Mass Dissentnlgmasslawyers.org/.../2015/03/Mass-Dissent-15-04.pdfMihal Ansik, Harvard Tyler...

Guild Newspage 3

NLG New Officers & Boardpage 4

NLG Northeast RegionConference in 2015

page 4

Watertown, MA, U.S.A.page 5

Were the WatertownLockdowns Lawful?

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NLG Call for Investigationpage 8

Watertown’s Support forInvestigation

page 9

Mass DissentApril-May 2015 www.nlgmass.org Vol. 38, No. 2

Watertown Lockdowns

April-May 2015

In This Edition

BOARD MEETING

April 15, 6:00 pm

14 Beacon St., 1st Fl.Boston

Massachusetts Chapter National Lawyers Guild 14 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108

"...it is simply fantastic to urgethat such a procedure per-formed in public by a police-man while the citizen standshelpless, perhaps facing a wallwith his hands raised, is a 'pettyindignity.' It is a serious intru-sion upon the sanctity of theperson, which may inflict greatindignity and arouse strongresentment, and it is not to beundertaken lightly..." Terry v.Ohio, 92 U.S. 1, at 16–17.

Most of us who regularly read MassDissent have at least once foundourselves confronted by a gun andbadge-outfitted uniformed officialwho is ordering us to do, or not do,something against our will; such asomething might include speaking,assembling peaceably and/or peti-tioning for a governmental redressof grievances; activities which ourcherished First Amendment pro-tects. Sometimes we are simplyminding our own business.Sometimes we are up to no good.Sometimes it is hard to tell, espe-cially for those status quo protec-tors, enforcers and enablers amongus who brandish guns and badges asa way to solve perceived problems.

The last time I was arrested inWatertown, about 20 years ago, Iwas briefly idling my rusty, butproperly registered and insured,late model Toyota, on Greenough

Boulevard. Inside my car with mewas a close friend (the very friendwho first told me about the NLGand urged me to join). My friendwas not the same color as me, norwas his immigration status as clearas mine, because his parents did notfirst inhabit our nation in exactly thesame generation as my parents. Myfriend was enjoying an after tennisbeedi cigarette. Our parking spotwas next to the Charles River belowthe courts. Perhaps the Watertownpolice officer that “apprehended” ushad a different perception of whatmight have been happening in mycar that night. That Watertownpolice officer might have tried to“serve and protect” someone orsomething by stopping us, harass-ing us, frisking us, interrogating us,arresting me and jailing me until Icould make bail the next morning.The full extent of my “charges?” Abroken rear license plate illumina-tor. To me this incident smacked ofpolice overreach. Similar poordecisions, on a much more damag-ing scale, occurred during the lock-downs of Watertown and the sur-rounding communities after theBoston Marathon bombings.

What the Tsarnaev brothersare alleged to have done is withoutquestion reprehensible. IfDzhokhar Tsarnaev is found guilty,

Continued on page 9

MassDissent 15/04_Layout 1 3/25/15 2:55 PM Page 1

April-May 2015 Mass Dissent

BOARD OF DIRECTORSCHAIRPERSON

Beverly Chorbajian, CPCS

TREASURERSJennifer Norris, Petrucelly, Nadler & NorrisJeff Petrucelly, Petrucelly, Nadler & Norris

MEMBERSMakis Antzoulatos, CPCS

Steven Buckley, Lawson & WeitzenEmily Camin, NLG Litigation Committee

kt crossman, Solo PractitionerHillary Farber, UMass Dartmouth

Jeff Feuer, Goldstein & FeuerJudith Glaubman, Freelance ResearcherStefanie Grindle, Grindle Robinson LLP

Stephen Hrones, Solo PractitionerDavid Kelston, Shapiro Weissberg & Garin

Jonathan Messinger, LoveYourLawyer.comHalim Moris, Moris & O’Shea

Oren Nimni, Peoples’ Law ProjectLeena Odeh, NortheasternJosh Raisler Cohn, CPCS

Rhonda Roselli, Solo PractitionerElaine Sharp, Whitfield Sharp & Sharp

Carl Williams, ACLU of Mass.

LAW STUDENT REPRESENTATIVESMihal Ansik, Harvard

Tyler Ingraham, Western New EnglandThejasree Kayam, Northeastern

Peter Skeffington, Boston CollegeAmy Willis, Suffolk

STAFFEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Urszula Masny-Latos

LRS COORDINATOR/ADMIN. ASSIST.Corinne Wolfson

LITIGATION COMMITTEE INTERNJessica Drew (Suffolk)

Mass Dissent (ISSN 0887-8536) is published sixtimes a year (February, April, June, September,October, December) by the National LawyersGuild, Mass. Chapter, 14 Beacon St., Suite 407,Boston, MA 02108. Second-class postage paidat Boston, MA. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Mass Dissent, NLG, 14 Beacon St.,Suite 407, Boston, MA 02108.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILDMassachusetts Chapter, Inc.

14 Beacon St., Suite 407Boston, MA 02108

tel.: 617-227-7335 • fax: [email protected] • [email protected]

www.nlgmass.org

Street Law Clinic Project: The Street Law Clinic project providesworkshops for Massachusetts organizations that address legal needs ofvarious communities. Legal education workshops on 4th AmendmentRights (Stop & Search), Landlord/Tenant Disputes, Workers’ Rights,Civil Disobedience Defense, Bankruptcy Law, Foreclosure PreventionLaw, and Immigration Law are held at community organizations, youthcenters, labor unions, shelters, and pre-release centers. If you are a Guildattorney, law student, or legal worker interested in leading a workshop,please contact the project at 617-723-4330 or [email protected].

Lawyer Referral Service Panel (LRS): Members of the panel providelegal services at reasonable rates. Referral Service Committee members:Benjamin Dowling, Sebastian Korth, Douglas Lovenberg, and JonathanMessinger. For more information, contact the LRS Coordinator at 617-227-7008 or [email protected].

Foreclosure Prevention Task Force: Created in June 2008, the TaskForce’s goal is threefold: (1) advocate for policies that address issuesfacing homeowners and tenants of foreclosed houses, (2) provide legalassistance to these homeowners and tenants, and (3) conduct legal clin-ics for them. If you are interested in working with the Task Force, pleasecall the office at 617-227-7335.

Mass Defense Committee: Consists of two sub-committees: (1) “LegalObservers” (students, lawyers, activists) who are trained to serve as legalobservers at political demonstrations and (2) “Mass Defense Team” (crim-inal defense attorneys) who represent activists arrested for politicalactivism. To get involved, please contact the office at 617-227-7335.

Litigation Committee: Established in 2010, the Committee bringscivil lawsuits against large institutions (such as government agencies,law enforcement, banks, financial institutions, and/or large corporations)that engage in repressive or predatory actions that affect large numbersof people and that serve to perpetuate social, racial and/or economicinjustice or inequality. To get involved, please contact the Guild office.

NLG National Immigration Project: Works to defend and extend thehuman and civil rights of all immigrants, both documented and undocu-mented. The Committee works in coalitions with community groups toorganize support for immigrant rights in the face of right-wing politicalattacks. For more information contact the NLG National ImmigrationProject at 617-227-9727.

NLG Military Law Task Force: Provides legal advice and assistanceto those in the military and to others, especially members of the GIRightsHotline, who are counseling military personnel on their rights. It alsoprovides legal support and helps to find local legal referrals when need-ed. For advice and information, GI’s can call 877-447-4487. To getinvolved, please contact Neil Berman ([email protected]) orMarguerite Helen ([email protected]).

Join a Guild Committee



ARTICLES FOR MASS DISSENTThe Summer issue of Mass Dissent will discuss NLG’s national work.

If you are interested in submitting an article, essay, analysis, or art work (cartoons, pictures) related to the topic,please e-mail your work to [email protected].

The deadline for articles is May 15, 2015.

GUILD NEWSYou

are invited to the “NLG Presents - Think & Drink” HappyHour - an event held quarterly on the 2nd Wednesdayof January, April, September, and November. Areport from the most recent Happy Hour is on page 4.)If you have ideas for a presentation or would like to bea speaker, please call the NLG office at 617-227-7335.

TheNLG Northeast Region invites NLG members and friendsto this year’s Regional Conference. The Conference ishosted by students of Western New England School of

Law in Springfield from Friday, April 17 to Sunday,April 19. For more details about the conference, please goto https://www.facebook.com/events/764761253589143/or contact Benjamin Evans at [email protected].

Thisyear’s NLG Dinner will be on Friday, May 15, at theDante Alighieri Cultural Center in Cambridge. Weare thrilled to announce that 2015 NLG Honorees areLawyers Iris Gomez and J.W. Carney Jr., KarenRenaud (Legal Worker), and Amy Willis (Law Student).You can find more information about the 2015 honoreesand about the Dinner on page 9 of this issue.

Street Law Clinic ReportSince the last issue of Mass Dissent, the following clinicsand trainings have been conducted for community organ-izations and agencies in our area:January 10: Legal Observing in Dedham whereBlack Lives Matter supporters blocked a train, by ktcrossman, Trevor Maloney (NESL), Mark McMahon,Josh Raisler Cohn, & Maddie Thomson.

January 13: Legal Observing at an action againstState of the City Speech at Symphony Hall, byTrevor Maloney (Northeastern), Mark McMahon,and Ester Serra.

January 14: Legal Observer training and KnowYour Rights training for local activists involved inthe Black Lives Matter movement, by Jeff Feuer.

January 15: Legal Observing in Milton at an actionon I-93 organized by Black Lives Matter supporters,by Daniel Foster and Charles Haigh.January 19: Tenants’ Rights clinic for theBrazilian Immigrant Center in Allston, by kt cross-man and Dan Hyman.

February 19: Legal Observer training forNortheastern law students, by Melinda Drew.

NLG HAPPY HOUR

NORTHEAST CONFERENCE

NLG ANNUAL DINNER

NLG Happy Hour

FROM ARREST TO RE-ENTRY

an evening with

Barb Dougan, Andrea James,Bonnie Tenneriello & Norma Wassel

NLG members Barb Dougan (FamiliesAgainst Mandatory Minimums) and BonnieTenneriello (Prisoners’ Legal Services) willbe joined by Andrea James (Families forJustice as Healing) and Norma Wassel(Massachusetts Bail Fund) in a conversationabout what’s wrong with Massachusetts’criminal justice system and what’s beingdone to fix it.



In March, the Chapter held the Annual Meeting andelections of the Officers and members of the Board ofDirectors. This year we had a larger than ever numberof NLG members who volunteered to serve on theChapter’s Board. In addition to incumbents, we wel-comed six new Board members: Steven Buckley(Lawson & Weitzen), Emily Camin (NLG LitigationCommittee), kt crossman (2015 Northeastern gradu-ate), Judith Glaubman (Cambridge FreelanceResearcher), Leena Odeh (Northeastern), and OrenNimni (Peoples’ Law Project).

Kevin Barron decided to step down from the Board.We would like to thank him for his work for the Chapter.

Elections of Mass Chapter New Board & Officers

(Clockwise, top right) (1) Guest speakers Carl Williams and Mallory Hanora talk aboutthe Black Lives Matter movement. (2) Benjamin Evans announces this year’s NLGNortheast Regional Conference which will take place at Western New England Schoolof Law in Springfield, April 17-19. (3) Meeting attendees.

(Photos by Urszula Masny-Latos & Josh Raisler Cohn)

NLG Northeast Regional ConferenceFriday, April 17 - Sunday, April 19, 2015

Western New England University School of LawSpringfield, MA

The conference will bring together NLG members and progressive activists from Connecticut, Maine,Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. It will be an opportunity for usto gather, make connections, and gain inspiration from each other's work as we work to build the Guildin the northeast.

Among workshops: Organizing Legal Workers; Drones & the Law; LGBTQ Rights; Animal Rights; PrisonAbolitionism; Social & Political Movements - Black Lives Matter, No One Leaves; Rights for Palestinians inIsrael; Litigating Police Misconduct.

For more info contact Benjamin Evans at [email protected].


his morning, our yard wassearched by soldiers in cam-

ouflaged combat gear, armedwith assault rifles. We were sud-denly and indefinitely imprisonedin our own home. This was a har-rowing ordeal, but thankfully wewere among the neighbors thatdid not have our homes actuallyinvaded, nor did we have gunspointed directly at us. We arehorrified that other innocent vic-tims suffered such dangerousintrusions into their lives.

Our child asked: “Why wemust hide in our house?” Ianswered: “It makes it easier tofind the person those soldiers areafter.” The larger truth is we wereterrified that we would be acciden-tally shot and killed by any one ormore of the hoards of heavilyarmed men looking for the bomber.

Only after the lockdown waslifted in the early afternoon did mypartner leave the house. It was astrange decision by whoeverorchestrated this manhunt toimpose a lockdown, then lift itwith the suspect still at large, thentell people in the community itwas safe to go outside again. Ifnothing had actually changed, ifthe suspect had not yet beenapprehended, then this made nosense to me. I stayed inside withthe rest of the family, all of uswishing the entire family would besafely together again.

Soon thereafter, the lockdownwas reinstated, which preventedmy partner from returning home.My partner was in fact on the wayhome, only a block away, but therewas fear that crossing our backyard with helicopters hovering

overhead might lead to gunfire.The second lockdown rapidly

escalated to a massive, scary mil-itarization of the neighborhood. Iwas incredulous when I lookedout my window. Though I wasnever at any time scared of theat-large bomber, I was terrified bythe sight of hulking blackHummers. The assault vehiclescouldn't get down our narrowstreet with the other respondervehicles parked on both sides,and I watched in fear and disbe-lief as black-clad SWAT (SpecialWeapons and Tactics) teams randown the street brandishing blackautomatic weapons. I felt as if Iwere watching a war movie, andwondered why anyone woulddecide that a mammoth militaryinvasion of a residential neighbor-hood was needed to capture asingle suspect. A frightened childwas hiding under the covers ofmy bed as I watched and tried tobe reassuring in the face of whatI was seeing.

The exaggerated showcaseof blunt force military operationsin our residential neighborhoodmade me feel disconcerted,unsafe, and a little disgusted andangry. This seemed to me aridiculous, counterproductive wayto find a suspect, and it imposeda great deal of preventable trau-ma to the whole neighborhood.

This military lockdown andassault leaves me, my family andour neighbors with many morequestions than answers: First ofall, who authorized the lock-down? Why such a large militaryattack on one fleeing suspect?Who was in charge of the searchoperation? How was the searchsupposed to be conducted? Whywas the car which left LaurelAvenue not followed? Why

couldn't dogs be used to followthe trail straight down the hill fromthe car on Spruce Street to theboat on Franklin Street? Whywould both ends of our L-shapedstreet be blocked off, yet thewhole street not be searched?Why would police officers takebreaks and eat sandwiches inplain view of the boat withoutsearching it? Why did infrared orheat seeking technology fromhelicopters not locate the body inthe boat sooner? Why were somany rounds of ammunition firedin a residential neighborhood?Who or what were they fired at?Someone told me later that gunswere repeatedly fired in thevacant lot behind the searcharea. Wasn't the suspectunarmed when discovered by ourneighbor? All those thousands ofmilitary and police roaming thearea, yet the suspect was found,unarmed as it turned out, by a cit-izen, not by law enforcement ormilitary personnel.

We in the Watertown commu-nity, whose lives were upended,and who continue to be impactedby our experiences that day,deserve answers to these andother related questions. Those48 hours felt like one big militaryexercise without much relevanceto the actual pursuit of the sus-pect. It was as if the search forthe suspect created a ready-made excuse to use dangerousmilitary tools in a domestic home.We were so fearful that innocentpeople would be hurt by this outof control search.

The week following the mili-tary operation and the capture,part of the street remained cor-doned off and guarded day andnight, and the media continued


Watertown, Massachusetts, United States of America.April 19, 2013

by an Anonymous WatertownResident

T

Continued on page 6



Watertown, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

their occupation. Even after theboat was eventually hauled away,it was difficult to get life back ontrack, to feel normal or whole.

The Watertown police werehelpful in keeping “tourists” atbay, at least for the first week orso, but after they left, for monthsafterward there were peoplecruising our street to see first-hand where the suspect was cap-tured. I understand the desire forcertain outsiders to try to connectto what happened inWatertown—I myself walked toLaurel Street to try to make senseof what happened there. Yetneeding to interact with freshwaves of strangers slowly drivingdown our street gawking and ask-ing where they could locate the“boat house” felt like an anotherkind of invasion. Most of thesedrive-by people were insensitiveto the wounds the lockdowns andsearches caused us; we werenumb and needed time andspace to heal, individually, asfamilies, and as a community.

My one wish, other than thatthe Boston Marathon bombingnever happened, would be trau-matic events like that could befollowed by at least a brief periodof protection for those trauma-tized, including some reasonablelimits to media and tourist intru-sion into the area. As a parent, Ineeded to show resilience andstrength for the sake of my family,but it took me several weeks tostart to feel somewhat normalagain. I am still healing, twoyears later, as are other familymembers, neighbors and folksthroughout our community.

Week after week passed,with all of us in various stages ofhealing, and by June, two months

after the lock-down, some felt thata block party would boost spiritsstill dampened by what we hadexperienced. At the event we setup a check-in table for guestswho attended. Everyone wasgreeted by a large welcome signthat did not read “WatertownStrong.” We chose the caption“Our Neighborhood Has Heart.”So true! We do, and it does. Theevent and our loving mottoenabled us to begin to relax andtake back our streets for our ownuse and enjoyment again.

Some trauma remains to thisday. Logan Airport's flight patternwas changed (though this maynot have been directly related tothe lockdowns, instead due to air-port development or expansion)so that planes now fly very lowover Watertown and Belmontevery ten minutes or so, all day,all night. This would be annoyingin and of itself, but these soundsimmediately bring us back to thesounds of helicopters circlingoverhead during the lockdown ofApril 2013. Every time I see ahelicopter I wonder who is its tar-get. Such sounds and visions areimpossible to shake from one'smind after trauma. How mustpeople in war torn countries feel?How must people feel in predom-inantly black or latino neighbor-hoods? Must they endure suchtrauma day after day after day?What does this do to peoples'hearts? Their minds?

The militarization involved inthe Watertown lockdown may bea new norm when a tragic eventoccurs and a search is neces-sary. This is deeply disconcert-ing. Watertown, Cambridge, andseveral other larger cities in ourextended metropolitan Bostonarea were shut down, quickly,easily and without the consent of

all of the people impacted by suchdecisions. Does this make us“strong”? Or does this make usvulnerable? Does this keep usfrom really seeing or knowingwhat behind-the-scene measuresare being taken that affect us? Itbaffles me that Police, FBI, CIAand DEA usually do stings andcovert operations and manage tofind suspects without imposingtanks and lockdowns upon inno-cent civilians. Surely there is away to handle such a search with-out traumatizing everyone in aneighborhood. Requiring peopleto hide in their houses, then imple-menting terrifying scenarios inwhich some (more often people ofcolor and/or those whose first lan-guage is not English) are orderedfrom their homes at gunpoint byarmed officials who are supposedto protect and serve their rights isa betrayal of public trust.

What ever happened to thepoor fellow who was stripsearched during the lockdown ofWatertown? No further informa-tion has been made publicregarding this abuse. NeighborsI know whose homes weresearched without warrants, oreven plausible explanations for asearch, told me about others nearthem who were marched out pub-licly with their hands over theirheads as if they were criminals,with guns pointed at them, farfrom where the suspect wasfound: what happens to them?What can and should be done forthem to restore their trampledrights? For a democracy to treatits people this way is disturbing,and it should not be tolerated byany of us.

Our neighborhood was madea war zone. Watertown enduredan unnecessary show of force

Continued from page 5

Continued on page 11


n April 19, 2013, broadcast,digital and social media out-

lets spread fear that theCambridge, Boston, andWatertown police were in hot pur-suit of two individuals who mighthave killed an MIT officer; thesetwo individuals may also havebeen the bombers who createdthe greatest tragedy Boston expe-rienced in recent history.Government officials believed asuspect was seeking refuge inWatertown, and in response they“locked down” Watertown and thesurrounding areas. During thistime, police and other armed menoperating under apparent color ofauthority entrenched andsearched homes at gunpoint in a20-block radius in a failed attemptto hunt and capture the suspect.

Such warrantless searches,lacking probable cause, are sel-dom lawful under either federal orstate law. The FourthAmendment to the United StatesConstitution reads: “the right ofthe people to be secure in theirpersons, houses, papers, andeffects, against unreasonablesearches and seizures, shall notbe violated, and no warrants shallissue, but upon probable cause,supported by oath or affirmation,and particularly describing theplace to be searched, and the per-sons or things to be seized.” TheDeclaration of the Rights of theInhabitants of the Commonwealthof Massa-chusetts, Part the First,Article XIV reads: “Every subjecthas a right to be secure from allunreasonable searches, andseizures, of his person, his hous-es, his papers, and all his posses-

sions. All warrants, therefore, arecontrary to this right, if the cause orfoundation of them be not previ-ously supported by oath or affirma-tion; and if the order in the warrantto a civil officer, to make search insuspected places, or to arrest oneor more suspected persons, or toseize their property, be not accom-panied with a special designationof the persons or objects of search,arrest, or seizure: and no warrantought to be issued but in cases,and with the formalities prescribedby the laws.”

The main concern surround-ing the Watertown lockdown iswhether police wholesale violatedthe Fourth Amendment to searchhomes, unreasonably, withoutprobable cause or a warrant.Typically, for the police to searcha particular property for a sus-pect, and then arrest that sus-pect, police would need, to beginwith, a search warrant. To obtainthese warrants pursuant to prop-er judicial procedure, the policeneed to show there is probablecause that the suspect was com-mitting a crime and/or there wasincriminating evidence relating tothe criminal activity to be found atthe location in question. The chal-lenge during the Watertown lock-downs was that the police, and asit appeared according to eyewit-nesses, other military officials, didnot even attempt to comply withsuch well settled law. Instead,government officials imposed theequivalent of martial law upon anentire residential community ofinnocent people, invadingWatertown with an estimated tenthousand troops, armed withheavy automatic weapons, evenarmored vehicles, scaring thewits out of many civilians in theirwarpath, all the while failing tocapture an individual, unarmed,

wounded teenager hiding in aboat. Thus it is necessary to con-sider which exceptions to searchand seizure law, if any, apply.

Perhaps the police reliedupon the doctrine of exigent cir-cumstances to justify suchextreme actions. “Exigency maybe determined by degree ofurgency involved, amount of timeneeded to get a search warrant,whether evidence is about to beremoved or destroyed, danger atthe site, knowledge of the sus-pect that police are on the trail,and/or ready destructibility of theevidence.” United States v. Reed,935 F. 2d 641 4th Cir., cert.denied, 502 U.S. 960 (1991). Ofcourse, how exigency is defined,and by whom, much like how rea-sonableness is defined, and bywhom, matters a great deal tothose impacted.

A subset of exigency is thedoctrine of hot pursuit, some-times called fresh pursuit, whichis central to the Watertown lock-downs legal analysis. Warden v.Hayden, 387 U.S. 294 (1967),first elucidated this particular jus-tification for a warrantless search.Police officers were told that thesuspected armed robber theywere pursuing had entered adwelling immediately prior to theirarrival. Police thus entered thehome to search it and seize evi-dence inside. They found thesuspect hiding in a bed andarrested him. Despite the viola-tion of the suspect’s FourthAmendment rights, the SupremeCourt allowed such exceptionsfrom that point forth.

Hot pursuit, much like moregeneral exigent circumstanceexceptions, are necessarily limit-ed to prevent police overreach.For example, in O'Brien v. City of



Were the Watertown Lockdowns Lawful?by an Anonymous Boston AreaLaw Student with research fromErica Francisco-Lau

O


On October 20, 2014, the NLG MassachusettsChapter sent a letter to then Governor Deval Patrickand Attorney General Martha Coakley with arequest to conduct an independent investigation ofthe 2013 lockdown of Watertown and other citieswithin the Boston Metropolitan Area. The letter wascc-ed to the U.S. Department of Justice. TheChapter has never received any response from therecipients of the request.

Here is the entire letter for your review:____________________________Dear Governor Patrick & Attorney GeneralCoakley:

The Massachusetts Chapter of the NationalLawyers Guild (the “NLG”) hereby respectful-ly requests an independent investigation intothe pursuit of the Boston Marathon bombingsuspects, as well as the unprecedented military-style lockdown of a wide swath of the City ofWatertown on April 19, 2013.

During the year and a half since the lock-down, the NLG has held a series of public meet-ings in Watertown and elsewhere in the Bostonarea, and it has surveyed various members of theWatertown community. Several facts haveemerged. First, the lockdown was unprece-dented. Never before has an entire city beenshut down in the search for a single suspect. Amajority of Watertown residents either surveyedby the NLG or present at the public meetingsdid not feel free to leave their homes during thelockdown, and some residents expressed theirconcern about these heavy-handed tactics.Police searched through many Watertownhomes without any reason to believe that thesuspect would be found in any particular home.Second, the level of militarization police forceused was unprecedented. Police patrolled thestreets of Watertown in vehicles more closelyresembling tanks than traditional police vehiclesand carried high-powered military rifles ratherthan traditional police firearms. Third, the

occupation of Watertown was ill-managed.Officers from surrounding and distant munici-palities simply came and participated withoutany clear chain of command. Fourth, the lock-down and the city occupation was were anutter failure. For an entire day, heavily armedofficers aimlessly searched throughoutWatertown, while residents were ordered to stayin and not allowed or feared to leave theirhomes, yet, only after the lockdown ended did acivilian (not a police officer) find the unarmed,badly-injured suspect.

State and law enforcement authorities havenever answered the most basic questions for thepublic, such as:

1. Why was it necessary to use a military-styleoccupation of a large neighborhood in order tocatch a single suspect?

2. Why was there no clear chain of command?

3. Why were police unable, despite theunprecedented show of force, to find a station-ary, unarmed and badly-wounded suspect?

The NLG hereby calls for an independentand thorough investigation into the pursuit ofthe Boston Marathon bombing suspects, as wellas the unprecedented military-style lockdownof a wide swath of the City of Watertown onApril 19, 2013, so that the public may have sat-isfactory answers to these questions and so thatthe public may be assured that they will neveragain face this kind of widespread and arbitraryuse of military-style tactics by the police thiskind of strategy is never used again.

Very truly yours,Urszula Masny-Latos, Executive DirectorCc: U.S. Department of Justice

The Boston Globe


NLG Mass Chapter Call for Investigation



When residents of Watertown learned about NLGletter to Governor Patrick and Attorney GeneralCoakley calling for an independent investigationinto the 2013 lockdown, they issued their own letterin support of the NLG call. The letter, sent toGovernor Patrick and Attorney General Coakley onNovember 21, 2014, was signed by 60 residents ofareas affected by the lockdown.____________________________Dear Governor Patrick and Attorney GeneralCoakley:

As residents of Watertown and surroundingareas we are writing to express our support ofthe National Lawyers Guild’s request to theGovernor and the Attorney General for an inde-pendent investigation into the lockdown onApril 19, 2013.

Due to unprecedented actions by Federalagencies in usurping state and local authorityduring the manhunt, the failure of thousands ofmilitarized police to find one suspect, and thesuspension of the Fourth Amendment, we arecalling upon the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts to immediately begin an opendialogue with the National Lawyers Guild andlocal citizens, for the purpose of addressingthese actions and concerns and determiningsuitable individuals to lead and conduct a for-mal investigation.

Among the topics that need to be exploredare the precedence these actions set for futuremilitary-style invasions of our communities,

the manner in which decisions were made andactions taken, redress of violations, and theimplementation of protocols to protect ourConstitutional liberties and freedoms withoutimpeding the effectiveness of adequate safetymeasures employed by law enforcement.

Despite resident compliance with the lock-down, a great many people do not feel thateither the lockdown or searches were voluntary.Since September 11, 2001, communities acrossAmerica have been subjected to exponentialincreases in surveillance and police militariza-tion. Concerns have been raised nationwideabout an emerging “Police State” and peopleare questioning where this increasing milita-rization will lead.

We strongly feel the best way to ensure thehighest quality of life in Watertown, Boston andacross America is with open dialogue, a will-ingness to cooperate, full and complete trans-parency about what took place and public con-sent to any future public safety measures.

We appreciate your time in reviewing theseconcerns and look forward to engaging in fur-ther discourse and helping us implement a far-reaching and meaningful review process.

Kind Regards,Sixty Signatures of residents of the cities affect-ed by the 2013 city lockdown.

Watertown Residents Support of the NLG Call

he should be punished to the fullextent of the law. We are gratefulthat these dangerous two young peo-ple were removed from our commu-nity. But do the ends justify the

means? Not all of us, includingthose of us who love our country,cheered “USA!” as throngs of self-professed patriots celebrated theeventual capture of an unarmed,bleeding nearly to death teenage sus-pect, found in a boat with approx.207 bullet holes in it. Some of ushave many serious questions regard-

ing how this manhunt was conduct-ed. That vast swaths of Watertownwere made a war zone, that despiteexpansive lockdowns, cordoned offblocks of streets, rolling tanks and amonolithic militarized sweep, thepolice never captured the suspect, isproblematic at the very least.

Watertown LockdownContinued from page 1




Grand Rapids, 23 F.3d 990 6th Cir.(1994), police officers pursued asuspect to his house, called forbackup, surrounded the resi-dence, and ultimately spent sixhours in a standoff. During thisentire period, police never soughtor obtained a search warrant.The Court held that the suspectcould never have fled the scene,and at no time was the safety ofthe officers or others in the imme-diate area threatened, nor wasthere a likelihood that evidencewould be destroyed. Warrantlesssearch justification argumentswere thus rejected in that case.

An argument could be madethat Watertown homeowners con-sented to have their homes besearched. To show that there wasvalid consent to search, the resi-dents must have given their con-sent voluntarily, involving no coer-cion or custody, making a rea-soned decision on their part, withknowledge that they could refusethe search, and the residentsmust have had proper authority togive consent. But the govern-ment order for all residents inWatertown, Cambridge andBoston to stay indoors certainlysounds like coercion, since resi-dents were forced to stay in theirhomes. Residents whose homeswere entered by police with drawnautomatic weapons had little realchoice but to allow their entry.This is not true consent but a dan-gerous deprivation of liberty.

Under both the FourthAmendment and Article XIV, pro-tections from unreasonablesearches and seizures are sacro-sanct and should be avoidedwhenever possible to comply withthe law. Therefore, it is impera-tive that police departments inWatertown, Cambridge, Boston

and elsewhere better coordinatetheir multi-jurisdiction communi-cation, cooperation and chain ofcommand protocol. When the hotpursuit of the fleeing allegedbomber crossed law enforcementjurisdictions, such as fromCambridge to Watertown, therewas confusion regarding whichpolice department would take thelead for search logistics purposes.The state police only took chargeas head of investigations aftermultiple local police departmentsattempted over many hoursunsuccessfully to locate andapprehend the suspect.

Interdepartmental police forcecommunication may also havebeen compromised because of“stepped on” communicationsfrom multiple dispatchers. Whendangerous events unfold quicklyand cover large areas of the com-munity across municipal lines, it ischallenging to know which policedepartment is actually in chargeof search and seizure operations.The establishment of transparentand reviewable police procedurein such instances would beinvaluable to streamline not onlysuch missions, but to protect thepublic at large from both perpetra-tors and the police. This may not

prove easy given the time it wouldtake to pre-plan such operationscomprehensively, as well aspotential disputes betweendepartments over logistics man-agement, but it can be done, andit needs to be done, immediately,to prevent the recurrence of sucha damaging incident whichharmed so many Watertown resi-dents.

The lessons of the Watertownlockdowns are still being learnedtwo years later. It is important thatwe in the community, especiallylawyers, legal workers and com-munity activists, continue to edu-

cate ourselves and others as tosearch and seizure law and toknow and defend our most vitalcivil and human rights againstunreasonable searches andseizures by powerful and at timesoverzealous government officials.

Were the Watertown Lockdowns Lawful?Continued from page 7

The article is a collaboration of alaw student and members of theNLG-Mass Chapter LitigationCommittee. Erica Francisco-Lau,a law student at New EnglandSchoold of Law, providedresearch support on this article.

Watertown streets on April 19, 2013. (Photo by Gabe Camacho.)



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which frightened us residentsand our children. We wereall “asked” to stay indoors. Ihave learned that some peo-ple I know were “asked” atgunpoint not to leave theirhomes, while others were“asked” at gunpoint if theirhomes could be searched.Would you say no with a gunpointed at you?

All that exercise in militarymight proved completely use-less in finding an unarmedyouth who had, it turns out,fled in a straight line to a loca-tion not much more than aquarter mile from where policelast encountered him. Theywere looking in all the wrongplaces. The suspect's carwas apparently not followedwhen he fled Laurel Avenue,

but a huge military presence ofarmed forces, from far andwide, descended onWatertown. Such an exces-sive show, if not use, of force,could easily have resulted inwrongful deaths of law abidingcitizens, and such force didnothing to aid finding the sus-pect. In fact, such force likelyimpeded the finding of the sus-pect. The only place not thor-oughly searched, it seems, iswhere he was hiding.

We the residents ofWatertown have questions.Our questions are fair.Answering them is fair. Wemust have an independentinquiry to secure such answers.

There is a helicopter cir-cling overhead right now. It is00:42 EDT. Why?

Continued from page 6

Watertown, MA

This issue of Mass Dissent analyzes theimpact of the Watertown lockdowns andmore generally considers the troubling ero-sion of the Fourth Amendment and ArticleXIV of the Massachusetts Declaration ofRights. Police militarization devastates somany communities in our nation, especiallythose comprised of poor folks. Instead offacing a single Watertown police officer likeI did 20 years ago, today we increasinglyface police forces in armored vehicles withmilitary grade weapons; police breakingdown doors of small-time drug dealers;police arresting and killing staggering num-bers of young men of color. In order that wedo not devolve more fully into a police state,it is up to all of us to stand up against theseinjustices, and work toward more sustain-able, equitable solutions to societal violence.

- Jonathan Messinger -Editor of this issue of Mass DissentThis article was submitted by

a Watertown resident.

Watertown LockdownsContinued from page 9


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