Activists use boat to blockade Baker
As protesters with the group chanted through a bullhorn and sang protest songs, including one to the tune of “What would you do with a drunken sailor,” State Police on the scene ordered people to move back while they prepared to bring in trucks to remove the boat.
Climate activists chained themselves to a pink sailboat parked at the end of Gov. Charlie Baker’s driveway Tuesday morning, placing the state’s chief executive under a so-called “house arrest” until protesters were cuffed.
Video from the scene showed a 27-foot bright pink sailboat emblazoned with the words “Climate Emergency” at the end of Baker’s driveway with protesters latched onto the trailer.
A narrator on a live video posted by the group Extinction Rebellion NH said, “We have parked the boat in front of Gov. Charlie Baker’s house in Swampscott. He is under house arrest for climate crimes.”
Susan Lemont an organizer with Extinction Rebellion Boston, said the group was drawing attention to Baker’s “climate justice crimes.”
“What we mean by that is he keeps approving energy infrastructure like the compressor in Weymouth, substation in East Boston and Peabody peaker plant which we expect to be approved as well,” Lemont told a GBH reporter in an interview that was posted to Twitter. “He’s basically rubber-stamping whatever comes through.”
As protesters with the group chanted through a bullhorn and sang protest songs, including one to the tune of “What would you do with a drunken sailor,” State
Police on the scene ordered people to move back while they prepared to bring in trucks to remove the boat and trailer.
State Police spokesman David Procopio said seven protesters were arrested, including six who attached themselves to the boat’s trailer and another man who sat on top of the boat, slowly waving a handmade flag.
Procopio said the protesters were ordered to disperse, and given the chance to avoid arrest.
“When they refused and continued obstructing traffic, troopers specially trained in civil disturbance response cut the devices holding the protestors to the boat and took them into custody,” he said.
The protestors were transported to a State Police barracks for booking.
The boat was subsequently removed from the roadway.
Eight alleged protestors were arraigned on disorderly conduct and trespassing charges in Lynn District Court Tuesday afternoon, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s office. The judge released the group, who range in age from 23 to 69 and come from towns including Boylston, Dudley, Turners Falls, Watertown, Somerville and Hampstead, N.H., on their own recognizance. They’re ordered to stay 100 yards away from Baker’s home and to have no direct contact with him.