Defiant Occupy Boston protesters were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and being in a public park after hours in a massive, early morning crackdown at the protest group's second tent city on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
"It's important that we gain control and make sure the rules are followed, " said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, who was on site during the police action.
The protesters tents and personal belongings were also tossed into the trash during the sweep that kicked off at about 1:30 a.m. and included about 100 arrests.
The arrests and site eradication came after as many as 700 police officers descended to the Atlantic Avenue compound, which a small faction of protesters had taken over yesterday, while Boston police were busy keeping thousands more protesters off the Charlestown Bridge.
Davis acknowledged that the arrests marked a shift in the once harmonious relations between the group and the police.
"The group that was here for the first ten days was working very closely with us," Davis said, "but they warned us yesterday morning that a new group, the anarchists, wanted to take control."
By nightfall, at least 40 tents had been pitched on this second site, which is just north of the group's original occupation site.
Boston police and Mayor Thomas M. Menino asked the leaderless group, which is rallying for a more equitable tax structure in the U.S., to leave that second site by midnight.
Police said the park's patrons had just spent $150,000 to spruce it up.
Protesters refused to move.
As midnight came and went, the 300 occupied stayed there, chanting, singing and delighting in their staying power.
"Mayor Menino told us to leave by midnight," one of the occupiers shouted as the rest of the group cheered. "It's 1 a.m, and we're still here."
A wave of police arrived on site just after 1:30 a.m.
Officer from the Boston police, the state police, the transit police and the Suffolk County sheriff's office arrived on foot, by motorcycle, in prisoner transport wagons, and on bikes.
Police then surrounded the second campsite, told protesters the park was closed to the public at 11 p.m., and asked them to leave.
When the protesters stayed, police began pulling them, one by one, from the crowd.
"They just ripped the group open, and went for our tents," said Nicholas Hassell, a 21-year-old grill cook from Franklin. "They shouldn't be doing this. We have the right to exercise our freedom of speech."
Protester Anasstassia Baichorova, 27, and from Cambridge, also criticized police.
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The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.
"What does the arrest of 129 protestors early Tuesday say about the state of the First Amendment in Boston? When the Occupy Boston protestors began their occupation of Dewey Square about 10 days ago, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he sympathized with their concerns about growing economic inequality in this country. And he expressed support for their right to free speech. Today, he told WBUR he’s still sympathetic, but the mayor said the day will come — and soon — when the protestors will have to leave:
I think we got to try to work with them as best as we can,” Menino said. “But there is a time very shortly where we hope to ask them to leave the encampment. These type of demonstrations have to end. It’s costing a lot of resources for the city of Boston."
Holly Ladd:
"The police massed before sunset and marched on the site, with an order to the Occupy Boston participants to leave the north camp site. They then backed off, reorganized behind South Station, and waited until after the 11 o'clock news to move in on people. The first thing they did was to tell the press to leave. If the police are so confident about what they are doing, why do they have do act in the dark of night and out of the public eye. Not only is this ugly, it also raised the chances that people could get hurt.
shame."