“Potential disruption to the 2021 Boston Marathon” – Boston 25 News

BOSTON — Police are investigating a potential planned “disruption” of the 2021 Boston Marathon to protest the event coinciding with Indigenous Peoples Day, according to a law enforcement notice.

“We have received unsubstantiated reports that individuals may attempt to disrupt the 2021 Boston Marathon through nonviolent direct actions in support of Indigenous peoples’ concerns,” the Joint Situational Awareness Bulletin reads. “The 2021 Boston Marathon is held on Indigenous Peoples’ Day and some believe marathon organizers have not taken enough steps to recognize the holiday or Indigenous communities.”

Boston Mayor Kim Janey signed an executive order this week replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, a change that other local communities have also made.

The advisory, issued Friday by the Boston Police Department’s Boston Regional Intelligence Center and the Mass. State Police Department’s Commonwealth Fusion Center, says the protest would likely involve the “sleeping dragon” tactic on the marathon course.

“This tactic typically consists of a group of individuals chained and/or handcuffed together through a length of pipe, which prevents law enforcement from simply using bolt cutters to break the chains,” the bulletin reads. . “There are many variations, including covering the pipe with hard-to-cut materials and/or running the PVC pipe through a barrel filled with concrete so that officials have to break up the concrete before cutting the pipe.”

Climate change protesters led a similar protest, chaining themselves to a boat outside Governor Charlie Baker’s Swampscott home last month.

On Sunday, Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the North American Indian Center in Boston, and Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) and the national Indigenous Peoples Day campaign in Massachusetts, published the following statement on the question:

“It has come to our attention that various police departments have issued a public alert saying in part that ‘Police are investigating a potential planned ‘disruption’ of the 2021 Boston Marathon to protest the event coinciding with Peoples’ Day. indigenous. Police have received unsubstantiated reports that people may attempt to disrupt the 2021 Boston Marathon…and that some believe marathon organizers have not taken enough steps to recognize the holidays or indigenous communities. Some Fox media ran this as a new story,” the statement read.

According to Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB). “We are not aware of any of these plans and no one has been consulted in this regard. We are concerned that this could lead to police profiling of Indigenous people running or attending the Boston Marathon and could also lead to targeted harassment of Indigenous people by bystanders. NAICOB is not involved in any investigation,” the statement said.

“Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) and the statewide Indigenous Peoples Day Campaign in Massachusetts, said ‘At a time when communities across the state are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day, at a time when our Indigenous community in the Boston metro area just had a beautiful and peaceful march of several hundred people on October 9th, it is unfortunate that such an alert is issued when it is based on what law enforcement admits to be unsubstantiated information,” the statement said. “At Saturday’s march in Boston, we made our demands known, none of which involved the BAA or the Boston Marathon. We are troubled that these reports may come in an attempt to inflame anti-Native sentiment and somehow portray us as criminals or terrorists, given that the reports are believed to be from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) and the Commonwealth Fusion Center.

Boston 25 News security expert and former Boston Police Chief Superintendent Dan Linskey said police investigating the disruption will not only be on the lookout for suspicious activity or objects, but will would also plan how to eliminate the protesters.

“You have to have a plan, if they can roll out and walk the race course with those sleeping dragons. There are professionally trained teams in the fire and police departments who can mitigate the devices. They take a long time to do that,” Linskey said. “But you can also have alternative means. So if you have protesters that are connected and you can’t separate them, could you use resources to pick them up, put them on a cart and drag them to the side of the road where they got out of the way runners?

The bulletin advises officers to “please be on the lookout for pre-staging or spectators carrying unusual items such as lengths of pipe (PVC or otherwise), chains, handcuffs, carabiners, quick-setting concrete and/or buckets filled with concrete. .”

Linskey also urged the general public to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and report it to police.

The former chef said he hoped nothing would hamper the significance of the event since the marathon bombings in 2013.

“The marathon is a special event, and it still has been since 2013. It has taken on a lot of meaning for our victims, our community,” Linskey said. “And while I understand the concern of the groups and the timing of the event, wouldn’t it be a shame if we did anything to dishonor the victims who lost the 2013 marathon or who were such champions showing us such class and resilience as they recover from these injuries and move on with their lives?”

The Boston Athletic Association apologized in August for scheduling the marathon on the same day as the holiday.

“In choosing the fall date for the Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) in no way intended to take away from Indigenous Peoples Day or celebrations of the Native and Native American community,” the nonprofit organization said. profit in a press release. “We extend our sincere apologies to any Indigenous peoples who felt ignored or feared that the significance of Indigenous Peoples Day was being erased. We are sorry.”

The organization worked with federally and state-recognized tribes to honor and celebrate Indigenous peoples through the marathon and related events.

Asked about the possible protest, the BAA referred Boston 25 News to state police. State and local police did not respond to calls from Boston 25 News about the bulletin.

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