All Protests are Disturbances of the Peace

All Protests Are Disturbances Of The Peace

At the Worcester Courthouse today 50 or so people gathered to show support for the Worcester 4 Black Lives Matter protesters who were charged with participating in the Kelly Square Demonstration.  The supporters gathered in front of the Court house with signs saying “Racism means fight back. Dismiss the Charges.” and “No Racist Prosecutions”.  The supporters agreed to wear white shirts into the court room.  It was noticeable when seventy five percent of the court room got up and left when the hearing for the Worcester 4 was over.

The four Black Lives Matter protesters went to court for a defense hearing on the respective motions to dismiss the charges. The trial judge indicated that he would review the motions as well as the video, and make rulings on the respective motions to dismiss before October 2015. Should the motions be denied then the trial will begin on November 9, 2015. Since neither party objected to the judge’s reviewing the video, both sides have de facto stipulated the video’s authenticity.

The motions to dismiss were based previous cases in which traffic was blocked and that court ruled that no one disturbed the peace, except those protesters who wanted to be arrested and refused a lawful police order to move. There were no police at Kelly Square protest.  The defense also raised the issue of malicious prosecution in an indirect manner by pointing out the driver of the 18 wheeler truck, Bruce Davis, threatened to run down the protesters and sounding his horn in an unnecessarily loud manner, yet he was not charged with threatening or disturbing the peace.

At the hearing today the judge, in response to the assistant DA’s assertion that the Kelly Square protest was disturbing the peace, asked a possibly revealing question, “Aren’t all protests a disturbance of the peace?”.  The implication of the question is that because all protests are by their very nature a disturbance of the peace in the sense “at least one person is annoyed” then some other element is needed in order for a protest to be unlawful.  In essence the City of Worcester brought the wrong charges against the protesters.   

Once again the City of Worcester charges against the Black Lives Matter protesters have been exposed as malicious prosecution. The City Manager and Police Chief’s should at this point withdraw all charges and stop their racist harassment of what are essentially civil rights advocates.  These two City officials have also embarrassed themselves with the joke of Department of Justice Hearings on race, the dissolution of the Affirmatives Action Committee, and the complete lack of transparency in the SWAT raid terrorizing an innocent Hispanic family.