Boston Police loading the stolen pallet into a truck
Occupy Boston has been working hard to keep Dewey Square a safe and well-ordered environment. Unfortunately, the Boston Police Department (BPD) is actively working to make that goal impossible. Last night (11/28), the BPD removed a newly built wooden pallet from our encampment, moments after we brought it into camp. At around 10:15 p.m., Devon, an occupier attending the Student General Assembly, spotted the BPD carrying the pallet away and snapped a photo just before officers loaded this valuable piece of camp infrastructure into a police wagon. Watch this video to hear Devon’s detailed description of what he saw.
The pallet was meant to improve the walkways that run among the tents, to ensure that occupiers would not injure themselves traversing the encampment. It was part of our commitment to making Dewey Square an accessible space for free speech and a model for a better society.
In the past few weeks, the BPD has repeatedly prevented Occupy Boston from bringing in materials — including wooden pallets, winterized tents, insulation, and blankets — necessary to keep Boston occupiers the safe through the long winter. We are asking our supporters to call the BPD (617-343-4200) and the Mayor’s office (617-635-4500) to express outrage at the city’s efforts to make the occupation unlivable and unsafe for protesters.
You cannot evict an idea. Occupy Boston will continue to improve our community in Dewey Square. We ask that the BPD uphold their stated commitment to protecting public safety by allowing Occupy Boston to properly maintain and equip our encampment for the cold weather.
Watch Devon’s account of what happened:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2u3_znI3mE&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]
25 Responses to “Police Steal Encampment Infrastructure, Continue to Make Occupy Less Safe”
wait till the coming summer…should be millions across America, I hope….
It’s amazing how we can phrase words to fit our needs right?
I’d love an honest answer from Eli to this question
do you think that the police’s goal by removing this was to make Occupy Boston ‘less safe’?
Anything that does not allow Occupy to winterize is essentially making the encampment less safe. The winter cold is no laughing matter, and when it hits, it will hit hard. Having the Boston Police remove/prevent anything to be brought into camp to winterize the place is putting human life in jeopardy. The cops are sworn to serve and protect. This is doing neither.
Fair point until you play it both ways
Ob as a collective has been outwardly negative toward the police (with inflammatory comments mostly) – but then ask them to serve and protect as well. I’m not saying you can or can’t have a pallet but deeming them making Dewey square less safe by removing it is opportunistically skewing the reality
They removed the planks. They most likely weren’t saying ‘ha now it’s less safe’.
If they violated the restraining order that’s another way to put it; and if true, should be worded like that. Inflammatory comments and actions are always overruled by the truth
Get a job
****sigh****how is it possible we breath the same air?
Personally I do think they intend for it to remain less safe.
Also as far as the restraining order goes, if the cops do not stop us from getting a pallet into camp, doesn’t the pallet then become our belongings/property? The restraining order protects them from taking our things, does it specify how long those things need to be in the camp? If not they have violated the restraining order.
If you are occupying public, state-owned land (which is your argument for why you have a right to be there), how can you then claim anything on that land to be “our belongings/property?” And if you stick by your claim of “our belongings/property,” then it seems like the Rose Kennedy Conservation has a very legitimate claim that Dewey Square is their belongings/property.
Think about it… if you ride your bicycle to a public park and lean it against a tree, and sit down and read a book, and then see a bird and set down the book … are not the book and the bicycle still your property? And … is not Dewey Square by deed the property of the State of Massachusetts, and set aside for public use? People never expected a long-term protest movement to use it, but then again, there are a lot of things that people don’t expect, yet ought to allow even if it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable. It may actually turn out that the occupation of Dewey Square leads to a greater sum total of wisdom for our society. We will never know if we don’t let it exist for a length of time.
But having said that, I still think this statement and is pointless and childish … all’s fair in love and war. So we lost a palette? BPD 1, Occupy 0 — fine. They won that palette! We need to laugh about small things! Democracy is what matters, and things like this deserve a little chuckle and a nod across the trenches … we’re all humans enacting this little melodrama, anyway.
You can’t get much more objective than NPR.
http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Solidarity-Frays-At-Occupy-Boston-Camp-4927
One of the concerns in this article has been one of mine for a while – Nobody wants to see anyone freeze to death. Temperatures are going to dip into the 30’s and stay there – soon!
I would ask the legal team, “What’s the status of the court injunction, and what does it cover?” My rough understanding is that it said the camp wouldn’t be evicted without notice, but I don’t remember anything about how much more stuff can be brought in. I know suggestions for winterization have been provided by everybody from homeless people who live through Boston winters every year, to engineers from MIT. But if the city can stop winterizaton materials from coming in, its all over for Dewey Square.
So, the materials problem has to be solved and the ‘quarrelling factions’ issue needs to be settled. When Menino reads reports like this one from NPR I’m sure he thinks, “Oy, vey! They’re not going to be able to take care of themselves. I’m not going to watch Dewey Square become a field full of martyrs come the first nor’easter.”
“Wall Street owns the Government, and we’re not going to stand for it anymore. We demand fairness. We demand Democracy.” That’s the message the press should come away with from any visit to Dewey Square.
Not what NPR reported today.
Luckily it’s much easier to just blame the press than to examine yourself critically.
Drinking and trolling again. Nicely done
Wow, what an article. As an Occupier, I say it’s accurate about that particular night. We do have open meetings, and we are an open space, which allows the press to air all our dirty laundry. So be it. It’s troubling, but I think that the problems are surmountable. They also represent some of the issues that society at large grapples with, just on a larger scale.
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The vibe changes from one day to the next. Last night was an amazing night, and Phil had one outburst at the GA and otherwise was doing his own thing. We passed a very serious Winterization proposal that will keep people safe in the Winter, though it does depend somewhat on working with the City in a more cooperative way to bring in a few tents, coupled with a new communal spirit of looking out for each other, and a new barracks-style sleeping arrangement.
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Things are not easy, but this is life. What we are doing is very important, in my opinion, to defining the frame of the national debate on the meaning of democracy and how to remove the influence of money from the making of policy. Because of the importance of the ideals, I think the day-to-day difficulties are absolutely worth the trouble. This is a boot camp of sorts, an experimental microcosm of society, and a public forum the likes of which has not been seen for a long, long time … all at once. It is a new form of protest, combining assembly and free speech with a longitudinal aspect that deepens and makes amazing conversations possible. I hope it will continue for a few more months.
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My personal goal is to see the forum remain until the Spring equinox, at which time I would disembark and move on to whatever is next for me. The Winter can be a time of purifying, introspection, and deep though, to provide a deep basis for an American Spring.
‘We passed a very serious Winterization proposal that will keep people safe in the Winter’
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are any of you FROM boston?
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or anywhere in New England or north of NE?
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Dewey square probably couldn’t be a worse location for a ‘winterized’ encampment. Hence why on Dec. 1 the city will look to remove the ‘movement’.
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WHich will fuel the next round of GAs and OB.org posts.
Sorry but true.
Paul, to address your main point here, I agree that the protest needs better messaging. There are a thousand messages, but the main one for me is that we demand real democracy. That is at the root of improving our situation in terms of economic inequality and exploitation of government and people by the wealthy. We did in fact endorse a “Statement of Occupation” last night, which succinctly made this point.
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On Winterization, we made a very bold and strong proposal last night, and it passed. This plan will provide for the safety of all campers. It includes barracks-style sleeping quarters. If Menino and Occupy could have a real conversation, we would address his concerns about the safety of people by saying “Let us bring in a few good tents, and we will ensure public safety.” We also include fire safety and sanitation in the proposal. We are buying many more fire extinguishers, making pathways for fire egress, and coating all tarps and tents with fire retardant.
The barracks-style quarters is a great idea. So is the ‘Declaration of Occupation’. I hope that the court session on Thursday ends with some kind of agreement that allows Occupy Boston to carry on and implement the winterization program, because time isn’t on our side temperature-wise.
I also hope the tents you have in mind are ones designed to take a snow load. (But even that can be worked around with volunteers who would clear snow off of them 24/7.) The main thing is safe, reliable heat.
Thank you, Paul. I am also very happy with the Declaration. It is short and to the point.
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We are looking at strong Arctic tents that are very sturdy and designed for snow and wind loads. We are also working with MIT and Harvard design students and professors on custom solutions. We are also working on a teepee sort of structure, which was used on the American plains for thousands of years, of course, although we’d use more modern materials, but the same basic shape.
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We do not have any combustibles in camp. The heat sources are the sun, and metabolism in the human body, which can produce 200 to 300 BTUs per hour. With proper architecture, clothing, diet, and habits, these are completely adequate for a Boston Winter.
Paul, here is what we endorsed last night:
=== Declaration of Occupation ===
We, the people of Occupy Boston, have occupied Dewey Square in the heart of the financial district, in order to express dissent over the state of our political and financial systems. We are practicing a form of horizontal participatory democracy in the shadows of anti-democratic institutions that dominate our government and our lives. Through our occupation, we are creating an exemplar society in which no one’s human needs go unmet.
The Occupy Movement has started a nationwide conversation about the realities of economic inequality and the meaning of Constitutional rights. We are committed to living the values of transparency, equality, accountability, awareness, sustainability, and compassion as we struggle against corporate predation, injustice, and oppression. We are actively seeking to include the diverse voices of the 99%. Together, we set a precedent and provide a foothold for people to demand a truer, more horizontal democracy, in which greed has no influence.
Regardless of media spin, police brutality, or sub-zero temperatures, we will continue to peacefully exercise our first amendment rights by occupying, holding general assemblies, and planning for the American Spring. Our goal is a society that prioritizes the needs of all before the profits of the few. We are the 99%.
its really not going to be about the ‘right’ to be there.
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It’s about how many of the overnighters have the survival skills and courage to survive.
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A trained team would pick ALMOST any other spot in the downtown neighborhood with more protection from the wind, let alone precipitation.
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