The possible legislative responses to January's I-93 traffic protests in Somerville run the gamut from harsher penalties for obstruction demonstrations to straight-up attempted murder charges for those found guilty of blocking roadways.
Dracut Rep. Colleen Garry has put forward a collection of bills to crack down on protesters. Her harshest idea is the bill that would add roadway obstruction to the list of crimes considered by the state to be attempted murder, which carries a 20-year prison sentence.
"If they were protesting for my campaign, I would say it's the wrong way to be doing it," Garry testified before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee Tuesday. "We cannot allow the lives of Massachusetts folks to be interrupted, to be at risk by that kind of protest."
But like all good lawmakers, Garry's covering her bases. She's also proposing a bill to make roadway obstruction an act of manslaughter, and another that calls for a 10-year prison sentence. Garry insists that jail time needs to
be involved and protestors "need to be put on notice that there are consequences."
An "ally" of the Black Lives Matter protesters provided WGBH News with an email exchange between advocate Peter Stone and Garry.
In the email exchange, Stone writes that Garry seems to be targeting the legislation at the Black Lives Matter protests. Stone considers "these attacks on the activists despicable" and adds that he deplores Garry's "attempts to further punish people for attempting to call attention to the deaths of our citizens at the hands of police." Stone goes on to write that Garry's "attention would be better spent addressing the problems of police violence and structural racism in our justice system" than attempting to criminalize the protests.
In her response, Garry doesn't pull any punches. The Dracut Democrat writes that she finds Stone's "activist friends criminals and terrorists!!" and closes her reply with "Frankly, I find your 'structural racism' a fraud!"
Garry writes that the protest prevented people from getting to chemotherapy, dialysis and specialist appointments at Boston hospitals.
"One 49-year-old woman I know being transferred to [Massachusetts General Hospital] with the final state of ovarian cancer spent three hours in an ambulance. She died last week," Garry wrote in the reply to Stone.
Garry confirmed that the email exchange with Stone is authentic and described herself as "very, very frustrated with people calling me a racist." She calls her legislation "content neutral" and insists that it seeks to stop the practice of road obstruction regardless of the issue the demonstration may be trying to bring attention to.
As for the Black Lives Matter movement, Garry said she's seen footage of police brutality in other parts of the country but has been amazed by the number of black Americans killed as a result of "police going to help."
"What I know is that police officers have to make decisions in a split second," Garry said.
According to State Police, 29 protesters were arrested during the coordinated demonstrations that took place during rush hour on the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Under the banner of "Black Lives Matter," protesters attached themselves to concrete barrels and snarled traffic for miles, blocking access to Boston for thousands of motorists.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan slapped 18 of the Somerville protesters with charges that could result in 90 days in jail time, an additional 18 months probation, and almost $15,000 in fines. A petition to support the protesters calls the proposed punishment unreasonable and hostile, adding that Ryan may "set a dangerous precedent that restricts civic participation and violates First Amendment rights."
Jaime Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, opposes the slate of bills that would classify roadblocking as a felony. Eldridge thinks increasing criminal penalties would go against Massachusetts' tradition of civic resistance and protest that dates back to the Boston Tea Party or even prior. Eldridge told WGBH News that existing laws are strong enough — and why these types of protest don't happen that often.
"There are already remedies, punishments in our laws right now that do have an impact on having people in general giving second thought to shutting down a highway like was done by protesters on route 93," Eldridge said. "We don't want to go too far, especially when you're talking about people protesting about a very serious issue, about the fact that there's a significant number of African-American men and women who are being shot, including being shot by police.
Gov. Charlie Baker said at the time that the protests were "sort of above and beyond," when he appeared on WGBH's Boston Public Radio in January.
"I'm a big believer in the right to protest, and I think peaceful protest is a big part of who we are as a country," Baker said during his "Ask the Governor" segment with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan. "But I think tying up traffic and putting cement barrels down in the middle of the highway in the height of rush hour on two of the most important arteries in the city of Boston is a bad idea."
