Protestors shut down I-93 near Boston

[PHLBOS]

...and since it is limited-access, there are pictogram signs posted on all on-ramps (older text version here):

An old Central Artery shot; nice.  Note the (Let's Elect)* Whittier, Our Next Governor banner. 
*best guess, it's a tad hard to read on the photo.

[Pete from Boston]

Sumner Gage Whittier (as Massachusetts a name as they come), then Lieutenant Governor, ran for the corner office in 1956.  He lost to Foster Furcolo.

[cbeach40]

If you think Boston commuters are tough, you ain't seen nothin' until you've seen a Pats fan headed for Gillette Stadium.  They'll just run the protesters over.

Ya know, they'd probably be better able to avoid obstacles with their tires properly inflated.

(Sigh.)  It was just a matter of time.

Pats haters gonna hate.

In fairness, I don't particualy care about the NFL or the Pats. It was just the easy joke to make. 

[Alps]

If you think Boston commuters are tough, you ain't seen nothin' until you've seen a Pats fan headed for Gillette Stadium.  They'll just run the protesters over.

Ya know, they'd probably be better able to avoid obstacles with their tires properly inflated.

[Alps]

...and since it is limited-access, there are pictogram signs posted on all on-ramps (older text version here):

An old Central Artery shot; nice.  Note the (Let's Elect)* Whittier, Our Next Governor banner. 
*best guess, it's a tad hard to read on the photo.

Click on the image for a blowup. Let's Make.

[lordsutch]

While of course the protesters in this case (as well as the ones who shut down the Downtown Connector in Atlanta a few weeks before the election, for that matter) have the right to protest, the courts have consistently rules that protests and marches are subject to "reasonable time, place, and manner" restrictions and that governments can regulate large or potentially disruptive gatherings of people to ensure public safety and access to businesses and government buildings. For example, the courts have upheld rules restricting protests immediately outside abortion clinics, and no doubt they would uphold the arrests of those who engaged in these protests.

However, the government cannot discriminate on the basis of viewpoint; so, for example, it couldn't forbid this protest from shutting down I-93 but allow a Tea Party group to march down I-93. Since general blanket restrictions on pedestrians that were implemented for safety reasons* don't discriminate based on one's point of view, again the protesters in this case were rightly arrested and charged with various offenses.

* I leave aside the possibility of a pedestrian restriction implemented to thwart a particular group from espousing its message. For example, if the state of Alabama were to completely restrict pedestrians from crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma after having allowed pedestrians to cross it for the last 75 years, you might be able to argue in court that this was being done to deter or limit expressions of solidarity with the Civil Rights Movement.

[KEVIN_224]

WOW! The name of the guy who was running for State Secretary! Oh...KAY!

All we need now are some group of copy-caters repeating this elsewhere!

To think, I'd have to go by that spot in Milton, MA, should I make the trip from Boston towards Providence.