Couple Pics and Scenes from #OccupyBoston First Night Festivities

I hope that the Boston Police Department had a few undercover officers embedded in the Occupy Boston First Night operation. Whoever they sent deep into the heart of last evening's activism would have found a whole mess of juicy goods to bring back to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, which is apparently investigating its local Occupy outpost.

For one, they would have seen a whole bunch of tiny little tents – the kind that Bank of America called the big guns in to evict off their lawn last week. The teeny structures were everywhere, as were a whole bunch of freshly inked t-shirts and bandanas. I'm not sure if free speech protections apply to apparel, but if they don't, then the Occupy Boston Screen Print Guild committed countless crimes last night.

There were also a bunch of “sign drops,” in which Occupiers – get this – hang signs out of windows so that the public can see them. That plus a peace vigil and a slew of other over-the-top dangerous gestures – some of which involved cookies – so as to make a positive impression on a massive crowd that might not know much about them.

Later on, while Occupy Wall Street was getting rowdy, their Boston counterparts engaged in a different sort of spectacle. Starting at 8pm, the Occupy Boston Women's Caucus projected their “bat signal” over Copley Square for all to see, delivering signs of solidarity with activists in other cities, as well as their enduring '99 percent' message, which they're sure to usher into 2012.

In the middle of it all, I saw something that I think sums up the attitude that many Occupy Boston folks hope to bring in the new year. I was speaking with Frank, who ran the food tent down at Dewey Square, when a young Occupier named Josh approached him. “I just want to apologize for any shit that might have gone down back at camp,” said Josh. “Don't even worry about it,” Frank told him. “All that crap is behind us now.”