n=983), even after controlling for age, sex, and education level, indicating that deficits in emotion understanding and management may be related to right-wing and prejudiced attitudes.
what about ism
By Bobp
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:02am
I see Fish still has a bad case of Warren derangement syndrome. nice picking out a tweet from 2011. Seems those occupy people had a point by the way. If the BPD want to endorse Trump, let them. But I will side with free speech, occupy Wall Street and antifa forever before I support trump or white supremacist.
Occupy was even less of an
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 2:41pm
Occupy was even less of an intimidating physical presence than Antifa kids are, that's why the camps all got swept out once the powers that be were sick of the news cycle. they also weren't an anti-fascist group, since, y'know, the sharp uptick in the reemergence of fascism in this country is pretty closely correlated with the rise of a certain few orange nightmare men and their corporate cronies.....
Real antifa or the false flags like Trevor Carey
By peter
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:28am
Who got caught pretending to be antifa and handing out ridiculous flyers, trying to make antifa look bad? They even had a buddy post to Twitter that they had "caught" antifa doing it. This was not an isolated incident, he's been caught doing crap like this before.
"her own"? Boston police
By JJ3 (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 11:18am
"her own"? Boston police officers and Massachusetts anti-fascists are both Senator Warren's constituents. She doesn't work for or oversee the City of Boston or its police department.
This makes me wonder if the
By ZachAndTired
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 6:40am
This makes me wonder if the overpolicing of the counter protesters (there is a myriad of videos on twitter of the police being hyper aggressive without reason, wantonly spraying pepper spray into crowds, riding bikes through areas that were designated for protesters to gather, assaulting people who were administering medical aid, etc.) was a planned objective so the BPPA would have an opportunity to push back against the New policies instituted by Rachael Rollins. The statement by Michael Leary is disgusting.
Also, cash bail is discriminatory against poor people (and disproportionately against minorities) and should be ended.
I'd say you're right
By Old Groucho (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 7:45am
The boyos were pumped to be there and when given the nod, more than happy to "clear the area".
The number of officers, the riot gear, it was so over the top that the only reasonable explanation is the BPD was sending message.
In my opinion, Evans would have never let this happen. That new clown with the car dealer smile was nowhere to be found.
Those thin blue line stickers are an ominous harbinger of terrible things to come, folks.
Terrible things.
Which part, exactly, was
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 7:45am
Which part, exactly, was disgusting?
the part where ...
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 3:33pm
My tax dollars paid for violent attacks on people exercising their first amendment rights.
If you don't think that is disgusting, you need to go back to high school and learn a whole fuckton of history.
That is 100%
By erik g
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 7:51am
their intent, yes. These guys are professional trolls. They know they're badly outnumbered, so they pick fights they think they can win. The white supremacists marching in Portland came out and admitted that they're just trying to suck up resources from counterprotesters, because counterprotesters have to show up in much larger numbers, or they risk violence against themselves or spectators. In Boston, they planned a parade route that was impossible to secure as thoroughly as the demonstration on the Common two years ago, because they were looking for protesters to do something stupid and give them more ammunition in the ongoing media narrative of "who are the REAL fascists: the self-identified fascists, or antifa?!"
The BPPA is totally complicit with everything the white supremacists are doing, BTW. They're hard-right, they hate Rollins, and they're OK with lefties getting stomped if it helps advance their narrative. We should pay their newsletter about as much mind as we do FISH's concern trolling.
Amazing, only two of the
By Murkin
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 6:40am
Amazing, only two of the violent counter protesters arrested were from Boston. Funny, this site usually points out when "out of towners" come into the city and cause problems.
Gotta hand it to the violent counter protesters, they made the bigot Trump marchers look like the good guys in this one. Peaceful, yet disillusion, marchers vs a bunch of violent counter protesters assaulting cops. I'm sure they will fail to see how counterproductive they have become.
Counterproductive?
By mdr (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:20am
This is only true if you believe that police, here protecting the Straight Pride marchers, should not be held to a higher standard than civilians despite being heavily armed. It was plainly a disproportionate show of violence and the City of Boston should be ashamed. If you are looking for out-of-towners making trouble then you have got them in the police.
"violent counter protestors assaulting cops"
By Michael
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:30am
[footage not found]
ask any cop that was there...
By Patriciax (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:41am
ask any cop that was there...
Yeah, REALLY.
By lbb
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 2:15pm
Oh. Sure. Just ask 'em. I'm sure they feared for their lives.
Footage
By Chokmah (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 11:18am
Footage
Deleted
By ElizaLeila
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 1:25pm
youtube account deleted, no footage.
Did you really just say, "they made the bigot Trump marchers
By MC Slim JB
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 9:36am
look like the good guys"? Ah, no.
They're still a bunch of racist, homophobic neo-Nazis. There's no way to make them look good. The idea that you think they could be made to look good is not a good look for you.
When one side throws bottles
By Murkin
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:38am
When one side throws bottles of piss at the cops, it tends to make the point they’re trying to prove irrelevant.
again
By Michael
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:40am
[footage not found]
there were thousands of people with cameras there so it shouldn't be too hard to produce some evidence of this, were it real
You haven't been watching the videos have you?
By peter
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:32am
Sitting on the ground is not assaulting a cop. When captain danilecki "dropped" his pepper spray canister into a crowd then dove in to grab it, is that the protester's fault? When danilecki's unit plowed through protesters standing where they were told to, rather than use the clear, secured area reserved for police, was that the protester's fault too?
For anybody who is curious
By ZachAndTired
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:44am
For anybody who is curious about the details on this:
[url]https://medium.com/@crschmidt/captain-john-danilec...
I hadn’t watched any of the
By berkleealum
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 10:56am
I hadn’t watched any of the videos until now. Interesting how the video evidence invariably contradicts early messaging from reactionaries.
Captain Jack is a great cop
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 11:14am
But the mob demands a fall guy so Jack will be reassigned to a desk somewhere. Local colleges and universities will no longer allow their campus police bicycle units to support the Boston Police and cities and towns such as Somerville will no longer send their officers to support BPD.
Yeah
By Rob O
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 1:22pm
Based on the video, he seems exactly like the cool-headed professional that should be in uniform.
/s/ end
cop defenders mantra
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 2:37pm
cops don't do bad things!
but if they do, it's a "few bad apples"
but we can't REMOVE the bad apples
because he's really a good guy deep down
and you, the public, MADE him do it
I swear to god, it's like a society of beaten wives.
all cops are pigs. wanna fight about it? show me one BPD officer advocating for this douchebag's removal.
Thank You
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 7:28am
Thank you Adam for not just posting their response but also assessing the validity of their response and pointing out how obviously non-factual it is and also citing the evidence used for that determination.
I'm so sick of news organizations who shirk their ability to investigate in favor of just letting both sides have their say even if one of those sides is demonstrably wrong.
Counter protesting is dumb!
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 7:58am
They’re trolls and this was their plan from the very beginning. Everyone who showed up to counter protest just fell into their trap. Deserve every ounce of that pepper spray they got for being foolish.
Then don't do it
By lbb
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 2:19pm
Then don't do it. Sit on the sidelines and hope the fascists never come for you.
unfortunately there is a fine
By JohnJosephCroMag
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 9:18am
unfortunately there is a fine line between not feeding the trolls and sitting idly by while fanatics consolidate power. see 1923 in Munich.
Better Video?
By Anony-mouse (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:19am
All the video I saw does indeed make the police look bad.
I'd like to see longer / unedited video of the same people to better guage their behavior. From body cams, bystanders, news, etc.
Round One/Round Two/ Round Three /Round Four
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 8:44am
Round one was won by the cops who didn't want to be there but did their job.
Round Two was won by the Judges who did their job and sent a message
Round Three will be fought by politicians like Rachael Rollins and Congresswoman Presley who will go toe to toe with politicians like Baker and Walsh who will cry 'No Mas'.
and the round go to Rachael Rollins.
Round Four and winner by knockout Michelle Wu
Counter-protesters, by def, were the ones looking to start shit.
By section77 (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 9:05am
Not that I support the fools who organized this, but I was smart enough to ignore them. You kids need to own up to your actions. I don't know why you thought you had a free pass to do whatever you wanted, under the new definition of "right thinking people". We are not here to indulge you as your parents always have. Except for the DA, of course.
First Amendment
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 12:32pm
We have a right to show up.
We have a right to be there.
I pay taxes - and I'm very disturbed by the out of control cops attacking people who had a right to be there for no reason other than they are under fire for corruption.
Anything that includes "I pay my taxes" is going to be weak.
By section77 (not verified)
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 5:00pm
Sorry but you don't get a day pass to break shit. I know you guys got all giddy to go fight the bad guys and all, but it doesn't work that way.
What did they break?
By adamg
Wed, 09/04/2019 - 6:06pm
Show me links to evidence that something was broken on Saturday.
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