Wonkette’s Garrett Quinn has been covering the growing Occupy Boston protest for his Boston.com blog, and this is video he shot in the very early hours of today. What happened? Exactly what’s been happening to people who try to “sleep rough” in America since the Reagan era: Late night raids, freakouts, confusion, overtime for the cops, etc. And, perhaps, a turning point for the Boston occupation?
As darkness fell and tension rose the protesters made their defensive preparations. All the tents were moved into a tight circle while a ring of people locking arms lined it. Midnight came and went but there was a growing public safety presence in the area. Multiple ambulances were parked along with a triage setup off of Pearl Street, not exactly a sign of good things to come. Police blocked the on and off ramps to 93 near Seaport Ave and there were rumors flying about riot police here and uniformed police there.
Then at approximately 1:20 am a large column of riot police marched from outside South Station up Atlantic Avenue ….
Blocking off the freeway onramps and offramps to round up protesters in tents? Is this the 2011 U.S. version of barricades and cobblestones? [Garrett Quinn's "Less Is More" blog, Boston.com]
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The Boston cops were probably afraid some of the protesters might be viral markets for Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
And Aqua Buddhas.
JANUARY 31, 2007
NEVER FORGET
Was Paul Revere there to warn the British?
Ringin' those bells and firin' those guns. Also. Too.
Sad day for my fellow Bostonians and me. Menino is a fucking hack.
What a sack of shit. He must keep swallowing those marbles he puts in his mouth just before he speaks. Anyway, the Boston pigs suck big-time. Never Forget!
I don't quite get why he keeps getting elected. Whatever opposition he must have must be fractured as hell. It's not like he's ideologically not where most urban mayors, are, but Boston could do so much better, political style-wise with their mayor's office.
Biggest epic fail in Boston since the Red Sox.
But it's always so satisfying to see the most obnoxious team in sports choke.
Yes, it is satisfying to see the Yankees choke.
That's the second-most obnoxious team in baseball, and maybe third in sports (the Patriots are the second – there's just something about Boston).
NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL LIBEL!!!
Zing!
You know who else did "middle-of-the-night raids"?
R. Milhouse Nixon?
Delta Phi Delta?
You mean middle-of-the-night rapes?
Hitler? (ha ha, it never gets old)
Richard Daley?
RAF Bomber Command?
Eggcrates over blimey?
slower banter!?
Christine O'Donnell?
"I am not a witch, I am the 53%"
Erick Erickson totally stole her meme.
Me, on the refrigerator.
Me, annoying the dogs, as I stubble to the bathroom at 3:00 am, having decided I can't hold it anymore.
Seal Team 6?
3rd shift exterminators?
The Midnight Rambler?
Dedicated WoW players?
(sorry, had to go dork)
World of Warcraft guilds?
My dork-fu, it is stronger.
Go ahead. Test my Nerd shui.
Just faster, not necessarily stronger! (Dammit also).
Chris Christy on the Governor's fridge?
Harold & Kumar?
The rich, on our national treasury?
Nailed it.
Paul Revere? In between the warning shots and bell-ringing, obviously.
NKVD
I have a question: At Cheers? Does everybody know your name??
NORM!
No. But at NSA, they do.
only tourists go to Cheers so no one knows anyones name.
All we are saying
Is give mace a chance.
Riot police – for our freedumz!!!
Apparently I misread the headlines and thought this was ongoing, today, but no matter. I am still starting to consider taking some personal days. (edited)
I think I'll head in there today- I'll be doing Revere's ride going the other way..
Please refer to pepper spray and Mace as "Freedom Spray."
"Freedom Spray." I like it.
The perfect thing for a Seattle-based superhero.
This ain't no tea party!
This ain't no disco!
"Dammit, Jim. I'm a doctor, not a protester!"
"What is this thing you call a 'kiss,' one called Jim?"
This ain't no foolin' around!
No CBGB's
But with the rain coming, any protesters occupying a big lawn in a public park or something might soon find themselves members in the Mudd Club.
I ain't got time for that now.
So, uh, dirty punks?
They should know that Boston is no place to raise a voice of discontent.
Dammit.
#jvaljean @thebarricade les flics sont à venir!!!
Uhhh, but don't just about all the people die in Les Miserables?
On va faire chanter le plastic aux oreilles du grand patron?
Sauve qui peut!
That’s very early in the morning. So early that the doughnuts probably weren’t ready. Those are very angry, doughnut deprived cops.
Good to see that Americans are willing to learn something about law enforcement from the Syrians.
Glad to see the cops have nothing better to do in crime-free Boston.
Well, that's a tough choice for Boston's Bravest ™:
Go try to prevent gang violence in Dorchester?
or
Go beat up some uppity kids who are definitely not packing?
Let's all go to Boston and throw Teatards in the harbor. For Freedumz lost, and fun found.
Really, Boston cops, and especially the fuckheads giving the orders, what part of "Congress shall make no law … abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" don't you understand?
In other cities, we've had some individual cops violate the law and start tear-gassing or tazering peaceful protesters, but the police forces in general have done their job; this is the first time I've noticed where the police as a whole have started illegally arresting protesters, as they did in the 60s, or at the last few Republican conventions.
"My only regret is that I have but one upfist to give to your post."
Oh, that part of the 1st Amendment has been all Scaliated to the point where it means approximately this: "The right of the People to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances shall be exercised only at times and in areas designated by the Government. For freedom."
Such areas are now of course known as "1st Amendment Cages."
maybe they need to form a corporation? OWS Inc.?
Brilliant!
1 Assemble a group of protesters
2 Incorporate
3 …?
4 Profit!
Item 3 breaks down as follows:
3a Get heads bashed by cops
3b Spend $$$ suing cops for violating civil liberties
3c Hope that jury is not made up of civil servants, as most are
Ah yes, "Free speech zones", even though according to the Constitution all of America is a free speech zone.
Scalito, Thomas and Roberts have that covered. 'Cause when they wrote the constitution, everybody wore wigs and tricorner hats, right? And stockings and breeches. So you only get to freely assemble if you're wearing those things. That's why the tea partiers didn't get arrested even though they were abusing and threatening members of congress, while the OWS people are being arrested for excessive hackey-sack.
You could put out somebody's eye with one of those! (if you fired it from a cannon, maybe, at point blank range)
Members of the Boston Police Department moved in to dismantle and destroy tents after protesters ignored multiple warnings to move from the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a strip of parks and public spaces where they have been camped out for more than a week, the Boston Globe reports. Members of the media were told to leave and not to film.
Just like Ben Franklin would have wanted.
USA! USA! USA!
~
So that's two, two violations of the First Amendment at once! Man, fascism rocks.
File this under "the beatings will continue until morale improves."
Call Samuel Adams and let's meet at the Old South Meeting House.
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." — Samuel Adams
Perfect comment for the previous thread too, Thumbs up.
Yeah, but it's still shitty beer.
Thank you, Radio! I never could understand why people raved about Sam Adams.
As someone who's tasted as many different beers as he can get his hands on, I'll say that those many varieties of Sam Adams tend to be pretty ho-hum.
I think the marketing strategy is it's "microbrews" for people who don't like beer very much.
You may be right, Lascaux. In the beer world, it seems to be all about marketing these faux microbreweries.
Sam Adams is about as micro as my beer belly.
I guess you're right. I don't like beer very much, and I do like Sam Adams.
Nothing wrong with a Sammy. In many places it's the only palatable choice.
They would have sent in the National Guard if there weren't otherwise "occupied".
FREEZE!!! You Chili Choking Pepper Belly!!!!!
In Soviet Russia, you break law. In America, law break you!
Yakov Smirnoff, three shows nightly, Branson, MO.
So much for a free country right Boston….fuckers.
Maybe Boston should ask the Saudis for "help," like Bahrain. Because Saudi Arabia loves to help.
Chick shrieking has got to stop.
Last night this sounded like a nation-wide organized effort to arrest the protestors in several cities. In Seattle, the mayor stopped the police from acting. This is crazy. The biggest news this morning was the NBA delaying the start of basketball.
Crazy. Bull. Shit.
"The police are not here to create disorder. The police are here to preserve disorder."
–Richard Daley
(I'll quit re-posting it when the cops quit giving me a reason to keep quoting it)
I get it now. Riot Police start riots. Just like Firemen set fires. Fahrenheit 451 meets 1984.
Last I checked on the Occupy Austin rally they had posted a picture that looked like the UT Sorority protest of Bank of America and had informed us all that the "movement would not be co-opted" by the likes of George Soros but less than 24 hours later they had to give a shout out to "the great people at Planet K" for all their donations and help. Which for those of you that don't know is our multi-city head shop chain in Central Texas. I almost suspect them of being organized and run by right-wing infiltrators. Seriously guys, OccupyAustin(tm) sponsored by the good folks at PLANET K(tm)? Eat shit.
Can you guys forgive me if I want to shoot tear gas at them?
And just to be clear I *love* weed. I just don't think they understand what it means to have corporate sponsorship, besides the fact that the right is doing its best to portray it as pot smoking middle class white youth.
What exactly would be wrong with being co-opted by Soros?
Unsure, but remember your local head shop chain: totes ok.
All corporations are not equal.
Is Planet K was a multi national who bought US politicians to stifle competition?
Are they polluting our air and water for profit?
Are they driving children into hunger & poverty by speculating on commodities?
If not they may be one of the good guys.
I expected more from mayor mumbles… I guess that's my fault.
During the raid were the cops chanting "panties, panties"? Aren't they members of John Wayne Gacy's fraternity I Eta Thigh?
One step closer to the jackboot…
I'll tell you one thing that's true:
If you can't find justice it'll find you…
<sing along!>
I've had,,,a bad day,
The hate filled pink balloon, Glenn Beck said that the protesters were going to come in their houses and drag them outside and kill them. Fucking conservatives. Masters of projection.
Nobody pays any attention to Beck anymore unless he says really, really crazy shit. And even then it's just us listening, for fun.
Drag them outside and kill them? Maybe we ought to start listening to him.
Well, now, we wouldn't want to let a good lie like that go to waist, would we?
When do the police begin riding through the crowds on camels?
Just because Boston was home of the original Tea Party doesn't mean the local citizenry pays much attention to it. The police are even more of a tool of their corporate masters in Beantown than anywhere else. Having lived through the busing crisis their in the 70's I remember their methodology well.
These guys missed a golden opportunity when they chose this "occupy" title. Bonus Army, now those were the days! Back then if the government turned the army lose on it's citzens and rode them down with horses and turned dogs on them, well, you can just bet that everybody in the country was pretty damn upset! But Occupy? See? It sounds like we are being invaded…by hippies…and not the nice sweet kids that went to Chicago in 68!… Maybe. I wasn't real good in history class.
Fuck the Yankees/Red Sox nonsense. Which city throws the more radical protest? Game on.
Too bad MacArthur is dead.
As the Dude said: OWWW! FUCKING FASCIST!
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