the ridiculous Gazette story

For those of you who can't access the page on the site for some reason, here's the Gazette story I linked in the last entry with the erroneous & biased police POV about our last event & the arrests of protesters that took place there. Remember to check out the last entry for all the latest links on Poverty Is Not A Crime & the BID.
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Rally raised prospect of mass arrests
By JAMES F. LOWEStaff Writer

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
NORTHAMPTON - Anticipating mass arrests during a protest march Friday, city police called in backup from Easthampton and the state police.
In the end, police arrested only two people in the downtown protest, staged to decry a proposed business improvement district.
Police estimated about 40 people took part in the march, which briefly blocked rush hour traffic on Main Street.
Capt. Kenneth A. Patenaude said protest organizers spoke with police ahead of the event, but did not apply for a parade permit or indicate they intended to disrupt traffic.
However, Patenaude said officers responding to the demonstration about 5 p.m. Friday came to believe organizers were contemplating large-scale civil disobedience.
"There was talk of a mass arrest by the people involved in the march, and we didn't have the personnel to handle a mass arrest at that point," he said.
All available on-duty officers were dispatched to the march, as were a handful of state troopers, a state police van, an Easthampton Police officer and cruiser. Off-duty Northampton officers were called in to handle other calls in the city during the rally, Patenaude said.
According to a report by Sgt. Jody Kasper, many of the marchers were hostile toward the responding police officers, shouting curses and anti-police slogans, taking their pictures and demanding their badge numbers.
The marchers ignored orders to stay on the sidewalk and crossed the main downtown intersection twice, blocking traffic, according to Kasper and an arrest report by Officer Timothy J. Satkowski.
Satkowski alleged one marcher who refused to get out of the road also pushed him. Arturo Castillon-McCarty, 20, of 74 Bridge St., Amherst, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and assault and battery on a police officer. He is identified in court papers as a University of Massachusetts student.
Castillon-McCarty pleaded innocent to the charges Monday in Northampton District Court, and was released on $100 bail. He is due back in court April 16.
Police said they also arrested a 15-year-old boy who is a student at Hampshire College. He was to be charged in Hampshire Juvenile Court with disorderly conduct after ignoring officers' orders to get out of the road, police said.
Some protesters also questioned the construction of a new police headquarters downtown. That proposal will be discussed at a meeting of the Police Station Building Committee Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the Northampton Senior Center.
City councilors voted 8 to 1 earlier this month to support the creation of a business improvement district, also known as a BID. The plan calls for participating downtown property owners to pay for services including landscaping and maintenance, marketing, enhanced public safety and other special projects. The city would also chip in $35,000 annually from parking receipts.
The business district proposal advanced last month after Mayor Clare Higgins tabled a proposed city ordinance to regulate panhandling and solicitation.
Councilors are expected to take a second and final vote on the business district proposal Thursday.