BOSTON — Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion Boston shut down a busy Back Bay intersection Monday morning by welding one of their members to a metal tube attached to a pink Toyota Corolla in the middle of the road — forcing Boston Police and fire crews to haul out power saws to cut the car apart and clear traffic.
The blockade went up at the intersection of Dartmouth Street and St. James Avenue near Copley Square, directly outside the Westin Copley Place hotel where the Northeast LDC Gas Forum — an annual fossil-fuel industry conference — is scheduled to run June 8 to 10.
The bright pink Corolla, plastered with a banner reading "GAS IS BAD FOR MASS" and the Extinction Rebellion hourglass logo, sat sideways across the intersection while officers and firefighters in full bunker gear surrounded it. At least one activist had welded herself to a steel pole bolted to the vehicle. Others chained themselves to large pink barrels, holding signs that read "Road Closed for 'Natural' Gas Conference."
Power saws come out
With no other way to separate the woman welded to the car, Boston Police and Boston Fire crews used reciprocating saws to cut through the metal pole and free her from the vehicle. Other officers worked the barrels — known to organizers as "sleeping dragons," locked-arm devices that have to be cut open with power tools to extract the protesters inside.
MASSDAILYNEWS
STAY UPDATED
Get Mass Daily News delivered to your inbox
ADVERTISEMENT · Interested in advertising?
ADVERTISEMENT · Interested in advertising?
A climate activist in a "STOP GAS" shirt is handcuffed by Boston Police after being cut free from the pink Toyota Corolla welded into the Dartmouth Street intersection. Photo: Boston 25 video / Extinction Rebellion Boston social.
At least two activists were seen in handcuffs at the scene. Boston Police issued a public traffic advisory Monday morning warning commuters and pedestrians to avoid the area, citing the protest's impact on "vehicular and pedestrian traffic" through the heart of Back Bay.
'Climate criminals aren't welcome'
The group is the local Boston chapter of Extinction Rebellion, the international climate-activism network known for high-disruption tactics — road blockades, building occupations, locking-on devices designed to be difficult and dangerous for police to remove. The chapter previously disrupted a joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature, drawing nine arrests after occupying the House chamber for six hours.
ADVERTISEMENT · Interested in advertising?
ADVERTISEMENT · Interested in advertising?
In a same-morning Instagram story posted to its public account, Extinction Rebellion Boston billed the protest as a blockade of "the Northeast LDC Gas Forum at the Westin Hotel in Copley," writing: "Gas is bad for Mass! Climate criminals aren't welcome here!"
Extinction Rebellion Boston's own Instagram story Monday morning called the Northeast LDC Gas Forum attendees "climate criminals" and announced the blockade in real time. Image: @xrboston / Instagram.
The Northeast LDC Gas Forum is a private-industry conference attended by executives of local gas distribution companies — Local Distribution Companies, or LDCs — who set buying and infrastructure plans for natural-gas service across the Northeast.
The group described its action as "a peaceful, non-violent, non-destructive act of civil disobedience." Police, Fire and EMS crews who spent the morning cutting protesters off welded steel and out of locked barrels in the middle of rush hour are not on the record either way.
This is a developing story.
Loading Comments