Boston Freedom Rally 2012: Where trash is treasured and pot is trash
September 18th, 2012Boston hosts an event every year with a very high attendance. The Boston Freedom Rally began 23 years ago to fight for legalization of marijuana and boasts over 3,000 attendees. One can say that the state’s activists have come a long way; seeing that marijuana became decriminalized in 2008. This year’s Freedom Rally turned out more supporters than ever. The Boston Common was covered in people – I’d say the average age 16-28. It was unfortunately littered like crazy from food wrappers, drink bottles, and more…thankfully they were fully staffed with volunteers to pick up throughout the entire day. But this brings me directly to my point…ironically enough in Boston littering fines can cost around $50 per offense, yet the cops were quick to ignore this un-green action and pay more attention to the other green action that was happening all over.
As the event wrapped up around 6pm the MC of the main performance stage warned attendees that pot was now “illegal”. It was illegal before his announcement but the event’s unwritten rule, that went from 11am-6pm, was that using marijuana on the grounds of the Common would be ignored by the BPD. However, as trash was scattered all over the Commons, I do not recall one person getting a citation for littering, but immediately at 6pm I watched four college-aged girls receive $100 tickets for possessing marijuana. The only justification for this action has to be to make money for the state, because these girls were not bothering or hurting anyone. Why else would the cops be pushed to administer these fines?
Here is a video of the cops writing up the college kids for possessing marijuana. Mind you this video was taken 10 minutes after the festival ended.
My question I gathered from this is why didn’t they make LOADS of money off of the thousands that were littering all over the public area? I predict they could have made much more for their plump government leaders. Don’t get me wrong I don’t believe in having people with guns passing out theft orders for the state, however harming personal property (by littering, leaving dog feces, and cigarette butts all over) is perhaps more justifiable for a fine than smoking a doobie? This may not be a stateless enough solution, however I find this predatory behavior on the pot smokers a symbol of power. The cops want to keep pot as a BAD substance in the limelight. Pot is used by bad people who get in trouble with the cops. That’s the message they insist on sending.
Several environmentalists were in attendance speaking of the looming ecological disasters, yet I didn’t hear anyone mention the fact that the Boston Common looked like a disaster, itself. But before I turn this into a rant about mislead statists, let me just highlight the poor job done by the Boston Police Department. I may speak for myself, or perhaps you agree, but I would much rather see people suffer consequences for littering the ground of which many share, rather than inhaling smoke into bodies that are their own.
Shout out to Mike Cann / MassCANN for putting on a well-attended event which served as a canvass to express the need for the rights to our bodies. Congrats on 23 years; we’ll see you next year!
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