I detect a slight shift in posture from the 5th Floor of Boston City Hall. The Mayor’s mouthpiece, Dot Joyce is quoted in today’s Boston Globe saying: “So long as the protest is peaceful and safe, Mayor Thomas M. Menino is inclined to let demonstrators stay in Dewey Square, part of the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway. ‘No time limit,’ said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce, ‘so long as they maintain an atmosphere conducive to public safety.’’’ Since there’s never been any violence except from the police, that sounds like permission to remain indefinitely. See the full story here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/10/13/occupy_boston_raises_thousands_of_dollars_on_internet/?p1=Local_Links
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, the Mayor sounded like he was cranking up the bulldozers: “There is a time and place at which we have to end the encampment, and that time and place will come in the near future, …” Menino told WBUR. With the ACLU weighing legal options to protect the rights of protestors, and Tuesday’s operation receiving Bronx cheers from the media and on the blogs, could the Mayor be softening somewhat?
Still I think that Occupy Boston needs to keep its contingency plans for Dewey Square operative. They should take advantage of the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on August 26, 2011 in Glik v. Cunniffe, where the court denied qualified immunity to police officers who arrested a man videotaping an arrest, who had brought a federal civil rights action under 42 USC s 1983 against the cops in their individual capacities and the City of Boston. http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/10-1764P-01A.pdf With a First Amendment right to videotape police activity in public places secure, everyone in Dewey Square should be armed with a camera. They also need to do something to light up the video footage should the Mayor strike under cover of darkness. The scenes videotaped Tuesday morning would have been much more jarring if they had been properly illuminated.
