Five protesters cited at Wu’s house under new law
Police are citing at least five protesters who demonstrated outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s house on Friday, the first day when new rules came into effect.
According to police reports, the group of six to eight protesters who often show up to heckle Wu as she leaves home did so — and then police warned them all at 7:30 a.m. that they were breaking the new law.
The rule, proposed by Wu and passed Wednesday by the City Council, prohibits people from targeting people in their homes with protests from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. Anyone in violation of that could face a $50 fine, with that dollar amount rising for subsequent offenses.
Wu’s office said she signed the ordinance change on Thursday, so that night into Friday morning was when it went into effect. Boston mayors often, though not always, announce when they’re signing bills into law, but Wu’s administration didn’t put out anything saying this was going into effect.
Asked about enforcement, Wu’s office deferred to the police department, which sent over reports from the morning.
Two police reports from Augustus Street detail the first time the protesters who have demonstrated on and off outside of Wu’s house since January face legal issues. The names of the ticketees are blurred out, as these are civil infractions, like parking tickets, rather than criminal charges. One of the crew, Rob Burke, who has frequently protested at Wu’s house, posted a video in which he was getting written up, and he proudly stated that he was the first to get a ticket based on the new law.
The police reports say that officers handed out copies of the new rule at 7:30 a.m., warning the protesters that they could face fines if they didn’t cut it out. One of the protesters then told cops she was leaving, but she just headed to her nearby car and “intermittently used an amplifying device to yell.”
The report says that when Wu eventually left in the mayoral SUV — well, Wu’s name is censored out, but the following line of how the person in question “was picked up at her residence by her security detail” works effectively as an identifier — the protester then followed in her car, yelling further.
“As the identity of the other protesters become known to officers civil complaints will be sought against them for the city ordinate violation,” the first report, which mentions three people being cited, concludes.
Then a supplemental report notes that cops used body-cam footage to identify two more protesters to cite, and civil complaints — fines — are being issued against them.
Shana Cottone, a Boston Police sergeant who remains on leave, said she isn’t sure if she’s going to be cited, but wouldn’t be surprised if so. Cottone said it doesn’t seem fair to cite people over a law that when they showed up, they didn’t know had gone into effect yet.
“This is just another political hit job by the administration,” said Cottone, who emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the employee vaccine mandate before the department placed her on leave.
Cottone said they’re talking to a lawyer about how to challenge these citations.
Asked what’s coming next, Cottone said “I’m not going to reveal my hand, but this isn’t over.”