The media reported Friday evening on the television (Channel 22) news and Saturday morning in the print media (Gazette, subscription required) on the BID protest held Friday, March 13, 2009 in Northampton. Poverty is Not a Crime has released the following video footage and press release in response.
Below from YouTuber sammlyon of videosforjustice.org
Below is Poverty is not a Crime's press release verbatim:
Yesterday at 4:00, sixty people gathered to protest the highly controversial Northampton Business Improvement District (NBID). While playing music and serving free hot food and bread outside city hall, participants passed out informational cards about the BID, encouraging passersby to boycott BID businesses and call their councilors. After this, the crowd marched peacefully down Main Street, dancing, jamming, and chanting their opposition to the NBID and its agenda.
During the march, Beatriz Bianco, a formerly homeless poet and activist, read a spoken word piece about her vision of what makes a city beautiful. Her poem espoused a vision of the city’s underdogs—such as the poor and homeless—as a source of beauty, rather than a threat to be removed by the NBID’s business-run, tourism-oriented plans for “beautification.”
The demonstrators paraded along Pleasant St., stopping by the storefronts of two businesses on the BID Steering Committee—Hotel Northampton and A2Z Science and Learning—asking that they revoke their signatures from the BID petition.
Many participants were upset that their concerns were not heard, but silenced. Onlookers and demonstrators watched with surprise and frustration as police responded vigorously against this peaceful protest with threats and arrests. One activist was grabbed and taken to the ground by three officers and arrested. They later cuffed and arrested another demonstrator while he was pushing another activist's wheelchair. The police then prepared for mass arrests, with about fourteen officers (one of them a state officer), five cars, and multiple vans. A detective in plainclothes was also on the scene photographing everyone.
One demonstrator currently faces a charge of disorderly conduct, while the other has been charged disorderly conduct and assault and battery of an officer (a charge commonly brought against arrested protesters as a scare tactic).
Demonstrators surmise that the BID's backing by powerful business owners has resulted in this unusual and disproportional response to free and peaceful assembly.
The participants of the march were motivated by alarming concerns about BID’s corruption and lack of oversight. Complaints include counting of residential property owners on the BID petition—illegitimate by Massachusetts Common law, the gerrymandering of the BID to include Smith College property, and unusually high salaries for its administration.
Many Smith students and faculty are suspicious about the timing of BID decisions, which have occurred while campus is empty. “President Carol Christ signed onto the BID during January, when most of us weren’t here,” says Smith student Geri Hubbe, “and now City Council plans to vote on the BID during spring break, when the college will be completely vacated.”
The text of the BID plan also states that it will promote intervention efforts to combat the "problem" of panhandling and aggressive solicitation. This is widely viewed as an attempt to curtail free speech and kick out the homeless. Dan Yacuzzo—the chair of the BID steering committee—was a major backer of the panhandling ordinance (Ordinance 285-53). Although the panhandling ordinance has been tabled indefinitely as a result of vigorous opposition, Yacuzzo has publicly stated his plans to propose it again later.
Forgery of signatures to the BID petition, a document that makes the BID legally viable, is also a major concern. One person has found his signature on the BID petition without ever signing it.
In short, the opposition to the BID is concerned that the private board of directors of the BID would not be accountable to the wider community, which poses a serious corruption problem. This concern is warranted by the severe lack of any democratic process thus far in the statement of the BID.
Despite threats, arrests, and pending charges, this BID opposition group has pledged that they will continue the boycotts of BID businesses and peaceful demonstrations. “The BID is corrupt,” says local activist Nina Ashanti, “otherwise, the police would have no need to silence us.”
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Caty Simon
Poverty Is Not A Crime organizer
Freedom Center collective member
member of Arise for Social Justice
