Boston — Relieved protesters at Occupy Boston let out cheers and danced in the streets early Friday morning after learning that, despite an eviction notice, the police would not evict or arrest members of the tent city that has existed here since Sept. 30.
The warning came after a Suffolk County superior judge on Wednesday vacated a temporary restraining order barring the police from evicting the protesters, who have been camped in Dewey Square, a grassy area in Boston’s financial district in one of the nation’s largest and longest-running occupations. The city then issued an eviction notice on Thursday.
“If you fail to vacate the property known as Dewey Square by midnight,” the notice said, “you may be subject to arrest.”
But that deadline came and went, with more than 1,000 people gathered at the site, chanting “We are the 99 percent.”
One couple, Aaron Spagnolo and Nanore Barsoumian, spontaneously decided to move their May wedding up, and were married right then by a clergy member who was at the demonstration, with their vows amplified by the “people’s mike,” the call-and-response typical of Occupy Wall Street meetings.
When the police announced around 1 a.m. that they were not planning to evict the camp that night, the crowd cheered and eventually spilled onto nearby Atlantic Avenue, as a brass band fueled dancing and revelry. Some protesters used felt tip pens to write their names and Occupy-related slogans on the street’s white traffic lines.
“I’m happy that my dance party will continue, and I’m happy that my general assembly will be where I want it to be, with all of my occupiers,” said Hannah Wallace, 19, as she danced in the street. Some protesters moved tents into the street; two people were arrested around 3 a.m. when they refused to leave them.
The encampment was much diminished from its height of about 200 tents on Thursday, after protesters cleared out more than half of the tents and other hallmarks of the small community, like its library and food area.
But the evening marked a transition that was inevitable, said Robin Jacks, a 31-year-old student who helped spark this city’s occupation.
“For a lot of us, it is a gut feeling that it’s just time to go,” she said. “We spend a lot of time worrying about these troublemaker-instigators in camp. I would like to see us occupy foreclosed homes, businesses that have been foreclosed on, make a point. There’s a million things we could do.”
This story, “Boston Police Pass on Evicting Occupy Protesters,” originally appeared at The New York Times.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.