Top Ten Quirky Quotes From Judge McIntyre?s Occupy Boston Eviction Order
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 8th, 2011 5:35 am by HL
Top Ten Quirky Quotes From Judge McIntyre?s Occupy Boston Eviction Order
Suffolk Superior Court Frances A. McIntyre has lifted her temporary restraining order against the eviction of Occupy Boston from Dewey Square. Her decision rests on her conclusion that the occupation of Dewey Square in the shadow of the Boston Federal Reserve is not a symbolic act of speech worthy of First Amendment protection. Here are […]
Occupy Boston in front of the Federal Reserve, on October 2.
Suffolk Superior Court Frances A. McIntyre has lifted her temporary restraining order against the eviction of Occupy Boston from Dewey Square. Her decision rests on her conclusion that the occupation of Dewey Square in the shadow of the Boston Federal Reserve is not a symbolic act of speech worthy of First Amendment protection. Here are the top ten quirkiest quotes from the judge’s ruling:
10. “The act of occupation, this court has determined as a matter of law, is not speech”
9. “The plaintiffs’ occupation of Dewey Square to the effective exclusion of others is the very antithesis of their message that a more just and egalitarian society is possible”
8. “While it is surely true that any person who chooses to make a speech or carry a placard at Dewey Square would find a hospitable audience, parents with young children, vendors, and wheelchair-bound people cannot access this space as presently used.”
7. “The Conservancy in enacting and enforcing rules is effectively acting as a governmental agency”
6. “Municipalities across the country have responded in kind to the act of occupation, frequently by police force. I take that as showing that the act of occupation is not understood to communicate plaintiffs’ intended message of egalitarian democracy”
5. “There is little likelihood that Occupy Boston’s professed message can be understood by their act of occupation, either. It has not generally been perceived as benign by those occupied”
4. “The media has clearly understood the plaintiffs’ contribution to the national conversation”
3. “The court has been informed that the plaintiffs wish to import a stainless steel sink and fireproof tent onto the site. As should be clear from this opinion, they are not entitled to do so.”
2. “Here, the Federal Reserve Bank is not the intended audience”
1. “The plaintiffs are permitted to camp on the Harbor Islands in Boston”
Although not as bizarre as some of the other quotations, the judge’s finding about the Conservancy is telling. The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is a private corporation run by a board of Boston’s one percent — wealthy financiers, corporate lawyers, and real estate investors. The judge has explicitly found that the control of public space has been explicitly transferred to this private corporation, which makes rules and regulations in place of a democratic government.
Update
The Boston Phoenix finds the most chilling sentence in the decision: “Little in the way of expression is outlawed under the United States Constitution, but an act which incites a lawful forceful response is unlikely to pass as expressive speech.”
Corporate Tax Dodging Has Cost States More Than $42 Billion In Revenue Over The Last Three Years
ThinkProgress has documented the repeated tax dodging of large corporations, some of which, like GE, have gone entire years without paying taxes despite hauling in massive profits. Now, that phenomenon has spread to the states, where many corporations have largely avoided paying state corporate income taxes despite growing profits. Some companies, like DuPont, avoided state […]
DuPont would rather sponsor race cars than pay taxes
ThinkProgress has documented the repeated tax dodging of large corporations, some of which, like GE, have gone entire years without paying taxes despite hauling in massive profits. Now, that phenomenon has spread to the states, where many corporations have largely avoided paying state corporate income taxes despite growing profits. Some companies, like DuPont, avoided state taxes altogether, paying nothing from 2008 to 2010 even as its profits piled up.
But DuPont wasn’t alone. According to a study from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 68 corporations avoided state taxes entirely for at least one year from 2008 to 2010, costing state governments at least $42.7 billion, as the New York Times reports:
To gauge how much Fortune 500 companies are paying in corporate income taxes, the study looked at the 265 of them that are both profitable and disclose their state tax payments. It found that 68 reported paying no state corporate taxes in at least one year between 2008 and 2010. All together, the study found that the companies reported $1.33 trillion in domestic profits from 2008 to 2010, but paid states only about half of what they would have if they had paid at the average corporate income tax rate of all states — reducing their state taxes by some $42.7 billion.
As the Times notes, the share of state revenues coming from corporate taxes has steadily declined since 1980, from about 10 percent then to less than 6 percent now. And despite Republican rhetoric calling for lower corporate taxes on the national level, America’s rate there remains low as well. Corporations continue to sit on huge amounts of cash without investing in job creation, but GOP politicians and corporate leaders have called for even larger tax giveaways.
Meanwhile, the lost tax revenue would have gone a long way toward plugging budget holes that were instead filled by cutting education, social services, and programs that helped states’ most vulnerable and needy residents.
