FreemanZ.com/  Photo Reports/  June 14, 2005

June 14, 2005, US Army Occupies Cambridge Common

Opinion, By Jeffrey Manzelli (Photographs follow this text)

This is the first Freeman Z  Photo Repor t I've posted since being hassled, arrested and illegally screwed by MBTA Police, two of whom who lied at my trial.

On September twenty eight, 2002, Brain Harer approached me and attempted to intimidate me from publishing photos I acquired that day. Precisely because Harer spoke so brazenly into my handheld microphone about laws he surely made up on the spot, that I was thrown off balance, if you will. I inadvertently found myself interviewing Harer about why he was threatening me with a lawsuit if I were to post a photo in which He presumed he appeared.


During this interview,  Harer pretended he had not seen my microphone, clearly visible in my hand at the time.  He pursued wiretapping charges and lied in court that I hid my microphone, which I did not do. I might more easily prove this to you were that recording not deemed illegal under this bizarre Massachusetts legislation the thugs.

I content that my Constitutional and Human Rights to publish legally obtained self-exculpatory documentary material, my right to defend my reputation (in spite of BMC's Judge Forde's phony conviction,)  clearly trump any restrictions the partisan BMC can reasonably impose to aid the MBTA Police in their misconduct. Also, as a (noncorporate) Reporter, I'm obligated to tell the truth about MBTA Police crimes committed against me. Perhaps the average citizen has no obligation to fight a false conviction if it's in his best interest to cave in, bargain, and move on, or get over it.  This is not an option I'll allow myself.  My evidence provides well deserved embarrassment to the MBTA Police.  Trust, my friends, that the vast majority of victims do not document their misbehavior, and that those who do rarele rescue the goods from their tourist camera-stealing clutches of the T Police.

This federally connected gang of glorified security guards, are employed by what locals call  "the T." The MBTA is a transit "Authority" with a rich and well documented history of graft, theft, deception, and all-around Old Boston closed doors rip off the taxpayer  and run with it sorta feeling.

To control the wily proletarians who use the transit system, Boston employs the T-Pol, who specialize in crashing by design in unwarranted aggression, in all variety of ludicrous fiascos and 

Terrorism and the Bush Agenda
Of course,  'the T'  is also the setting for precisely the sort of terrorist attack the Bush Administration has so earnestly worked to ensure.
 
 
The 'Wiretapping' law MBTA Police used to prosecute me has been used to whitewash police misconduct in at least one other case.
In fact, that seems to be it's major use.
In that case, which I am about to research, the Defendant apparently did make a covert recording to protect himself from police misconduct.
He presented his evidence against the 'pig' (Oh my. I never used to talk like that.) And was prosecuted
the Pig went oinking off, unhindered. 

In my case, my microphone was plainly visible.


, one having belonged to Michael Dukakis

 and the subway pigs used this crapper of a State Law to nullify my recording,
which I made during Harer's illegal misconduct, as he attempted to intimidate me from exercising my unquestionable right, simply to make a photo.
More on their criminal activity is available at the Brian Harer website.

The Boston Phoenix requests your photo's of MBTA issues at <fix_the_t@phx.com>
But beware, T Police have been apparently been arbitrarily stealing honest people's cameras for years.
The MBTA, behaving as a private corporation, seems to claim the right to prohibit photos of their property and equipment...and personnel.
This policy is unposted, perhaps thereby conditioning T Patrons to accept arbitrary policy dictates issuing from anyone in uniform?
Isn't the written word the basis of law? There are two kinds of 'laws.'
Laws can generally be understood as a bunch of words written in books.
The kind of laws we're conditioned to think of first is a set of rules made by humans.  We can argue and negotiate and in most cases, completely cheat or simply collectively alter these rules to suit our personal and cultural moods. But the most important laws are the codification of what hard experience has proven, laws of mathematics, for example.
One must bring excrutiatingly care to the task of remembering which laws belong to which group.


We would be unwise to count on defying physics


I believe this assertion and it's associated practices are illegal, but I advise that you shouldn't get caught practicing your right in Bush's America.
The 'T' says "United We Stand"
I say, "We won't stand for this!"

Today the United States Army came to my city to celebrate the anniversary of it's founding during the Revolutionary war.
The Green Machine spent our money on a mobile movie theatre, and a suped-up 'Hummer' designed to snag young recruits provided grim amusement to school children and peace activists alike.

Hundreds of demonstrators surrounded the Army event, providing alternative messages to the children in attendance.

A short movie entitled "Army Of One" advertises Army life, focusing on individuality, a notion many of the Veterans, some pictured below, found amusing.

Access to the event was arbitrarily denied at times by Cambridge Police who did not display their badge numbers as required by our law (last time I checked this was about two years ago. I researched the books, and asked a police representative.) Criteria for banishment to this supposedly public event included dress, credentials, and other, undisclosed factors.

see also  boston.indymedia


Veterans For Peace Honor Our Local War Dead

Veterans For Peace was established in the early 1970's, during the Vietnam/American war.
An epic battle over veterans rights to speak against that war occured on the nearby Lexington Green.
True to Lexington's nature, the 'authorities' wanted the green to become a stuffed-and-mounted specimen of American peoples' power. Their movement brought the Green back to life, and I expect this will occur again.

Veterans For Peace Banner "...To Die For A Lie"

A Local Veterans For Peace Activist

Massachusetts Press Pass

About Press Pass

 Press passes were rarely desired by 'alternative press' folks such as myself, but now we're being denied access at public events, and even attacked by police for making documentary, while corporate 'reporters' work relatively unfettered.  The MBTA Police attack and false prosecution of yours truly exposes the puerile self-agrandizement of military and other authoritarians who mock peace activist, noting incorrectly that "If it weren't for us, they couldn't march or say those things." Of course, the point of protest is not that it is an end in itself, but that it should serve to prevent abuses of power and authority in representional government.

Requirements for a Massachusetts State Police-issued press pass are purely a filter for making sure the Reporter is under the control of a corporate Editor. Conditions include being a full time EMPLOYEE of an entity with a certain number of readers or viewers, though it's said that commercial stations are getting these passes for part-timers, too.

I was informed by Police, during a Boston demonstration, that recording there was a felony. I have no idea to what law the Officer referred. Perhaps like the MBTA's Brian Harer, they feel free to invent laws and facts at will. Fearing a repeat of that time, when I interviewed Harer on his made-up laws, and he perjured himself, lying that i hid my mic, violating a bizarre Massachusetts Law, I declined to explore the issue further.  Such intimidation is illegal, and  I do have the recording on file.

Pickets: Leave Our Kids Alone!

With recruiting failing miserably for their illegal war of false pretense, recruiters are invading campuses. Federal funding is threatened at schools that resist. An outrageous recruiter attack on Tony Naro, a student at U Mass, Boston,  involved charges against, Tony Van Der Meer, a teacher who protected the student. The Professor was charged, and a huge community turnout embarassed prosecution, who dropped the bogus charges. The recruiter said the student "should be shot in the head...like Dr. King."  This episode somewhat soured UMass recruitment relations.

T-Shirt: "You Can't Bribe Us To Kill"

Youth Who Refuse To Enlist

A U.S. Army Recruiter Propaganda Cinema-Truck

I attended the U.S. Army recruitment propaganda movie "Army Of One."
After sitting through two showings of the looped film, I emerged to proclaim this was "the best damned movie" I'd ever seen.
In this I am sincere.
It reveals the transparent manipulation of the Army recruitment program, appealing not to one's patriotism, one's desire "to serve," but to the potential recruit's selfishness, a classic con (confidence) tactic.
This underscores the fact of the "Economic Draft" a "volunteer" army whose recruits are impelled to 'service' based on economic forces manipulated by the powers that be.

I asked the recruiter where I can go to sign up. I'm not certain, but I don't think he liked me much.
Still, with the Green Machine about 20% below target, beggars can't be choosers!

Veterans For Peace "Smedley Butler" Banner

Smedley Butler was a General in the U.S.M.C.
He wrote a famous book called "War Is A Racket"
This has become a cornerstone in the Veterans for Peace movement.

Dead Uncle Sam On A Coffin

Text: Faux Elections, Faux president, Faux Democracy.
What about Citizen Murdoch's lying, racist Faux News?
That's the very corporate 'news' entity that 'called' the 2000 election!
I wonder whether Cambridge police would have allowed the apparent sex-abuser O'Reily to enter this event with a sign.

A Woman From A Military Family Displays A Family Photo

A "Liberated" iraqi Woman

sporting a theatrical bullet hole, this woman has been seen posing for dead outside a recruiter
  The growing counter-recruitment movement is headed by many veteran and military family organizations.

Media Lie, Soldiers Die

Protestors Shout Over Amplified Speeches

Since my MBTA Police frameup on bogus felony wiretapping charges, I've begun to allow myself to participate in demonstrations. Today I wore a lovely military pig costume that the children adored.

When these activists chanted over Mayor Sullivan's speech, I bellowed "I CAN"T HEEER YOU!" and they rasied their acoustic intensity by about ten decibels. One person really can make a difference.

"75% Of America Says Enough!"

I tried to calculate the likely target of these guns.
I think it's a public housing building.

Cambridge Common Cannon

Child Gazes At Gagged And Blindfolded Demonstrator

Military Family Photographs

What's the rainbow patch?

Inverted U.S. Flag Distress Signal

Since the World Trade Towers were destroyed, violations of United States Code regarding the our national flag are tremendously common. They are improperly displayed, tattered, abandoned, and subjected to improper disposal.

In this context, the inverted U.S. flag is properly and legally used as a distress signal.

Phony patriotism favors plastering flags everywhere, however proper respect is demonstrated by observing the flag code, and by caring for the flag. Tacking up a Wal Mart flag made in China is easy, but dedication is properly demonstrated by raising and lowering the flag in a daily ritual that represents the ongoing process of defending Democracy.

When the Subway Cops raped my rights, shut down this sight, and perjured themselves, I noticed their flag, high on a pole at South Bay...was in tatters. Shame on the MBTA Police. What a bunch of contemptible slobs.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is seeking witnesses to the arrests.
According to Charles Rosina's report on WMBR Radio, Patrick Keaney, was arrested for Trespassing (on public property) after crossing a jersey barricade dressed as a corpse. A photo of Keaney's arrest appears above the fold of the weekly Cambridge Chronicle cover page of June 16, 2005. He bore a sign reading "Killed in Iraq...No More Birthdays for Me!"

WZBC Radio Reporter John Grebe was dressed conservatively, and entered the event unhindered.

Issues raised since the Army event, the protests and arrests include objections by  Cambridge City Council members that the event was sprung on the City by Mayor Sullivan, an entrenched encumbent they say had advance notice he did not disclose.  Sullivan, a Mayors for Peace member, spoke at the event, refusing requests to condemn the war in Iraq.

Police bearing "TPF" (Tactical Police Force) uniforms wore no identification badges.
This violation of Massachusetts law may be supported by some technical loophole.
Though they claim this if for their protection, (from what? ...accountability?) In my experience covering demonstrations, badge removal is practiced only in situations where police are prepared to perform brutality and other illegal actions where possible reprimand or prosecution for hiding the badge is outweighed by any potential litigation or prosecution for misconduct. Can we seriously accept that they are hiding their identities from Osama...from Saddam?

City Officials also announced a recruiting initiative, targeting our youth.
With the kind permission of the MBTA fascists who 'protect' our rights...

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