Boston Police arrested roughly 100 people early this morning when they stormed a section of the Rose Kennedy Greenway that had been inhabited by members of the Occupy Boston group.
At around 1:30 a.m., after protesters stood for hours linked-up shoulder to shoulder, police surrounded the entire block with paddy wagons and prepared to remove occupiers from the space.
The group of protesters was warned by officers earlier in the evening to remove tents that they had placed on the Greenway without permission.
An extension of the Dewey Square Tent City that has been by South Station for more than a week, the second camp was established after a march on Oct. 10.
After refuting police demands, which were hand delivered via fliers by officers and passed around to the group, Boston Police amassed the surrounding streets by the hundreds.
Protesters were given a two-minute warning before officers broke the human barrier, ripping down tents and arresting those who wouldn’t leave.
Police forced protesters off of the Greenway and into the streets, setting up human-barricades, while other officers took down inhabitants’ makeshift houses on the lawn.
“It was a complete s****show,” said one protester who was removed from the lawn. “I can’t even describe how intense it got.”
Alex, a 37-year-old protester, said an officer grabbed him by the throat as he tried to leave the park, and tossed him to the ground.
He said the incident was documented by legal observers and caught on film.
Leah, a college student, said her friend was arrested when inside the circle of people
banded together.
“We were behind a group of Vets…police were trampling them and throwing them and then I saw people getting dragged out of the park,” she said.
During the arrests, protesters continued to chant “Who do you serve, who do you protect,” over shouts and screams from within the garden space.
The areas newly planted flowerbeds were trampled by officers and protesters scuffling at the scene and fleeing from the grounds.
Following the arrests, Jason Lydon collected cash from occupiers to bail out those that were taken to jail.
He estimated the group would need to raise more than $4,000 to get everyone out.
“Here is $100 against public oppression,” yelled Charles George Tsakrios, 28, as he
handed over cash to Lydon.
Following Tsakrios’ donation, arms began reaching over to Lydon, through the crowd of occupiers, to donate additional funds.
While police loaded arrested occupiers into vehicles, legal observers shouted out to them to ask them whom to contact to bail them out.
While responding, police closed the doors to the vans, preventing them from communicating.
Police set up metal parameters around the second park, pushing protesters off of the sidewalk and back to their original encampment in Dewey Square.
By 3:25 a.m., occupiers had planned a march to City Hall to protest the arrests.
Protesters arrested could be charged with “unlawful assembly,” and “trespassing.”
More photos of the arrests below:
All photographs by Nicolas Czarnecki/Metro.
