BOSTON — Police have identified five people who were arrested Monday morning in connection with a climate protest outside a hotel in Boston’s Back Bay.
Laura Honeywood, 45, of West Roxbury, Anna Pancoast, 39, of Arlington, Juliane Manitz, 41, of Chelsea, Jamie McGonagill, 34, of Gainesville, Florida, and Meryl Brott, 57, of Allston, were expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on charges of unlawful assembly, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. Pancoast faces an additional charge of wrongful interference with the operation of a school bus.
Officers responding to a call about protesters gathering in the area of Dartmouth Street and St. James Avenue outside the Westin Hotel in Copley Square just before 7:45 a.m. found a group of people in the middle of the road, bringing morning traffic to a halt, according to the Boston Police Department.
Photos and video shared by Extinction Rebellion Boston showed Boston officers and firefighters using power tools to separate activists from a pink car emblazoned with the phrase “GAS IS BAD FOR MASS.” One activist attached herself to the car with a welded metal tube, while others locked themselves to large pink barrels, according to the group.
“Officers made several attempts to disperse the protesters and reopen the street to the increasingly inconvenienced commuters who were at a standstill. Several of the protesters complied with officers’ requests to move to the sidewalk, except for the individuals who were connected to the barrels. Two of the remaining protesters eventually moved to the rear of the pink sedan and placed their arms inside two metal tubes welded to the trunk of the vehicle," Boston police said in a statement. “With assistance from the Boston Fire Department, officers began the process of releasing the protesters from their respective contraptions. During this process, a fifth protester interfered with officers and firefighters, placing herself between them and the remaining protesters. Eventually, all of the protesters were taken into custody.”
Extinction Rebellion Boston announced that activists were protesting fossil fuel and natural gas expansion in Massachusetts at the Northeast LDC Gas Forum, held at the hotel.
The group described the gathering as a “peaceful, non-violent, non-destructive act of civil disobedience.”
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