More than 100 arrested at Occupy Boston

Video Link: "Occupy Boston 10/10/2011: Police show their presence at new campsite."

Hundreds of "Occupy Boston" protesters were arrested last night, as police moved in on demonstrators who refused to leave a park. From the Boston Globe:

At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway. Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.

The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, ‘‘The people united will never be defeated,’’ “This is a peaceful protest,” and “the whole world is watching.’’

About 10 minutes later, the first officers entered the park and surrounded the group. Evans, using a loudspeaker, gave one more warning and then each protester was individually put on his or her stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off as others tore down tents and arrested and detained people on the fringe of the park.

And from the New Yorker:

More than a hundred people taking part in the Occupy Boston protests were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after police moved in to close down a secondary tent city that had been built after the group outgrew their original footprint at Dewey Square. Two hundred police, some clad in riot gear, loaded people into vans before tearing down between twenty and thirty tents. Videos of the arrests immediately made their way around the Web, including several capturing a chaotic scene in which marchers from a group known as Veterans for Peace came into physical contact with officers.

That video is below. More live streams at OccupyStream.

(thanks, Ned Sublette!)

Video Link: "Boston Police Attack Veterans for Peace."

Video Link: "Occupy Boston: Police Action."

• [burgerbuilders]

  Video of Boston PD destroying the park they claim they were saving: http://youtu.be/rzb8b-BQKsc

  • [Xeni Jardin]

    added

  • [aynrandspenismighty]

    Vietnam logic, eh?

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Boston cops have been notorious assholes since  September 9, 1919, when the City hired scabs who have been festering ever since.

• [Technoangina]

  Living in Boston for 2 years, I can say that these officers are really showing restraint comparative to some times that I’ve seen them. I saw an officer once run over a skateboard with his cruiser in Copley Square, did I mention the kid was still on the skateboard? The officer literally got out and laughed at the kid. I asked my boss at the time if I could call in a complaint and he told me I could, but that they would take retribution out on the shop. Most of the officers I dealt with though were very respectful, honest, and truly trying to get something good to come out of every situation. Here’s my question to the BPD, where do you want them to go? You can’t disperse the crowd because the public transit shuts down by 2 AM. The other park was overcrowded, you realize how many parks there are in Boston right? Could you maybe ask them to move to the fairly large Commons, right across from the State House? It’s big enough and provides enough space for everybody as well as has facilities and shops close by. They could come back and picket the reserve in the morning.

• [Finnagain]

  In before oligarchy fanboi apologists!

• [Eark_the_Bunny]

  If you are going to make some eggs you have to break a few omelets.  What did I just say?

• [erissian]

  If they really want to stir things up, they should buy a dozen Lite-Brites.

• [technogeekagain]

  For me, expanding onto newly-landscaped turf without giving the city and police a chance to discuss alternatives falls in the “asking for trouble” category,  so I for one will not be donating to the legal defense fund. Especially since, traditionally, this kind of move is *INTENDED* to get people arrested in order to increase publicity — and if you’re going to do that, you should have the courage of your convictions and be willing to take the heat.

  Zeroth Commandment: Don’t Be Stupid.

  Which, unfortunate, the Occupy movement seems to be violating. I would _like_ to like them, but so far they’re all emotion/gesture with no substance — slightly more reasonably directed than the Tea Party but,  alas, no more thoughtful. “We’re Mad As Hell, And We’re Not Going To Take It Any More” is not exactly news nor useful… and is at serious risk of being captured, as the Tea Party was, by someone who is on the unreasonable fringe but offers a coherent message.

  It still has the potential to develop into something productive. I’m not very optimistic.

  • [WilliamMacfarlane]

    Some facts:
    We discussed moving to the Common and moving to Dudley square with the police and the mayor’s office and were told that expansion to either of these areas would be unacceptable and would also result in police action.  They had, and continue to have, no other suggestions as to where they would like the camp to be. The number of people in the camp is growing and they have so far refused every effort we’ve made to get any kind of official permission to expand geographically.
    My speculation:
    I think that they are looking forward to the day when crowding results in the kind of problem that they can use as an excuse to shut the camp down.

    • [ChicagoD]

      I think your speculation is spot-on. They want to keep pushing you into corners until there is nowhere to protest and people have to decide whether to be arrested every night or stop protesting.

      I think the strategy has to be to have sound legal advice regarding how and where you can do what and ensure that at least some people (those who do not want to be arrested) always stay within those limits. Given all of the law schools in Boston I have to think there is somewhere you can get that advice for free.

  • [Guest]

    no, you aren’t, are you?

  • [Daniel]

    I would _like_ to like them, but so far they’re all emotion/gesture with no substance — slightly more reasonably directed than the Tea Party but,  alas, no more thoughtful.

    You’re actually giving me the impression that you’re going out of your way not to like them.  I’m getting a strong, “I’m really totally OK with gay people, BUT…” vibe from your post.

    What would the OWS folks have to do to be “thoughtful” according to you?

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      You’re actually giving me the impression that you’re going out of your way not to like them.

      If you’re too lazy to actually do anything, but you want the thrill of appearing to have an opinion, what better way than to squat in your cubicle and trash protesters?

• [teapot]

  Watching those pigs abuse the veterans (particularly the elderly ones) makes me feel like some of those officers should die for (or just in, I don’t care) their country.

• [Joshua Zelinsky]

  Interesting. There’s little justification for this sort of action when the protesters are not actually in the streets but are in a park area. 

• [MB44]

  Sure is a damn shame that the Obama Whitehouse has rolled out the latest “dangerous” terror plot to distract all of the news agencies from Eric Holder’s role in Operation Fast and Furious and the growing unrest in the US. I could only imagine the circus that would take place if this many Tea Party Members convened to protest on the scale that the OWS movement has. Just goes to show you how laughable it is when the lying heads of the right-wing bitch and moan about the “liberal-controlled media.” I would like to see some liberal control of the media now and maybe some of the real stories in this country would get some fucking mainstream coverage. Until then I will continue to get my news from Democracy Now and other independent journalistic organizations like other people that are not completely brain-dead do. Hell, I depend on Boing Boing for reliable  current event discussion more often than not.  It’s only fair to note that the only reason that mainstream media organizations can peddle their bullshit is the fact that they have a giant market of zombies to peddle it to. It would seem that people do tend to get the governments (and media organizations) that they deserve.

  • [Guest]

    It would be amazing if the TP were this committed. Any one of them. Any One. 

• [donovan acree]

  Where is your evidence that ‘ An intellectually rigorous and participatory majority would have never allowed this country to get to some of the low points that it has reached.’ ?
  What makes you think things would be different? Or, is it that you prefer to think of Americans as lazy and stupid so you invent arguments to support your belief?
  The American GDP (PPP) per capita is in the top 10. That’s means the average American has more production capacity and purchasing power than 95% of the rest of the world. It’s not stupidity and laziness on the part of the people that has caused this situation. It is stupidity and laziness from our government that does. And don’t try to argue that the American people elect our government. We don’t. We are only given a choice between a douche and a turd sandwich. Of course, when we do try to change that, we are told we are wing nuts and should go home by haters like you.

• [Daniel]

  1. PPP is not a good measure of intelligence and motivation.  If your boss cancels everyone’s vacation for this year that increases PPP but not intelligence or motivation.

  2. Government is staffed by American people.  Thus “it’s the government” => “it’s (at least some of) the American people.”

  3. I’ve met more parasites in the private software industry than I ever did in the public education industry.  Some of the teachers I worked with were the smartest, hardest-working people I’ve ever met.  (Since they were teachers, they had little purchasing power and no good ways to measure productivity, so the PPP figures would probably have been quite low.) 

  4. Many libs agree that elections are broken.

• [MB44]

     Your comment equating intelligence with the creation of material wealth is the core of the problem. Leading a materialistic, self-centered life is the easy way out of actually confronting problems in a world where so many suffer with nothing and no chance to change their circumstance. As long as we continue to equate the acquisition of more and more material shit with intelligence and progress, we will continue to be ruled by a class of greedy, self-serving oligarchs.
     We don’t directly elect our leaders, you are correct. We just elect them by default because, as a whole, our materialistic societal consciousness is just as greedy as they are and the only way that we want to be ruled is by like-minded people. Our leaders reflect our societal views. People like you that think money and production are equivalent to intelligence are confused and lost souls that will never be truly free.   

• [MB44]

  In other words, stop blaming the government and shift the blame to where it belongs; the broken philosophy that created it.