In Their Own Words: Video and Voices of #OccupyBoston from Saturday's Police Crackdown

20 MORE PHOTOS: Police Arrest over 140 #OccupyBoston Protesters

1. The media department of OccupyBoston provided us with a minute-long reel of video footage (below) evidently shot from within the Greenway as the police moved in to break up the encampment. We're presenting it as-is -- the provenance of the material is unclear to us, although we believe it to have been shot and edited by OccupyBoston volunteers. (We've emailed OB for clarification but didn't immediately hear back. The Associated Press has also posted this clip on its YouTube page under the heading "Raw Footage" -- it would be odd for them to post someone else's video this way.) If this was, as we believe, shot and edited by OcupyBoston, it warrants a disclaimer: this is essentially a work of propoganda. (Which is as it should be: the Boston Police have been quoted in every mainstream media outlet as saying an officer was punched in the face. Haven't yet seen a quote from the BPD about pushing unarmed protesters around.) 

In this footage, the police can be seen manhandling several protesters -- but, to be fair, we don't get to see any of the action that precipitates these snippets. Also, the crying young woman at the end is a little much -- especially for a group that's been vocal about avoiding gender stereotypes. We say all of this not to minimize what happened on Tuesday morning -- we were there, we saw what happened -- but to do our independent-media duty to remind our readers and listeners that constructed meaning takes place everywhere. (Yesterday, on WGBH's "Greater Boston," Emily Rooney dismissed the notion that this video is evidence of police brutality -- although you should watch the clip anyway to see what our Chris Faraone has to say.)

It's also worth mentioning that this is, by far, the best footage to emerge from the showdown, and that we hope the Occupation will release a longer cut: 

2. Last night's #OccupyBoston General Assembly -- the first since Tuesday morning's crackdown -- wasn't livestreamed, as most of the previous GAs have been. But luckily the good folks at OPEN MEDIA BOSTON were on hand to record over an hour's worth of the session, which includes a reading of the press release put out by OccupyBoston, as well as time for participants to have their say about what went down on the Greenway. We're big fans of what OMB has been doing; keep checking out //www.openmediaboston.org/ for daily updates.