SWAT Team Called on Tea Party

Oops! The Quincy Police Department released a bogus statement calling the SWAT Team on the the protesting grandmothers yesterday. Unfortunately, they forgot about the army of videographers that filmed this incident.

The Quincy Police Department released a statement today following the embarrassing incident yesterday when they called in the SWAT squad to quash the peaceful tea party protest outside the convention center during Barack Obama’s visit:

During President Obama’s address, at approximately 1530 hours, the MFFT was deployed. A group of individuals positioned themselves on the south side of York Street near 3rd Street. This was within the area that was to be kept secure at the request of the U. S. Secret Service agents in charge of the site. Prior to the event only ticketed individuals were to be in this area; during the event it was restricted to the general public completely. Secret Service personnel requested these individuals leave the area and to go back to the north side of York Street. They did not comply. Quincy Police Department personnel made the same requests and again they did not comply. At that time the MFFT was deployed to stand post between the individuals and the site and, if necessary, remove the individuals. Once the MFFT was in place, the individuals agreed to move. Once everyone complied and the site was again secure, the MFFT returned to their staging point. No physical force was used during this deployment.

Of course, this ludicrous statement is a complete fabrication. We are currently contacting the police department to retract their statement. We strongly object to these points.

1. Prior to the event only ticketed individuals were to be in this area; during the event it was restricted to the general public completely.
From the videos below it is clear that the restricted area was not roped off or marked as restricted. The protesters repeatedly checked with the police to make sure that they were not being disruptive.

2. “Secret Service personnel requested these individuals leave the area and to go back to the north side of York Street. They did not comply.”
We have at least three videos below that prove that the protesters asked and double-checked with the police to make sure we were following orders.

3. “Once the MFFT was in place, the individuals agreed to move.”
Once again the video shows that we were already moving from the corner to the middle of York Street before the MFFT marched into place.

Watch videos here and here.