Posted on 12/01/2011 12:15:39 PM PST by raccoonradio
A judge today granted Occupy Boston at least two more weeks to camp out in Dewey Square, despite testimony from a fire marshal that the conditions at the tent city were so perilous that they “made the hair on my neck stand up.”
After a four-hearing during which city lawyers battled the protestors’ legal team over public safety concerns versus free speech rights, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frances McIntrye opted to take the thorny case under advisement, holding off ruling until no later than Dec. 15. McIntyre left her temporary retraining order in place, barring the city from removing the protesters without the judge’s permission, except in cases of dire emergency or major criminal incident.
“I fear for the lives and safety of every person on that property,” Boston Fire Marshal Bart Shea told the judge, adding that “highly flammable” blue tarps covering many of the more than 100 tents at the site would act as “napalm” and cause fire to race from on tent to another.
He added that he found discarded cigarette butts littered all over the encampment, where until recently hay had been placed on the ground to insulate tents and soak up water.
“It would have been a nightmare at night to get out of there,” he said, noting that people would get trapped in their tents or get trampled to flee a blaze because guy wires blocking narrow walkways would create tripping hazards. “It makes the hair on my neck stand up.”
But lawyers for Occupy Boston argued that the protestors had not been properly warned by the city of the hazards, nor given due process to remedy the fire hazards. Furthermore, they contend that the right of free speech trumps public safety concerns.
A witness for Occupy, protester Eric K. Martin, said the camp needs to be in Dewey Square because it is the heart of the city’s financial district, opposite the Federal Reserve building, and the site is fundamental to Occupy’s message of challenging corporate greed.
“Without having the physical occupation, that message would be impossible,” Martin said.
dump the trash on the judge’s door
I live in the North End and you’d be surprised how Menino is disliked here, as he is by businesses on Newbury Street, two places you’d think he’d be loved. He’s pushed all kinds of tax changes here, such as taxing residences in the North End as if they are ‘waterfront property’. A prominent bookstore owner on Newbury Street gave me a startlingly hateful diatribe against Menino just before he closed his doors forever.
There were Tea Party rallies here, and I literally walked through the Paul Revere park MINUTES after they ended and didn’t even know an assembly had gone on, that’s how clean the place was.
When I walk to work past the Hippie Hovels, it’s like I’ve taken a wrong turn into Calcutta.
A. Fire.
Whenever I pass people who are walking by the encampment, they’re always laughing at them. I have seen some Volvo-driving rich Cambridge types dropping off food and roaring about the resistance before they speed off to their heated mansions, but they just look pathetic. I think they know me now, whenever I walk by I keep laughing.
L.A. Times reported that 30 tons of trash was removed from Occupy L.A.
You could be nice and give them some matches to light their weeds.
“The judge will claim judicial immunity when the camp burns up and kills and injures a bunch of people.”
... or simply blame Republicans and/or Tea Partiers for the fire.
You’re right — thanks for the correction. One never can underestimate the evil that is before us.
Remember kids - ‘equal protection’ only applies when liberals are being excluded, not when they demand special rights nobody else has.
I dare any business or any other non-liberal entity to get away with this.
Heh, I don’t know ;D
But, one thing I have learned is that, generally speaking, mankind cannot judge one damned thing.
It should all be dumped on the judge’s lawn. These arrogant elitists need to be made to pay the consequences of their actions.
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