Charges Against Occupy Defendants Dropped
by Mass NLG (No verified email address)	12 Feb 2013
BOSTON, FEBRUARY 11, 2013. On Friday, February 8, 2013, Suffolk County prosecutors decided to drop all pending criminal charges against all remaining Occupy Boston activists awaiting trial as a result of the mass police arrests in October and December 2011. This action amounts to an implicit acknowledgement of the unconstitutionality of the arrests and criminal charges brought against almost 200 Occupy Boston participants. By declining to pursue charges further, the state has finally admitted that the demonstrations by Occupy activists were legal and constitutionally protected activities.
This decision—which comes after more than 14 months of delay and evasion—is evidence of both the legality and the necessity of movements such as Occupy. “We were arrested for exercising our constitutionally protected rights to assemble, to express protected speech and to petition the government and for speaking out against the misplaced priorities of a state and a nation that devotes taxpayer money and resources to suppressing dissent through arrest and fear while, at the same time, enabling corporate power to run rampant,” said Andrea Hill, one of the defendants scheduled to go to trial today. Tammi Arford, another defendant, added that “we, Occupy Boston activists arrested in 2011, have been forced to navigate the justice system for over a year while those responsible for the financial crisis, economic fraud, and criminal activities that have cost millions of Americans their homes, jobs, and security have never been charged with any offenses. This demonstrates exactly why it is now more important than ever to speak out and work to create a fair and just economic and political system that does not exploit the 99% for the benefit of the 1%. “ Brianne Milder, the third of five defendants scheduled to go to trial today, stated that “the work of the National Lawyers Guild and all activists fighting their charges is a heartening and valuable affirmation of the very freedoms that make a better world possible. As the Suffolk County prosecutor’s decision demonstrates, the exercise of constitutional rights is not, nor should it ever be, a criminal offense.”