Boston City Council 2022 Hearing on Mayor Wu's Picketing Ordinance

Boston City Council 2022 Hearing on Mayor Wu's Picketing Ordinance

This is a replay of the public hearing that took place on March 14, 2022, on Michelle Wu's self-serving pickting ordinance that was written, passed, and enforced to ban us from protesting in front of her house. The passing of this ordinance led to criminalization of protected speech in Boston and multiple arrests in 2022 that are still being litigated in court.

Here's some of the backstory:

On March 30, 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston City Council passed a city ordinance to ban protesting in front of Michelle Wu's house. Violations of the ordinance were supposed to result in a civil infraction and violator issued with a $50 fine. Instead of giving anybody a fine, they arrested Shannon Llewellyn on April 25, 2022. She was charged with violation of the ordinance (civil - not an arrestable offense) and "willful violation of a city ordinance" (a statute used for people who are drunk and causing public nuisance). Her case was DISMISSED and Boston Judge Key ruled her arrest "unlawful" and "wrongful" and said she never should have been arrested - in other words, a nod to the Boston Police to do better next time.

June 10, 2022 - Mayor Wu's employee, David Vittorini send an email to Boston Police with 15 names of her most vocal critics, including our names and some others who have protested with us. We publicized this list in June/July 2023 after finding it in a public records search. It's since been titled "Wu's Enemies List".

When 4 of us went back to protest on June 29, 2022, we were all arrested, but this time we were charged with violating the ordinance (civil) and "disturbing the peace". Myself, Shannon, Danielle, and Marie were all arrested with the same charges however, Danielle and Marie's cases were dismissed prior to arraignment (Danielle and Marie's names are not on Wu's Enemies List).

2 years later, Shannon and I are still in court..............

#bospoli
#mapoli
#firstamendment
#shameonwu
#freemassachusetts
#Boston
#Massachusetts

For more information, or to get involved with our fight to win back free speech in Boston, check out

BostonToBoston.com

and

linktr.ee/catherinevitale