from yOUR #behappynewspage Commuter reACTIONS to Protester reACTIONS to Citizen inACTIONS to Police ACTIONS of shooting unarmed Black Citizens.... Protesters snarl morning commute on I-93 near Boston From: The Boston Globe By: John R. Ellement, Laura Crimaldi and Martin Finucane January 15, 2015 MILTON — Protesters who said they were trying to call attention to racial oppression blocked traffic heading to Boston on Interstate 93 north and south of the city Thursday morning. The actions surprised police, snarled the commute for thousands, and forced the diversion of an ambulance carrying a car crash victim to a Boston hospital, State Police said. The protests on the major highway artery into the city were reported at 7:30 a.m. on I-93 North at East Milton Square and about five minutes later on I-93 South at Mystic Avenue in Medford, State Police said. State Police removed the protesters in Medford and lanes were reopened by 8:22 a.m. But the protesters in Milton, who had attached themselves to heavy barrels, weren’t so easily dislodged. Lanes did not reopen until 9:45 a.m. A total of 29 people were arrested in the two incidents. The Milton protesters didn’t belong to any particular organized group, but were united in their belief that race relations need to be improved, said protest spokeswoman Shannon Leary. “Disruptions wake people up a little bit from their privilege and insulation,” she said. “Things have to change.” Colonel Timothy Alben, head of the State Police, said at a news conference that he respected people’s First Amendment rights to protest, but the protesters had gone too far. He said a car crash victim from Easton with life-threatening injuries who was being transferred to a Boston trauma center had to be diverted because of the traffic tieup caused by the protests. He also pointed out that numerous police, fire, and rescue workers were called to the protests, taking them away from other possible emergencies. He urged protesters to recognize their actions could have unintended consequences, calling their conduct “not only immature and not only irresponsible, but ... reckless and it’s endangering people’s lives.” Trooper Nicole Morrell, a State Police spokeswoman, said no injuries were reported. The 18 people arrested in Medford were taken for booking at the State Police barracks in Medford. The 11 arrested in Milton were taken to the Milton and South Boston barracks. Alben said they faced charges such as trespassing, disorderly conduct, and, in some cases, resisting arrest. In Milton Thursday morning, lanes were closed on I-93 North, and sometimes the entire highway was closed, while a group of protesters laid in the far left and far right lanes of the highway and efforts were made to detach them from the barrels they were attached to. State Police and Boston and Milton firefighters draped one protester with a protective blanket as they tried to disengage him, using a power saw, a hammer, and a chisel. When a Boston firefighter’s power saw generated sparks that flew onto the protester, he screamed in pain. The firefighter stopped, and more blankets and protective tarps were brought to protect the protesters. State Police said some of the protesters had worn diapers, apparently expecting it would take a long time to remove them from the roadway. Leary, the protest spokeswoman, said the group arrived around 7:20 a.m. Six of them attached themselves to four drums filled with concrete, each weighing 1,200 pounds. Leary said the protesters stuck their arms in the barrels and had concrete poured over them. Leary said the protesters were acting in solidarity with people who have protested the recent deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City. “I personally can’t understand why the act of killing a black child is not enough for people to stop,” she said. The protesters on the highway were joined by others who held a banner reading, “End White Supremacy” above, on the overpass at East Milton Square. Those protesters were periodically confronted by passersby who were critical of the protest. The group later issued a statement saying it was a diverse group, including lesbians and gays, whites, Asians and Latinos, who acted because “it is necessary to disrupt a capitalist structure that has been built on the physical and economic exploitation of Black bodies since our country’s inception.” “We maintain that the U.S. is and has always been a state founded on the exploitation, enslavement and oppression of people of color worldwide. ... There is no such thing as total liberation without ending the exploitation of Black and brown bodies.” “A delay in traffic or on the MBTA is not comparable to the constant state of fear and anxiety created by police in Black and brown communities,” the statement said. Alben said the six people who were attached to the barrels were arrested, along with three people, “observers of some sort,” who had alighted with them from a large box truck that had stopped on the highway. He said another two people had been arrested for being “involved” with the rented box truck. Philip Wood of Rockland who owns a construction company and is working on renovations in the area, said he would have to send a dozen of his workers home without pay because of the protest. “This entire situation, which I have no control over and I have no part of, has totally destroyed everybody’s lives,” Wood said. Wood was expecting a concrete truck to arrive at 9 a.m., but it was blocked by traffic resulting from the protest. Without the concrete, he said, his work was stalled and his employees would not receive pay. Wood said he was not unsympathetic to protesters, but there were other ways to go about it. “All they do when they do something like this is alienate people to their cause,” he said. In the Medford protest, a group of people chained themselves together through PVC pipe, in a tactic called a “sleeping dragon,” blocking the roadway, Alben said. State Police Major Arthur W. Sugrue, commander of Troop A, said 14 of the protesters had linked themselves together in Medford. Sugrue said traffic had became completely blocked and “motorists had gotten out of the cars and began confronting them verbally.” Sugrue said State Police moved the protesters off the roadway, where they cut them loose from the human chain they had formed. Upset motorists later thanked troopers for clearing protesters from the highway, he said. “We did see some anger from the motorists on Route 93 but they cooperated with our troopers and got back in their car and waited for us to clear the road,” he said. “It wasn’t a violent confrontation.” Sugrue said the charges protesters face include conspiracy. He said the conspiracy charge arose from police’s belief that the Medford protest was coordinated with the demonstrators in Milton. The Medford protesters, however, did not acknowledge to troopers that they were connected to the Milton protesters, Sugrue said. “We’ll put that together,” he said. Twelve of those arrested were women, and six were men, he said. Five had out-of-state licenses. Most were in their 20s or 30s. The protesters did not seem to have met each other in person before and were quiet, he said. “It does not appear to us that this is a group that’s very familiar with each other as far as meeting each other,” he said. He said there had been no advance warning from any sources, including protest groups that police have been talking to, and social media. “It was unexpected for us,” Sugrue said. “Nobody led us to believe that this would happen this morning.” He said the protesters could have been killed walking onto the highway. “I do see already and have heard there’s a public [backlash] on social media about blocking the highway and interrupting people’s lives,” Sugrue said. “I’m hoping that has an effect and we don’t see it again but we have to be prepared.” In another statement issued Thursday, the protesters said they were acting “to confront white complacency in the systemic oppression of Black people in Boston.” The protesters wanted to “use their collective voices to resist and disrupt the overarching system that oppresses Black people and to expressly accept the responsibility of white and non-Black people of color to organize and act to end racial profiling, unjust incarceration, and murder of Black people in the United States and beyond. Black lives matter, today and always,” the statement said. Governor Charlie Baker criticized the protests in an appearance on WGBH-FM’s Boston Public Radio show. “I’m a big believer in the right to protest, but I think tying up traffic and putting cement barrels down in the middle of a highway is a bad idea,” he said. “I do know of at least one ambulance that had to be diverted, and I think that sort of disruption is above and beyond. Folks, I believe, were appropriately arrested, and it was the right thing to do.” Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he was “not happy with the fact that the protesters shut down the highway. I think it’s dangerous, first, for them to do that. And also, you disrupt a lot of people. You don’t know if an ambulance is coming down the highway, or people have a medical emergency. I just don’t understand it. I made it perfectly clear that I would love to have a conversation with anyone who wants to have a conversation with me. My doors are open … I think someone should take me up on that offer.” The 11 people arrested in connection with the Milton incident were arraigned in Quincy District Court and released on personal recognizance. They had no comment as they left the courthouse. All faced at least five charges. The 18 people from the Medford blockade were arraigned in Somerville District Court and released. Two had their arms in slings, and one appeared to have made a makeshift sling for herself. They had little to say as they left the courthouse. Two of the protesters had complained of scrapes on their arms at the barracks where they were booked, but they refused to be transported to the hospital after being checked out, fire officials said. Protesters have taken to the streets nationwide since late last year when a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson. The heated national debate over race relations — and, in particular, police relations with minority communities — intensified after a New York grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the death of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, in New York.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:40:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015