By Zack Sampson, News Staff

Three Northeastern students were among the 141 Occupy Boston protesters arrested early Tuesday morning after a clash with local police in a section of the Greenway.

Tori Porell and another student who wished to only be referred to by his first name, Bryan, were charged with unlawful assembly along with another Northeastern student who declined to comment for this story.

Porell and Bryan were among a large group of activists who expanded from Dewey Square into a second section of the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Monday despite Boston Police Department (BPD) warnings they would clear the protesters out if they failed to leave the new site.

Spokesman Dave Estrada said BPD could not comment because the suspects were already “arrested and arraigned,” and statements could affect the proceedings.
Occupy Boston leaders called an emergency assembly Monday evening to discuss action if BPD followed through with their plans, Porell, a middler international affairs major, said.

“There was a lot of debate about the situation of the second parcel and what to do, and eventually it was voted on and by an overwhelming majority we decided that we were going to stay and occupy the second portion of land,” she said. “At that point we began preparations to hold it in the face of a police invasion.”

The protesters set their tents up in the middle of a new section that officials asked them to stay away from because of recent renovations.

Porell said Occupy Boston activists planned to create a “human chain” around the perimeter to stand their ground against the police, who originally said they would clear out the site at sundown, but moved the deadline to midnight.

As time waned, Porell said BPD set up its own medical tent across the street and instructed all journalists to clear the area as Occupy Boston scouts monitored the department’s approach to the Greenway.

“A lot of the organizers were coming around trying to make sure we had the [National Lawyers Guild] phone number for when we were arrested, make sure we knew what was going to happen to us and make sure everyone was calm, understood — we had a modified civil disobedience training,” she said. “They were just kind of preparing us for what was going to happen.”

Police surrounded the site just after 1 a.m. and gave the protesters five-minute and two-minute warnings, offering anyone a chance to leave before they started making arrests, Porell said.

After they issued their final warning, police moved in to arrest all remaining activists. Porell said they first targeted medics and legal observers.

“There was a medic not far from me at all and I watched the police approach him, he had his hands up saying — he’s clearly marked with a red cross all over his body — ‘I’m impartial, I’m neutral, I’m a medic,” she said. “They ripped away his medical supplies, his eyewash solutions, threw them away, tackled him to the ground, put him in cuffs and drug (sic) him away.”

Self-identified anarchists were the next people detained, Porell said, though they were mixed among the protesters and not doing anything out of the ordinary. After arresting the anarchists, she said police moved onto the rest of the protesters, including her friend and fellow student, Bryan, to whom she was linked.

“They pointed at him and went in,” she said. “We were able to hold on for some time, I held on until an officer actually knelt on my stomach and pulled my arms away and held my wrists to the side while they drug (sic) him off.”

Bryan, a senior independent study student who said he created his own major in social movements, activism and alternative governance,  said he tried to maintain the link but was detained quickly.

“Four cops came and grabbed my arms, I wasn’t budging and my friends’ linked arms were holding me down,” he said. “Another cop came behind me and was punching my arm in order to get me to let go of my friends. They pried me out of my circle and threw me to the ground.”

As people were arrested, Porell said Occupy Boston activists repeated protest chants.

“We just kept repeating, ‘This is a peaceful protest,’ over and over,” she said. “As Bryan’s being violently arrested and beaten, he kept repeating, ‘This is a peaceful protest.’”

Though BPD officers were calm and supportive — some even sympathized with protesters, telling them they did not want to make arrests and pleading with them to leave — Porell said the special operations officers were more harsh and “perpetrated a lot of the violence” she witnessed.

After Bryan was zip-tied and placed in a police transport, Porell said many people fled so she and another friend were vulnerable and were calmly taken into custody by police. They were also placed in transports, separated by gender and taken to holding cells.

Bryan said he was taken to a jail in Mattapan where he was placed in a cell until 12:30 p.m. the following day when he was taken to a courthouse for processing.
Porell said she was taken to a South End holding area where she was placed in a group cell with about 10 other girls.

When they reached the facility, she said she overheard officers speaking about the arrest process.

“We could hear the cops, when we stopped and they got out, were talking. They failed to record the arresting officer for any of us,” she said. “So we heard them say, ‘Oh, put so-and-so for those 10, put so-and-so for those 10.’ So there’s no arresting officer recorded for anyone, at least the females.”

Porell said she was held until mid-morning Tuesday when she was given a notice to appear in court on Thursday morning. Some of the girls in her group posted $40 bail just over an hour after they were arrested, she said.

Jake Wark, press secretary for Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, said protesters with no prior record were given the opportunity to have their criminal trespassing violations reduced to civil offenses “akin to a speeding or parking ticket.” This brought with it a $50 fine. But he said some chose to plead not guilty, thus taking their case to criminal court and guaranteeing the entry will remain on their record.

Bryan said he is “probably going tomorrow to pay the fine,” but Porell is not sure if she will take the case to court because she does not believe she was guilty and has no regrets.

“I felt that personally, if I walked away, it was admitting that I was doing something wrong, I was there illegally or I didn’t have a right to be there,” she said. “So I was willing to risk arrest to make the point that I had the right to be there.”

– News staff writer Zac Estrada contributed to this report.