E-Mail This Article to a Friend Dissenters’ lament (continued)
	Related stories FleetCenter blues: As if July's DNC didn't have enough problems, the feud between Boston's police union and the mayor shows no sign of ending in time. By Adam Reilly. Free speech and assembly on the line: Will Americans be able to exercise their fundamental right to protest at the major-party conventions in Boston and New York this summer? By Steven Stycos.

And when officers do try to placate and disperse, not everyone in the crowd will go along with that plan. Even many innocent bystanders may choose not to cooperate — as is their right. Despite the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that a state can require a detainee to give his or her name, that is not the law in the Commonwealth. Refusing to give your name is legal — but probably won’t get you home in any hurry. "It’s also not a crime in Massachusetts to tell a police officer to fuck off," Salsberg says. "But I don’t recommend it." (The civilly disobedient seeking advice on what to do when arrested can find information at www.nlgmass.org/cdbrochure.doc and www.blackteasociety.org/library/jail_solidarity.php.)

Los Angeles municipal authorities may have fueled some of the fire four years ago by putting protest groups through protracted battles over permits and protest zones that raised the level of hostility, says the ACLU’s Rose. Boston’s planners, on the other hand, have generally tried to bend over backward to show that demonstrators will be welcomed. And city councilors Felix Arroyo and Chuck Turner have introduced a resolution calling on the city to treat demonstrators gingerly during the DNC.

But the city may still have exacerbated potential problems by processing permit requests in slow motion. As of two weeks ago, the city had not approved a single permit, according to Urszula Masny-Latos, director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. After the Guild and the ACLU threatened a lawsuit, the first few permits came through on June 28.

Those ultimately denied a permit at this late stage aren’t likely to cancel their plans to come to town. They’re just going to show up angrier.

FACING THE PROSPECT of as many as 2500 arrestees, Boston’s law-enforcement officials have made some dramatic procedural changes to the way they’ll process defendants. Normally, anyone arrested downtown is sent to the nearest police station, and then to the courthouse in Post Office Square. But logistic and security concerns have prompted a departure: all adult convention-related arrestees will be sent first to the Suffolk County House of Correction, at South Bay, and then to Boston Municipal Court, in Roxbury. Juveniles will go to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority headquarters on Southampton Street (which, ironically, is not accessible via public transportation; youngsters anticipating arrest should plan accordingly).

Five booking stations will be set up at South Bay from roughly 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., says Suffolk DA spokesman Procopio. After three, it’ll be too late to make last call at Roxbury Court, which closes at 4:30 p.m. Bail commissioners will be on hand to help most late arrestees avoid spending the night in lock-up. At arraignment, most of those facing nonviolent charges and who have no criminal history will be offered pretrial probation and sent on their way.

But the cops have to prepare for the worst, so the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office is discreetly planning to clear out a sufficient block of holding cells just in case. Keeley, in the sheriff’s office, confirms that the House of Correction will move some of the 140 immigration-violation detainees currently held there to another site. Other moves will depend on "the ebb and flow of arrestees and people held," Keeley says. Another group likely to be moved, if necessary, are state detainees awaiting trial in Suffolk County, who could be transferred to state penitentiaries.

That sort of prisoner shuffling might be expected to upset family and friends who visit loved ones incarcerated at South Bay — if not for the fact that they won’t be allowed to visit at all. Cabral’s office quietly announced on July 7 that no prisoner visits will be allowed during the week of the convention. Extra visiting hours will be provided the following week to make up for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, over at the Roxbury courthouse, four sessions have been reserved for DNC-related arraignments — and the DA’s Office has assigned 15 veteran prosecutors to be there.

Much less certain is whether defense attorneys will be present to represent the indigent. "All I know is what I’ve read in the paper," says Andrew Silverman, deputy director of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which provides public defenders. Silverman says that CPCS has been out of the loop during law enforcement’s planning, and is just now looking into how many of its lawyers might be needed, and where.

Suffolk Lawyers for Justice, which lines up private attorneys to represent indigent defendants in Boston, has also been on the outside looking in until very recently, Salsberg says. He has no way to estimate how many attorneys will be needed at the Roxbury courthouse. Usually, SLJ assigns one private attorney to the courthouse for a day — but most days there is one arraignment session, and usually fewer than 100 arraignments.

Furthermore, defense attorneys will have little incentive to volunteer for the duty; many may be off vacationing for the week, since they have no scheduled court hearings or appearances. The city decided months ago to shut down all trial courts for the convention week (partly for security reasons, partly for traffic reasons, and mostly because no police officers would be available to appear as witnesses). Few lawyers will find it enticing to stay in town and hang around the Roxbury court hoping to pick up $30-an-hour (paid by the state) cases that may never materialize. Many who are planning to be in town are also National Lawyers Guild members who are more likely to be volunteering as observers, Salsberg points out.

Oh, and by the way, what about those involved in our criminal-justice system on non-DNC-related matters? The DA’s Office insists that even with trial courts closed, there will be judges and magistrates on duty to handle emergency needs, such as restraining orders and warrant proceedings. As for the police, the BPD says that it will be able to maintain its presence in the city’s neighborhoods by going to 12-hour shifts for the week.

Most likely, of course, this DNC will see no more arrests than the last one, and possibly fewer. That’s the general opinion of both law-enforcement spokespeople and advocates for those who might face arrest, after 18 months of discussions and planning. Even Masny-Latos of the National Lawyers Guild says that at the moment, things feel like they’re on a smooth course. As Rose points out, the week should end with most protesters free to head to their bigger target: the Republican Convention, in New York.

David S. Bernstein can be reached at dbernstein[a]phx.com