Lees bill puts price on protest

04/11/2003

By DAN RING Staff writer, Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA)

BOSTON - Protesters who are arrested for blocking traffic would be forced to pay for costs associated with their arrests under a bill filed by Senate Minority Leader Brian P. Lees, R-East Longmeadow.

The law would require judges to hold hearings to determine the price to local and state governments for removing protesters from roads. Each protester would be assessed a fine that would go to the municipality or the state as reimbursement.

Lees said he decided to file the bill in response to anti-war protests including those on March 23 outside Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee that included the arrests of 55 people for disturbing the peace or blocking a public road and on March 28 in Northampton that resulted in 23 arrests.

"People have been just ticked over this," Lees said. "Let's demonstrate in a way that does not create a public safety hazard."

Brian P. Lafferty of Longmeadow, an organizer of the March 23 protest, said Lees' bill is an attack against the constitutional right to free speech.

"It's a disgusting violation of the First Amendment," Lafferty said. "I'm appalled by that position."

A person convicted of a criminal offense is required to pay court costs, but such fees are often waived by judges, Lees said.

Lees' bill would also create a criminal offense of interfering with traffic as a pedestrian. The bill would need to be approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by the governor.

Dan Ring can be reached at during@repub.com

 

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