Houston, I mean BOSTON, we have a (BIG) PROBLEM! #MayorWu, identifying as #QueenWu, has BPD ordered to intimidate protestors into silence through violating procedures & resorting to unlawful arrests.
#1A #FirstAmendment #HumanRights #AntiAmerican #OathOfOffice
March 14, 2022 - Boston City Council holds a VIRTUAL hearing on "Docket #0312 - Message and ordinance amending the City of Boston Code, Ordinances, Chapter XVI, regarding targeted residential picketing” (video) where multiple public testimonies are muted, cut short or prevented from happening altogether.
March 25, 2022 - Boston City Council’s holds a working session (video).
March 30, 2022 - New Ordinance 16-63 on targeted residential picketing is signed.
April 1, 2022 - Five protesters in front of Wu’s residence are informed a little after 7am that starting April 1st, 2022 Ordinance 16-63 disallows targeted picketing before 9am and after 9pm. Sergeant Steve O’Brien tells protestors he will not be citing anyone that day as everyone just found out about the new ordinance that morning. One protestor does receive a $50 citation upon his own insisting. No other protestors receive a citation or any warning thereof.
(See video below where Rob receives his citation starting around 1hr 4min mark)
April 2-4, 2022 - Some protestors from April 1st protest receive Boston Municipal Court (BMC) West Roxbury summons to appear in court for a “criminal complaint” hearing on April 14, 2022. No citations in the mail or referenced in the letters. Offense description includes Code 666666, Misc Munic Ordinance/ByLaw Violation.
April 4, 2022 - Eight protestors gather in front of Wu’s house after 7am. Sergeant Waters states that protesters are violating Ordinance 16-63 and are subject to “criminal complaint”. Protestors object as everyone is under impression that this is a CIVIL ordinance and its violation cannot result in a “criminal complaint”. No one receives any citations. No one is asked for their names or any identifying information.
April 5-12, 2022 - More protestors from April 1st & April 4th protests receive court summons letters, though not all protestors. No one was asked to identify themselves on either April 1st or April 4th except for the one person who got the actual citation in person on April 1st, 2022. How did the police and BMC know where to send the summons? It appears that BPD maintains some sort of analog and / or digital database tracking at least some of the peaceful protestors, which is explicitly prohibited in the new Ordinance 16-63.
April 14, 2022 - The five protesters from the April 1st protest appear in front of the BMC West Roxbury magistrate Sean Murphy and Sergeant O’Brien in attendance. All “defendants” are found “NOT RESPONSIBLE” and complaints are dismissed by the magistrate in the course of a good-spirited, friendly-toned discussion. Murphy confirms complaints were not of criminal nature despite how information appeared in mailed letters. Murphy makes it appear as though Boston Police’s mishandling of the new ordinance procedures by not giving out actual $ citations and triggering criminal complaint summons was just some sort of innocent misstep. Murphy reads everyone the text of the Ordinance 16-63 asking to confirm its understanding. He then casually adds that a “willful violation” of a city ordinance may be an “ARREST-able offense” per Chapter 272 Section 59. This is the first time protestors are hearing of this and surprised at how it can possibly be connected with and applicable to the new CIVIL Ordinance 16-63, which explicitly outlines various levels of $ citations based on potentially REPEATING (i.e. willful ) violations of the new civil ordinance. It is quite clear from reading the new Ordinance 16-63 that should a citizen want to exercise their Constitutionally protected right to #FreeSpeech outside of the 9pm-9am “curfew”, he/she can expect to be fined $50/$150/$300 depending on the number of the so-called offenses. There’s not a hint of a possibility that violating this CIVIL ordinance could result in an ARREST! When challenged on this point, magistrate Murphy reads protestors the text of the Chapter 272 Section 59* ordinance, which appears to be aimed at drunkards and hooligans. Essentially, magistrate Murphy is conjoining citizens protesting violations of #HumanRights, #CivilRights, #ParentalRights, gross negligence / malice in public health policy etc with rowdy drunken behavior?! Could this be more offensive and ridiculous? Given the nature of the new anti #FirstAmendment ordinance being CUSTOM DESIGNED FOR a specific group of citizens protesting the SPECIFIC PUBLIC OFFICIAL mayor Wu (#WuProtectionAct) who’s been grossly overreaching in her attempt to silence her critics - you need to be WILLFULLY deaf and blind not to see it for what it is - VIOLATION OF OATH OF OFFICE, GASLIGHTING and BULLYING of citizens by the public official who thinks she can get away with it because her DC mentors & connections are right behind her.
* Section 59: Ordinances or regulations relating to streets, reservations, or parkways; alcoholic beverages; profanity; arrest without warrant
Section 59. Whoever remains in a street or elsewhere in a town in wilful violation of an ordinance or by-law of such town or of any rule or regulation for the government or use of any public reservation, parkway or boulevard made under authority of law by any department, officer or board in charge thereof, whoever is in a street or elsewhere in a town in wilful violation of an ordinance or by-law of such town or of any rule or regulation for the government or use of any public reservation, parkway or boulevard made under authority of law by any department, officer or board in charge thereof, the substance of which is the drinking or possession of alcoholic beverage, and whoever in a street or other public place accosts or addresses another person with profane or obscene language, in wilful violation of an ordinance or by-law of such town, may be arrested without a warrant by an officer authorized to serve criminal process in the place where the offence is committed and kept in custody until he can be taken before a court having jurisdiction of the offence.
April 15, 2022 - Three more protestors appear in front of the magistrate, though only one of them actually received his court summons in the mail. The other two protestors appear in court voluntarily after having heard from fellow protestors who appeared in court the day earlier that BMC allegedly mailed them summons as well. Protestors ask many pertinent questions to clarify the situation around this ordinance in the presence of the magistrate and Sgt. Waters. Magistrate Murphy appears to be once again linking Chapter 272 Section 59 with Ordinance 16-63, which is grossly inappropriate given the self-serving nature of the new ordinance. When one of the protestors requests a recording of this hearing later in the afternoon - BMC claims it was not recorded despite not correcting one of the protestors during the hearing when he wanted to be “on record” with a statement he was about to make.
A group of 6 police officers were sent to intimidate a small group of protesters standing in support of #FreeSpeech in front of BMC West Roxbury. They were recording peaceful protesters despite this being a violation of the body cam policy*. On whose orders?!
*Boston Police Department: RULE 405, BODY WORN CAMERA POLICY
April 22, 2022 - Six protestors gather in front of Commissioner of Public Health Margret Cooke’s house in South End, Boston a little after 7AM. Three police officers are sent to watch the protestors. Officer Keenan says in a friendly tone that he’s recording protestors on the body cam. When challenged on the justification for recording protestors since body cam policy doesn’t allow recording peaceful protesters, he defers to Sergeant Dunn (?). When a protestor asks why police officers are on the scene, Officer Keenan says that they were called in by the Mass State Police (who report directly to Governor Baker). When the state trooper is asked why he’s present on the scene, he claims not to know why he’s there or who lives in the building in front of us, asks in an an almost offended tone if he’s intimidating … (No, sir, why in the world would 3 professionally trained men with guns seem intimidating at all to 6 women with colorful whiteboard signs, OF COURSE NOT! )
April 25, 2022 - Four protestors at Wu’s residence are approached by Sgt. O’Brien handing out a copy of the Ordinance 16-63 stating that they will be arrested if they don’t leave in 5 minutes due to a “willful violation” of the ordinance. One woman remains on scene with another woman recording as press. The woman gets arrested and brought to BMC West Roxbury court for arraignment that afternoon.
BMC West Roxbury’s Judge Coffey asks the prosecutor to state their position. The prosecutor responds with:
“The Commonwealth holds no position … this is a civil violation”
The judge appears to be confused and asks “what does that mean?”
Prosecutor responds with: “This doesn’t have any criminal charges attached to it, so the Commonwealth leaves it to your (Judge’s) discretion”
Judge asks the arrested mom if she’d like to resolve the case today or if she prefers for it to go to trial … (Who’s going to be on trial?! Sgt. O’Brien? BPD? Mayor Wu?)
The unlawfully arrested mom (in handcuffs and shackles!) chooses to schedule another court date to be able to think about it and consult with an attorney and give her answer on resolving vs. trial to the judge at a later point.
Judge advises that the woman can’t go back to 17 Augustus Ave, Roslindale (Wu’s residence) in the meantime (Why?! She’s not on trial. She’s not being charged with anything. It’s her right to go there to express her 1A rights and be given an actual citation per the (alas unconstitutional) Ordinance 16-63, is it not?!). When the woman brings up the fact that this violates her first amendment right, the Judge clarifies that she can indeed go to Mayor Wu’s house to protest, but has to abide by the 9pm-9am “curfew”. (Isn’t that precisely the subject of disconnect here? Shouldn’t she be able to go there anytime she wants and rack up as many $ citations as her heart desires without her first amendment rights being criminalized, which this ordinance allegedly didn’t mean to do?! Right Boston City Council members who voted favorably on this #BillOfRights and #CivilRights travesty?!)
A woman from the audience consisting largely of a dozen of fellow protesters asks “Should we expect to be arrested too if we go there?”. The judge says “No”.
Another audience member says “Why was she arrested then?”, another adds “It’s supposed to be a $50 ticket”.
“All of us have been protesting in front of that house, why has she been arrested and why is first amendment in this country under a gross assault? That’s why we’re all here … just in case you’re wondering why you have such an audience here today …”
The Judge says this is something that can be discussed upon her return to court at a later date.
It’s becoming clear BPD didn’t just bypass the citation procedure per Ordinance 16-63 because of its novelty, it appears that they’ve been instructed to cause confusion and intimidation by means of summoning protestors to court, where the disingenuous magistrate Murphy appears to have primed protesters for the egregious plot twist where citations are nowhere in the picture replaced by arrests for “willful violation of the ordinance” - essentially BPD leadership and BMC magistrate are complicit in Wu’s tactics against #WeThePeopleOfMA and operating on Wu’s Pull-Whatever-Stops-You-Need-To-Make-Protesters-Go-Away-From-Wu’s-House orders.
April 27, 2022 - Two people go to record a live #WokeInWuVille broadcast near Wu’s residence (not to protest!). They are asked to leave by BPD Sgt. Morash who essentially ignores everything they tell him and proceeds to intimidate them with a threat of arrest. (Is BPD E5 going to pretend not to know that the April 25th arrest was unlawful and unsanctioned, and keep unlawfully arresting people on without grounds? Whose job is it to correct the Boston Police Department in their “WILLFUL IGNORANCE”? Do we need to waste more taxpayers’ $ on lawsuits against BPD or Boston’s Law Department giving terrible guidance to BPD E5 now to clarify things because #QueenWu desires to waste everyone’s time & money for her satisfaction?)
Follow-up conversation with a local police officer who is under the wrong impression that people can be arrested for protesting and apparently for even so much as standing and broadcasting in front of mayor Wu’s house. (Why is BPD leadership putting officers in this ridiculous position effectively violating citizens’ fundamental rights to #FreeSpeech along with the (unconstitutional) ordinance 16-63 which they’re not even pretending to actually enforce as written, but essentially criminalizing free speech by virtue of declaring protesting to be subject to arrest?!) https://www.facebook.com/catherine.vitale.3/videos/2490844631052123
… to summarize - in a course of a month we went from discussing limitations on free speech to allegedly “protect elderly neighbors and families with children” from being exposed to public’s grievances “too early in the morning” to effectively criminalizing #FreeSpeech in Boston. Houston, we have a (BIG) problem.
#ShameOnWu #ResignWu #EvacuateWu #WeThePeopleOfMA #bospoli #mapoli
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