02-12-2011, 07:13 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2011, 07:21 PM by Peter Lemkin.)
In Arizona, police in riot gear have pepper-sprayed and arrested demonstrators protesting the American Legislative Exchange Council. At least seven people were arrested Wednesday after some 200 protesters affiliated with the Occupy movement marched to a resort in Scottsdale where ALEC was hosting a meeting between large corporations and conservative state lawmakers to draft model bills.
In Boston, the Police arrested a sink!
BOSTONPolice have arrested three protesters from the Occupy Boston movement, accusing them of disorderly conduct after dozens of activists surrounded a patrol wagon and refused to let it move.
The protesters prevented the police vehicle from moving Thursday night after officers confiscated a kitchen sink that was being taken to the encampment at Dewey Square.
Authorities have banned protesters from bringing material that could be used to convert the encampment into a permanent dwelling. The so-called contraband includes construction material such as wood and kitchen sinks.
Police say between 75 and 100 protesters surrounded the police wagon and additional patrol vehicles were called to the scene.
I saw it with my own eyes...the Police took the sink and put it in a police wagon. The wagon was surrounded so it couldn't move away and some were arrested. One man was injured and needed medical attention trying to save the sink.
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After all the court cases, lawyers, celebrities and General Assemblies, apparently all it comes down to for Occupy Boston is a kitchen sink. Yes, you read that correctly. At about 8:30pm on Thursday evening, the Boston Police Department sent their Emergency Deployment team down to Dewey Square to remove an industrial kitchen sink brought into the encampment for hygiene purposes.
As the police loaded the sink into the van, things started heating up when Occupy Boston protesters refused to let the van drive away. According several tweets from protesters and bystanders, the police began moving in on the camp, surrounding Atlantic Avenue with flex plastic handcuffs at the ready. Eventually, protesters backed down, allowing the van to drive away peacefully and undoubtedly avoiding a much larger scuffle that could have resulted in arrests similar those on October 11 at Dewey Square.
Tonight's strange turn of events is a perfect example of the mounting tensions between the city and Occupy Boston, piqued by a legal battle in the Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday. Thus far, the case has largely rested on a debate between the protesters' First Amendment rights and public health and safety issues at Dewey Square. A decision for the injunction will be on or by December 15.
Several questions remain unanswered from tonight's kitchen sink scuffle: Who gave the orders to remove the sink? Under what grounds was the sink removed? Will Occupy Boston be allowed to bring in another sink for hygiene purposes?
In Boston, the Police arrested a sink!
BOSTONPolice have arrested three protesters from the Occupy Boston movement, accusing them of disorderly conduct after dozens of activists surrounded a patrol wagon and refused to let it move.The protesters prevented the police vehicle from moving Thursday night after officers confiscated a kitchen sink that was being taken to the encampment at Dewey Square.
Authorities have banned protesters from bringing material that could be used to convert the encampment into a permanent dwelling. The so-called contraband includes construction material such as wood and kitchen sinks.
Police say between 75 and 100 protesters surrounded the police wagon and additional patrol vehicles were called to the scene.
I saw it with my own eyes...the Police took the sink and put it in a police wagon. The wagon was surrounded so it couldn't move away and some were arrested. One man was injured and needed medical attention trying to save the sink.
-----------------------------------------------------------
After all the court cases, lawyers, celebrities and General Assemblies, apparently all it comes down to for Occupy Boston is a kitchen sink. Yes, you read that correctly. At about 8:30pm on Thursday evening, the Boston Police Department sent their Emergency Deployment team down to Dewey Square to remove an industrial kitchen sink brought into the encampment for hygiene purposes.
As the police loaded the sink into the van, things started heating up when Occupy Boston protesters refused to let the van drive away. According several tweets from protesters and bystanders, the police began moving in on the camp, surrounding Atlantic Avenue with flex plastic handcuffs at the ready. Eventually, protesters backed down, allowing the van to drive away peacefully and undoubtedly avoiding a much larger scuffle that could have resulted in arrests similar those on October 11 at Dewey Square.
Tonight's strange turn of events is a perfect example of the mounting tensions between the city and Occupy Boston, piqued by a legal battle in the Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday. Thus far, the case has largely rested on a debate between the protesters' First Amendment rights and public health and safety issues at Dewey Square. A decision for the injunction will be on or by December 15.
Several questions remain unanswered from tonight's kitchen sink scuffle: Who gave the orders to remove the sink? Under what grounds was the sink removed? Will Occupy Boston be allowed to bring in another sink for hygiene purposes?
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass