"Protester considers legal action; Officer’s move at rally called ‘inappropriate’" by Maria Cramer | Globe Staff, April 16, 2012
A protester confronted by a Boston police officer, who was photographed with his hand around the protester’s neck, is now contemplating legal action.
The protester, who gave only the first name Allie and did not want to be identified by gender, said the officer’s hand was used to push and not choke.
“He pushed me,’’ Allie said in a telephone interview Monday. “I
turned to him and said don’t push me. . . . Then he got angry. He
grabbed me by the neck and then pushed me by the neck. He didn’t choke
me.’’
“We need to review the totality of the circumstances and get a sense of what occurred before and after’’ the incident, Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said.
Allie said the officer’s actions seemed inappropriate and the protester is considering legal action, although Allie was not specific.
Police arrested three people Sunday at the Boston Common, where Tea Party activists, who had secured a permit to gather, clashed with counterprotesters, many of them representing the Occupy movement. At one point, several protesters charged the stage where Tea Party activists were speaking.
Why would Occupy protesters do that when they were half Tea Party -- unless we have agent provocateurs on the seen again?
Allie spoke of coming to the rally to represent gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
Gay-baiting!
Allie also said the confrontation with the officer was sparked by a Tea Party activist who knocked off a lavender wig Allie was wearing. The activist and protester exchanged angry words.
That is when, Allie said, the officer approached.
The confrontation did not lead to an arrest. Two law enforcement officials identified the officer involved as Vaden Scantlebury, a patrolman who joined the department in 1993.
Scantlebury could not be reached for comment. Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, described Scantlebury as an experienced officer known for staying calm.
“He’s pretty laid back,’’ said one of the officials.
Soon after he joined the department, Scantlebury was one of three officers who helped rescue a Dorchester woman from a burning building. In 1998, Scantlebury was involved in the shooting of a drug dealer. Scantlebury’s partner fatally shot the dealer as he drove toward the officers and later received an award for bravery for his actions.
Donald Gorton, a longtime gay rights activist, came to Sunday’s rally with about 20 people as part of Join the Impact MA, which represents lesbians, gays, and transgender people. He said there were about 100 counterprotesters, mostly representing the Occupy movement.
Gorton said he did not witness the confrontation between Allie and the officer, but he was impressed with the overall police response.
“What I did observe was a spirited presence by the counterprotesters that the police respected and did not suppress,’’ he said.
The photographer, Paul Weiskel, captured other pictures of Scantlebury looking angrily at the camera. In one photo, Scantlebury’s hand is directly in front of the lens.
Weiskel, a photojournalist who said he was not affiliated with any of the groups at the Common, said he believed that Scantlebury was trying to take his camera.
The officer repeatedly told him to step back and batted the camera out of his hand twice, Weiskel said.
Weiskel said he is talking with representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union about potential legal action.
Driscoll said officials have stressed training officers on the nuances of the state’s wire-tapping statute, which allows members of the public to photograph police officers at work.
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"Dual rallies highlight fracture in Mass. Tea Party" by Travis Anderson and Emily Sweeney | Globe Staff, April 16, 2012
A standard operating procedure for society's managers. It's called divide and conquer, and they will use whatever wedge they can.
An apparent rift between state Tea Party activists played out at separate rallies on Sunday afternoon in Worcester and in Boston, days after some leaders of the movement urged supporters to skip the Boston event.
Ken Mandile, cofounder of the Worcester Tea Party, said during the
Tax Day Rally at Lincoln Square in Worcester on Sunday that the Mass Tea
Party Coalition - which held a Patriots Day Rally that started an hour
earlier on Boston Common - is diverting attention from the core mission
of the grass-roots movement for a smaller federal government.
Last week in a statement, the Greater Boston Tea Party appealed to members not to attend the event on the Common. The statement said the Mass Tea Party Coalition appears to focus mainly on social issues, including opposition to gay marriage and abortion.
“We want to grow our numbers, not exclude people,’’ Christine Morabito, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, said in Worcester Sunday.
Bridget Fay, an organizer of the rally on the Common, said the Greater Boston group is wrong to completely separate social and fiscal issues.
“Often, social liberalism is quite expensive,’’ Fay said.
She described the coalition’s approach to activism as “more of an all-of-the-above’’ strategy welcoming social and fiscal conservatives. Fay hedged when asked if she thought the coalition could work with the Greater Boston group to pursue shared political goals.
“It depends on whether or not they want to,’’ she said.
The speakers at the Boston rally did touch on social issues, but they also addressed such hot-button policy items as the national health overhaul passed in 2010 that is currently the subject of a landmark US Supreme Court case.
Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, the keynote speaker in Boston, decried the law during his remarks.
“Obamacare means the government has the right to control everything,’’ he told the crowd, which included many participants who carried signs with slogans such as “Freedom Not Socialism.’’
The Tea Party rally on Boston Common was at times interrupted by a small group of counterdemonstrators who were upset that organizers invited speakers opposed to gay rights, including the Rev. Scott Lively, a Springfield pastor and outspoken critic of homosexuality.
Before Lively spoke, protesters attempted to disrupt the rally by rushing the bandstand area. Boston police said three people were arrested. Others attempted to shout down speakers by chanting “homophobia has got to go’’ and “Jesus loves me, too.’’
Lively spoke to the rally when he said, “This is the work of God.’’
The Worcester rally also had its share of drama, albeit choreographed.
It kicked off with a symbolic gesture, as five men in black robes, each wearing the name of a Supreme Court justice, hoisted a wooden coffin over their heads and marched through the crowd, following a man playing mournful music on a horn. “Obamacare’’ was spelled out in black letters on the coffin.
At the intersection of Highland and Lincoln streets, a dozen people were on the sidewalk holding signs and waving to cars. A woman held a sign that said “Fiscal Responsibility.’’ One man held a fluorescent yellow sign that said “Socialism Stinks.’’ Another man held a sign that said “Control Your Spending, Not My Wallet.’’
Speakers in Worcester included Josh Archambault, director of health care policy for the Pioneer Institute, a policy institute in Boston; and Mary-Alice Perdichizzi, a student at Brandeis University and a founder of a campus Tea Party group.
Perdichizzi told the crowd about the political discussions she has with fellow Brandeis students. On campus, she said, “apathy is more rampant than socialism, and liberalism is the default position.’’
“Our ideas are fresh and new,’’ Perdichizzi said. “The youth vote is there, and we have the opportunity to take it.’’
Except the youth don't vote (or so we are told); otherwise, Ron Paul would be winning the nomination.
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