The Medium is the Message at Occupy Boston -- PART II
Update: Freedom of speech, association, assembly and the right to petition won a victory in court today, when Judge Frances McIntrye issued a temporary restraining order barring the city of Boston from evicting Occupy Boston protesters from Dewey Square. The order applies unless there is a fire, medical emergency, or outbreak of violence.
McIntyre, who set a further hearing on a preliminary injunction for Dec. 1, also ordered the city and the protesters to enter mediation -- over objections from the city's attorneys.
It was great fun to watch the masterful lawyering by Howard Cooper, from the firm of Todd & Weld, who represented Occupy in conjunction with the ACLU of Massachusetts and the National Lawyers Guild-Massachusetts chapter.
Cooper urged the court to "convey a message to the community and the world at large" that Boston should continue to be our nation's "City on the Hill" and an exemplar of what a better society can be.
It's one of those days when those of us who dedicate our lives to defending liberty can say: I love the law.
(P.S. While I enjoy all the hate mail posted on the comments, I do wish you'd get your facts right: I have defended the free speech rights of the Tea Party activists here in Boston -- and would do so again. Keep those cards and letters coming.)
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In the wee hours of the morning Tuesday, the NYPD forcefully raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Liberty Plaza in downtown Manhattan.
Reports from the scene included allegations that the police used excessive force to remove demonstrators, their belongings, and their tents.
At least seven credentialed journalists were arrested, their city-issued press passes cast aside like meaningless garbage.
The People’s Library, stocked with more than 5,000 publications, was demolished and the books trashed in a dumpster, along with people’s personal possessions, tents, and blankets.
Hundreds were arrested for refusing to leave the park.
Even though Mayor Bloomberg said he was proud of the raid, he ordered it executed in the dead of night while most people on the East Coast were sleeping.
In response, the ACLU of Massachusetts and the National Lawyers Guild, led by cooperating attorney Howard Cooper, this afternoon filed a suit asking the courts to prevent this kind of midnight raid from happening to the peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights to speech, petition, and assemble at Dewey Square here in Boston.
The courageous people who signed on as plaintiffs to the lawsuit express eloquently why they are at Dewey Square, and why their protest encampment is their way of expressing their grievances with the government. Harvard physics doctoral candidate Kristopher Eric Martin, who has been at Occupy Boston since day one, states:
I participate in Occupy Boston because I believe in the political message expressed through the occupation of Boston in a tent city and participation in a functioning direct democracy in the heart of Boston’s financial center.
Another plaintiff, Jennie Seidewand, an admissions officer for a summer education program, echoes Martin’s message and also states:
[Our] message can only be effectively communicated through the literal occupation of Boston in the financial district, as it symbolically communicates that just as corporations have occupied our government, the Occupy Boston movement will occupy Boston.
The medium is the message at Dewey Square.
And that’s why it is so vital that Boston show the rest of the nation – even the world – how to appropriately respond when people rise up to petition their government for a change in direction.
After the first judge in New York ruled that the Occupiers at Wall Street had the right to protest in the park, a second judge later decided that free speech doesn’t extend to the right to set up tents. What this ruling fails to consider is that the Occupy movement – as reflected in its very name – incorporates the act of occupying as part and parcel of expressive speech. Just as the “March on Washington” in 1963 required people to march, the “Occupy” movement incorporates the act of occupying as an act of expression.
There's a good chance the judge will see it our way. Among other things, the citizens of this great Commonwealth have not only the protection of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, but also the greater freedoms set forth in our state constitution -- our "Declaration of Rights" -- which was penned by John Adams and remains a model for defending liberty.
But whatever happens in court, the Occupy movement on the streets of Massachusetts and nationwide is not going to disappear. It will remain so long as the powerful men and women who occupy the halls of power in Washington continue to protect the excesses of the top 1% of our society, while leaving the rest of us with nowhere else to turn for redress except the streets.
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About the author
Carol Rose is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. A lawyer and journalist, Carol has spent her career working for and writing about human rights and civil liberties, both in the United States and abroad. More »Recent blog posts
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