DO YOU WANT TO SPEAK TO THE VIOLENCE THAT'S BEEN HAPPENING AT THE PROTESTS? HOW YOU CAN HELP? What we'd like to do is get our publications out to people. We have effective ways of dealing with protests and less effective ways. There have been more than a few occasions where officers didn't do a good job. Our thought is, if you can share best practices, maybe you can avert a bad situation. Anyone who knows us will be the first to say, that's what PERF's role is, to get into the difficult issues and share information, not to direct. We're like a think tank. There isn't an issue we haven't been involved in. I've been involved in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, during the conflicts in the community there. Our work on racially biased policing back when the police were denying it occurred...
The Carnegie Corporation just wrote a result on us called "Results" on our work around immigration. We got police chiefs of Minneapolis, Phoenix, etc. to meet with Eric Holder, and we all said this isn't the role of police to community police.
We do what we can. We know it's getting bigger. We pull people together and ask what did you learn from the Olympics? What did you learn from RNC, DNC? We don't have the resources to help. This is our best shot - to give them what we know and share with them and have them talk to each other. I worked with Ed Davis on the unfortunate deaths at the Celtics, the Red Sox. We are pulled in to help when things happen, and we'll keep doing that when it's the right thing.
Related:
Photos: Occupy Boston on the National Day of Action, With support among police quietly growing, can Occupy cross over the thin blue line?, What are they protesting? Whaddya got?, More 
- Photos: Occupy Boston on the National Day of Action
On November 17, 2011, hundreds of Occupy Boston and MassUniting marchers (labor unions, community organizers; SEUI, Local Ironworkers, Jobs for Justice, and more) took to the city streets again in solidarity with another global day of action.
- With support among police quietly growing, can Occupy cross over the thin blue line?
As Occupy camps from coast to coast face evictions — and in many cases have already been pushed out of parks and plazas like so much human trash — it's clear that the institutional response to the movement is escalating dangerously.
- What are they protesting? Whaddya got?
There are at least 99 reasons to grab a bullhorn this summer.
- Jazz isn't dead
Regarding your report on the end of jazz programming at WGBH ("Gone, gone, gone," Arts and Entertainment, July 13), jazz isn't dead.
- Understanding the Colby College protests
As the first anniversary of Occupy approached, many journalists wrote its obituary, and some called it a failure.
- Colby students join Diamond protests
Protests aimed at ousting disgraced banker Bob Diamond as chairman of Colby College's board of trustees have expanded beyond Occupy Augusta activists to include a sizeable contingent of students at the Waterville liberal-arts college.
- Portland group asks city to create free-speech zone
As officials continue to pressure Maine's Occupy campsites in Portland, Augusta, and Bangor, the Portland Occupation is pushing back.
- We asked Occupy Boston protesters: What Is Your #OccupyXmas Wish?
Since the beginning of the Occupy movement, protesters have broadcast the #NeedsOfTheOccupiers through tweets, Google docs, and camp posters. But besides the bare necessities — food, blankets, first-aid supplies — what do the protesters really want?
- Occupy Wall Street's message
What's everyone so upset about?
- #Occupy Media
The tent villages of the Occupy movement — including those here in Maine — are excellent visual reminders of, and ever-present embodiments of, the social- and economic-justice challenges that our society faces.
- Chomsky to Occupy: move to the next stage
Noam Chomsky has advice for the Occupy movement, whose encampments all over the country are being swept away by police.
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News Features
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, Police, BPD, freedom of speech, protests, Police Brutality, Occupy, Less
