Screen grab by TurtleBoySports.com
Boston reporters went to the homes of several Boston area protesters who were arrested for blocking highways on Thursday. What they found were adult children playing revolutionary while living with their rich parents.
A reporter for WBZ-TV, Ken MacLeod was run off a property while seeking to interview protesters. At another he was told he was harassing the protester he was seeking to interview by ringing her apartment call box.
“WBZ-TV’s Ken MacLeod went to (Mark) Schwaller’s apartment in Jamaica Plain hoping for some perspective. He didn’t get that but he did get tossed by another man there.
““I need you to leave our property immediately,” the man said. “I’m sorry that’s all I have to say.”
“In Somerville, MacLeod buzzed the apartment door of protester Nicole Sullivan. On the intercom, a man said, “This is harassment please leave.”
“WBZ also went to the upscale Brookline home where protester Jim Billman lives with his parents.
““He’s not here actually,” a female voice said through the door. “He’s not giving any interviews. Please go away.””
Protest co-leader Noah McKenna gave brief separate interviews to MacLeod and a crew from WRKO-AM at his father’s house in Jamaica Plains. McKenna, who has his hair braided in long dreadlocks, answered the door wearing gym shorts, sandals and a zippered sweat shirt.
The crew from WRKO reported McKenna looked and smelled like a dirty hippie:
“…there was a little bit of a hot scent in the air.”
McKenna is an Occupy protest veteran according to reports.
McKenna was seen in photos of Thursday’s protest lying in I-93 with an arm locked in a 55 gallon drum.
An ambulance carrying a seriously injured elderly man was blocked from reaching a trauma center. McKenna blew off concerns about the man’s well-being according to WHDH-TV:
“Police and fire complained because an ambulance couldn’t get to a trauma center in Boston.
“Sean McGrath’s 83-year-old father was in that ambulance with serious head and chest injuries.
““I’m pissed! I understand what their cause is for, but there’s better ways there has to be better ways,” McGrath said.
“When asked about the diverted ambulance, McKenna was unapologetic.
““I think it should be known that we did notify emergency personnel at the earliest possible time. We feel that our role in the traffic situation yesterday was justified by the importance of our cause,” he said.”
Amazingly McKenna’s father was quoted approving of his son’s actions on Thursday. Tim McKenna spoke to the Boston Globe:
“In Jamaica Plain, the father of one of the protesters, 28-year-old Noah McKenna, described his son as someone who has a strong sense of social justice and is trying to do the right thing.
““I want him to be safe. I want him to not hurt people, and to be peaceful,” Tim McKenna said from the front door of his home. “I support him.”
“Tim McKenna said he did not know much about the protest.”
Lawyers for people trapped in the traffic-blocking protest might want to look in to not only suing the protesters but also their deep-pocket supportive parents like Tim McKenna. WRKO reported houses in McKenna’s neighborhood are listed at Zillo in the $1.5 million range.
