Protestor dressed as hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner arrested for "implied bomb

[orthogonal]

It was a skinny pair of stereo wires that got 21-year-old Joe Previtera charged with two felonies. A week ago on Wednesday, the Boston College student poked his head through a gauzy shawl, donned a black pointy hood, and ascended a milk crate positioned to the right of the Armed Forces Recruitment Center’s Tremont Street entrance. He extended his arms like a tired scarecrow; stereo wires dangled from his fingers onto the ground below. ... Previtera was a dead ringer for one of Abu Ghraib’s Iraqi prisoners — specifically, the faceless man who’d allegedly been forced to balance on a cardboard box lest he be electrocuted.

. . . .

Soon after, the cops appeared and watched the spectacle from their cruisers; shortly thereafter, the Boston Police bomb squad rolled up. Less than 90 minutes after the protest began, the police began taping off the area around him, and when Previtera stepped down, they took him into custody for "disturbing the peace." But Previtera had remained silent the entire time. "I was really trying to play the role as accurately as possible," he says. "So I was not speaking with anyone, just trying to stay there as still as possible." Any disturbance came from the crowd of gawking spectators that, witnesses say, assembled once the policeman showed.

At the precinct, Previtera discovered that in addition to the initial misdemeanor, he’d been charged with two felonies: "false report of location of explosives" and a "hoax device."

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/this_just_in/documents/03885837.asp


Note that no one at any point made a bomb threat. The protestor is being indicted on two felony counts just for his protest.

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. how could he be charged with filing a false report

when he didn't even call the cops?

[DU9598]

2. Sad

We live under a dictator who is evil. This is not my America.

[SoDesuKa]

3. What an Outrage

It's obvious that right wing police twisted the interpretation of the protest in order to chill dissent. What an outrage.

[Voltaire99]

31. The image itself is explosive (cf. the LA gallery owner beating)

Murrica can not stand that Abu Ghraib torture image: it is desperate to send that one down the memory hole.

The truth always hurts, but never so much as when a society is shown to have collectively swallowed lies. The idea of the good war is precious to the Murrican mind. Thus does it sanctify mass murder, and woe unto those who cheat it of savoring its wars. . .

Yes, I agree this arrest is an outrage. And for his shining demonstration, I would nominate young Previtera as a moral hero on a par with the members of the White Rose Movement in Nazi Germany.

[proud patriot]

4. "Democracy Now"Amy Goodman interviewed him today

if you get a chance to listen , they also interviewed
a spokesperson from the Boston DA's office .

[central scrutinizer]

5. wow, thought police

they must have used ESP to determine he was thinking about a bomb or some such shit.

[truthspeaker]

6. it's because of the wires they assumed a bomb

Obviously bullshit. Either someone at the recruiting office lied and said they thought the wires suggested a bomb or the cops were looking for something heavy to charge him with. Bet it doesn't even make it to trial.

[jpgray]

7. He was standing on a plastic see-through mesh milk crate

Which the wires were not connected to. Not only that, but folks from inside the recruiting office came out and spoke with the protestor and his friend, and no talk of any 'bomb' was likely exchanged.

[colonel odis]

8. sounds like intimidation, pure and simple.

"we'll teach you snot-nosed little college kids living off your parents' money to protest our little war. we'll throw a couple of felony counts at you and see if we can't disrupt your life for a couple of years and drain your folks' bank accounts. see how many of you line up after that to protest."


no, indeed, this is not our america.

[diamond14]

9. PHOTO of Joe: be warned: if you criticize bush*, you will be ARRESTED....

NO ONE is allowed to object to bush* torture and KILLING of Iraqi prisoners...NO ONE...if you speak out, YOU will be arrested and JAILED, and soon, you too will be treated as the Iraqi prisoners.....


STAND UP America...stop bush*....major rallies all across America...this Saturday, June 6, 2004...all info on this link
http://www.InternationalANSWER.org

[Just Me]

26. Man, that guy does have guts!!!

I was scared shitless when I hooded a local statue (but, it was less than fifty feet from the sheriff's office and, if caught, they would have trumped up whatever charges they could against me).

The federal charges against this guy are just plain asinine.

[VolcanoJen]

37. You hooded a local statue?

Sounds interesting... more info, please, Just Me!

[truthspeaker]

10. anyone know if this guy has or needs a legal defense fund?

I'm a little short on cash right now but I could probably scrape up a little bit to help. If a hundred of us do it he could afford a decent lawyer.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

14. As I recall, his mother is a lawyer

but I don't know about a legal defense fund.

[Mika]

11. We need thousands to do just this. Chum the waters for fascist crackdowns

If thousands of people staged protests clothed in Abu Ghraib prison-wear and were all arrested.. do ya think America would "get it"?

:shrug:

[Voltaire99]

33. No, I don't believe so.

Some Americans would get it. But in the vast state of mind known as Murrica - which accounts, mind you, for half of the nation - most would not get it.

But I suspect they would get the people who demonstrated: another Kent State, perhaps. The Abu Ghraib image is likely to incite more violence from the millions who view it with almost medieval shock and, yes, reverence. It's a symbol nearly as potent to them as their crucifix, and it represents, in their eyes, the deserved wrath of Murrica upon the dark-skinned heathen. This degrading symbol, in other words, is the banner of a crusade. They won't see it profaned.

[jobycom]

12. Just cops refusing to admit they over-reacted

Cops do this all the time. If they are caught looking dumb, they unleash holy horror on whoever made them look dumb.

There was a case here in Texas where a cop pulled over a van because of one of those fake feet hanging out the back door. The cop believed it was actually a body, and stopped the man, ran him through the motions, and brought in reinforcements. When the joke was discovered, rather than apologize or even sternly rebuke the van owner for a sick sense of humor, they arrested the man on several charges, all of them created on the spot. A year or so later and the man was still fighting the charges.

Cops are like this. They'll let a criminal go for respecting their authorita, but slam an innocent person into jail for making them look silly.

Not all cops, of course. Just some. But given the cop code of sticking together, even a few bad ego-maniac cops can cause a lot of damage.

[BiggJawn]

21. Typical Cop-Thug reaction in "these times"...

Take a small event that should have at MOST garnered a "C'mon, kid, pack it up and move along" and turn it into multiple Class-A Felony charges.

I think they used to call this "Throwing the Book" at someone. In the past, the DA would call the cop and say "You actually expect me to pursue all this shit? What, you didn't get no pussy last night, and THIS is how you take it out???" but in Calico Johnny's Murka, anything's possible these days. Make a joke about a "burning Bush", go to prison for 3 years. Draw an un-flattering picture of Bush, get expelled from school.

Yeah, Joe McCarthy would've been proud of us....

[jobycom]

22. Well, to be fair

We ARE at war, so there ought to be limits on freedom. Knowhatamean?

(For the literarily challenged, that's called sarcasm, dear.) :-)

[BiggJawn]

25. And it'd be SO much easier if he was a Dictator....

instead of just a Plain Dick....

[truthspeaker]

13. ready to puke? Read this asshole police spokesman's comments

So if Previtera didn’t mention a bomb, what exactly constitutes a bomb threat? "It can be implied, with fingers and wires — especially in a heightened state of alert, as we are," says Officer Michael McCarthy, Boston Police Department spokesman. And McCarthy thinks this is common knowledge, even if the wires are accessories to a costume. "Mr. Previtera should know better. He’s a young adult educated at Boston College from a wealthy suburb. I’m sure he knows wires attached to his fingers, running to a milk crate, would arouse suspicion outside a military recruiters’ office dressed in prisoner’s garb. If he has any questions as to why people think he may’ve had a bomb, then he needs to maybe go back to Boston College to brush up on his public policy. Or at least common sense, but they can’t really teach that there."

Here's Officer McCarthy's email address. Let's all write and give HIM a lesson in common sense. mailto:[e-mail]

Here's the email I sent:

Officer McCarthy:

I just read what you had to say about the man who was arrested for standing outside the Army Recruitment Center dressed as an Abu Ghraib prisoner. I am afraid you are the one who is lacking in common sense. I have seen the pictures of the incident and only an idiot would suspect that two wires not connected to anything and a see-through milk crate could possibly be a bomb. So either you are a moron or you are a fascist who thinks protesting the Bush administration is a felony. Either way you do not deserve to wear that uniform. Why don't you go back to Germany, you fascist fuck.

Any relation to Senator Joe McCarthy? You have a lot in common.

[progressivebydesign]

15. Following that "logic" ..

So, was the prisoner, whom this man was impersonating, actually connected to a bomb in Iraq? Otherwise, this "logic" the police spokesperson is using is flawed. The costume NEVER NEVER represented a BOMB!! It represented someone threatened with electrocution. The costume is NOT a pack of dynamite taped and wired attached to his body. He was not wearing a suicide bomber costume! He was re-enacting a cultural icon, depicting torture through the threat of electrocution. This case CAN be won. The cops are idiots.

[saigon68]

16. It will be won

And the Boston authorities will pay damages--- Morans

[Voltaire99]

34. Courts grant extraordinary limits on speech in war time

Hence tolerance for the loathsome "free speech zones" that have ghettoized protest since 9/11.

There are a lot of ways for the city to beat this one, unfortunately.

[othermeans]

20. I guess the guy in prison was attached to a bomb too! nt

[struggle4progress]

32. From the photos, the Abu Ghraib reference is obvious.

[grasswire]

17. why didn't the Boston Globe..

...cover this story???

I need a copy of something about the event in mainstream news. I was telling some editors about it last evening and they refused to accept Indymedia or the Phoenix as "reliable" news sources.

[Eloriel]

18. Good grief, can't you or these "editors" pick up the

goddamned PHONE and CALL the Boston police and DA?

Or does that break some newfangled journalistic rule or ethic or something?

Unbelievable.

[grasswire]

27. I don't need to.

I believe the story, trust Indymedia, and trust the Boston Phoenix.

I'm just telling you what some editors from other cities said about the fact that the Globe apparently didn't cover the story. A big part of America thinks that if something wasn't in mainstream print, it didn't happen. That's the reality.

[truthspeaker]

28. I know regular people think that way, but I'm aghast that news editors do

That's how the White House spreads lies so fast - they get CNN or the NY Times to run it so everyone thinks it's true, and lazy, unprofessional editors just copy the story without verifying it.

Anyway, the point to picking up the phone is to confirm the story to those dipshits.

[grasswire]

40. I hate to say it....

...but there is a bias in the mainstream media against news that originates on the Internet. It's considered too often to be unsourced, unconfirmed, or flaky. It's a defense mechanism, to some extent, because their own jobs are threatened by the bloggers and sites that continually scoop traditional news outlets.

But it's there. You sometimes hear it from broadcasters. I hear it from print reporters and editors.

[jukes]

19. false arrest

violation of free speech.


apsitively contrived. they'll drag it out for ever, but if the administration changes, they'll pay bigtime.


i fear a staged attack on police, G8 or RNC in NY. some1 will be kent-stated soon, i'm afraid.


i also fear martial law & the suspension of the constitution if W doesn't think he can rig this election.

personally, i'm stocking up on canned food & shotshells.



:scared:

[OldCurmudgeon]

23. OMFG! IT REALLY WAS A BOMB!

A "STUPIDITY BOMB". And boy, did it work on the cops. They did something really, really stupid.

(sorry for the coronaries induced by the subject line :)

[yellowcanine]

24. Well, if we can invade a country for "intending to produce WMDs", this

seems like reasonable behavior from the local doughnut eaters.

[truthspeaker]

29. send an email to the BPD spokesman!

mailto:[e-mail]

Tell him what you think about them arresting a man for standing quietly on a sidewalk and trumping up felony charges against him.

[struggle4progress]

30. Story previously discussed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1697698

[damnraddem]

35. They should have charged him for his true felony:

use of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. That must be a felony under the Patriot Act, right?

[hundred_percent_tax]

36. Under Bush's new Amendment, the first 27 will be nullified.

[oklahomapride]

38. If that's true....

we had better start packing Our bags.. Do you have a link?first gay marriage then this... pretty soon there'll be an amendment outlawing womens rght to vote.

you wait and see...

this makes me want to cry

[kerrycrat2k4]

39. Watch and see

Suspension of habeus corpus and martial law by early fall at the latest.