Occupy Boston from the Observer’s Standpoint

by Bradford Adams

The best moment that I have “legally observed,” so far:
At Suffolk County Superior Court, December 1, 2011

CITY ATTORNEY:    Who speaks for Occupy Boston?
ERIC MARTIN, ON WITNESS STAND:    Our democracy speaks for itself.
OCCUPIERS IN THE GALLERY:    [sparkle fingers]
JUDGE MCINTYRE:    Observers will refrain from making any
gestures or they will be removed.
JOHN FORD, IN THE GALLERY, TO JUDGE MCINTYRE:   What?

I’ve been on the Occupy Boston Legal Working Group since October.  I got involved as an NLG Legal Observer (LO).  The first demonstration I LOed at was a union-led event – very well organized, very energetic. After it was over and most people left, a group of Occupiers grabbed some signs and flags and set out again.  A couple LOs were still around, so we took hats and notebooks and followed.  This demonstration had a different feel than the first one – spontaneous and unorganized, but also energetic.  Unlike the first event, this march wasn’t cleared with the police.  There was a lot of tension between protesters and the BPD, and one protester was arrested.  That has been typical of my experience with Occupy: there is a lot of organized political action, but unexpected things happen all the time if you just stick around for a while.

The Legal Working Group has two main activities: legal observing and jail support for people who get arrested.  There were lots of demonstrations starting from Dewey Square, and I LOed for a few each week.  Graduate student Kat Johnston and law student Stefanie Grindle seemed to be at every one (let’s hope they passed their exams!).  When enough LOs showed up, some of us joined the march as participants – Erica Bushell always seemed to be the first one to drop the hat and pick up a sign, which is awesome because getting people to join is the whole point.  We also LOed at Occupy Somerville, Occupy Harvard, and Occupy Worcester.

Instead of providing jail support, I tracked our bail fund – we received about $13,000 in donations online to cover bail, bail fees, and fines – and spent a few days at court, but I never went to bail people out.  We have a bunch of awesome people who are willing to go to jail any time of the night: Katie Sheldon, Peter “madhettie,” Chris and Carl Williams, and others. It has been an inspiring group of people to work with and learn from. Once or twice we had to ask ourselves how to respond to an arrest that looked less “political” – a drug arrest, for example – but our policy was clear and steady: everything is political, and everybody gets out.

The encampment phase of Occupy Boston was a 24/7 protest, and plenty of work happened between marches and demonstrations.  Peter Drake and I each slept at camp sometimes, and often there would be nighttime interaction with police that called for legal observers.  Most of what I saw didn’t end in arrests.  Plainclothes detectives would come into camp to question someone, for example. Someone would shout “Legal!” and I would just get the Occupier’s name and observe.  “Spider Webb” didn’t spend nights at camp but probably spent more hours at Dewey than anyone else.  Chris and Carl  seemed to have some sort of spidey sense about when legal help was needed (or maybe just Twitter accounts), because they showed up at just about every incident.

Some of the best things the legal working group did, however, were the things it didn’t do.  We turned down requests to negotiate with police, or to resolve disputes between Occupiers.  Once, MBTA police tried to break up a General Assembly held inside the South Station T stop.  We didn’t step in to “answer” whether it was legal to assemble there.  Instead, the GA debated and reached a consensus about whether to stay or leave, and then followed its decision.  The group spoke with a political voice rather than yielding to a legal voice, and was more powerful because of it.  They decided to move and fight other battles, but we were there with hats, notebooks, and cash, and we would have bailed them out if they had decided to stay and resist.

I first learned about Occupy Boston on September 29, at the NLG Legal Observer training for the City Life protest against Bank of America.  There was an announcement that some people would be camping out in Dewey Square that weekend in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, which was about a week old then.  Nobody was sure if this thing would stick.  It did.  Now we are at some point that is either the end of the beginning or the beginning of the beginning.  It definitely isn’t the end.  The movement is developing new actions for its next phase, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Bradford Adams is a 3rd year law student at Harvard and an intern with the NLG Litigation Committee.