There are almost always people on or around the Battle Green, no matter the time of year.
Visitors come to check out the location of the ‘shot heard round the world’, which sparked the American Revolution. The town’s Historical Commission gives tours of the historical sites in Lexington Center, including a few stops along the famous Green. And demonstrators have long gathered on the apron in front of the Captain Parker Statute (also known as the Minuteman statue) at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Bedford Street to spread their messages.
Protestors are often seen at that intersection and not in the middle of the Green because the town requires them to get a permit two weeks before hosting a rally on the grass, according to the Battle Green use regulations from 2018. More often than not, demonstrations are planned more spontaneously than that.
This spring, the town reconstructed the traffic island at the intersection in front of the statue and made a new crosswalk to connect people on Massachusetts Avenue to the Green as a part of the Battle Green Streetscape Project. The new crosswalk empties walkers in front of the Captain Parker statue.
Members of the Lexington Police Department worry the frequent demonstrations held in front of the Captain Parker statue, paired with the location of the new crosswalk, could create a public safety issue if crowds are large and people are forced to overflow into the street.
“And we would have major concerns if another group was to come up in opposition,” Lexington Police Captain John Mazerall noted during the Select Board’s June 9 meeting.
The police suggested the Select Board edit the 2018 rules by defining what the Battle Green encompasses. As it is, the rules do not make that distinction.
LPD proposed the Board define the Battle Green as “the public green space enclosed by the full curb cut triangle formed by Massachusetts Avenue, Bedford Street, and Harrington Road, including all grassy areas and walkways within that boundary and the apron in front of the Captain Parker Statue.” By including all of those areas, protestors would be required to get a permit in advance to demonstrate on the apron in front of the statue.
“Requiring permits is a bit of a limitation or a hurdle for free speech,” Select Board member Jill Hai said during the Select Board’s June 9 meeting.
“I would recommend that Lexington, being the birthplace of American liberty, should not be perceived as making it harder for residents to exercise their first amendment freedoms,” Select Board member Mark Sandeen said.
Lexington residents, too, found the suggestion a barrier to the first amendment right.
“If Tiananmen Square taught the world anything it’s this: when a government, national or local, decides peaceful protest is too inconvenient, it’s already too far comfortable with suppressing dissent,” Lexington resident Linda Patch said during the Board’s meeting.
Mazerall argued it’s safest for demonstration groups to obtain a permit from the town before gathering. That way, the police can know how many people will be at a protest and devise a plan with the group’s organizer to keep everyone safe in the event of an emergency.
Other Board members agreed that enforcing permits for the area would create a hurdle for the public to exercise their right to assemble.
“I feel very uncomfortable with placing restrictions the way it’s being drafted right now, I think we need to figure out a way to balance safety needs…without taking away the ease of using the Captain Parker statue and that location for public demonstrations,” Select Board member Vineeta Kumar piled on.
Select Board Member Joe Pato suggested the town allow demonstrators to have a few feet of the grassy area around the Captain Parker statue to overflow onto without obtaining a permit. That would relieve the safety concern of people flooding into the street.
“I’m looking for something that addresses real safety concerns but does not inhibit the ability for us to see our fellow residents be able to express themselves in a very clear location that might amplify their voice,” he said. “If we need to restrict a couple of feet away from the curbs, fine, and let’s grant a few more feet elsewhere so it isn’t as crowded.”
A frequent protestor from Lexington, Jessie Steigerwald, liked Pato’s idea. She said it would be helpful to have some more transparency on where protestors can and can’t stand during the Board’s meeting.
“We do need clarification,” Steigerwald, who is also a Town Meeting member, said. “It’s hard as an organizer to tell people, ‘don’t stand there’.”
Seventeen residents emailed the Board ahead of its June 9 meeting, expressing concern that making protestors get permits to gather in front of the statue would limit their right to free speech, Doug Lucente, chair of the Select Board noted.
“We do hear you, we do see those, we do read those, and we do appreciate all the passion and the historical awareness that continues to shape Lexington on a daily basis,” Lucente said. “It’s something we, as Lexingtonians, all take pride in.”
The Board decided to create a small working group, led by members Pato and Hai, to gather public input before re-writing the rules. They asked residents for suggestions in the town’s “Link to Lexington” newsletter on Monday.
The rules likely won’t be adjusted until August, Pato told the Observer. Residents who want to share their input or suggestions can email selectboard@lexingtonma.gov.
Background
The Green has a rich history of hosting protests.
Most famously, it’s where the Battle of Lexington took place in 1775, which sparked Americans’ fight for independence from Britain. In 1971, Vietnam veterans planned to camp out on the Battle Green without permission, as an act of civil disobedience in protest of the war. The police arrested 410 people, including protest leader John Kerry, who later served as Secretary of State in former President Barack Obama’s administration. And more recently, the Oath Keepers, a far-right antigovernment group, formally launched its organization on Lexington’s Battle Green during Patriots’ Day celebrations in 2009.
This year, Lexington has seen dozens of protest groups, including the local “No Kings” group, supporters of Ukraine, and Lexington’s “Hands off” group, spreading their messages in front of the Minuteman statue.
“The Captain Parker statue represents the beating heart of our town’s history,” Toby Sackton, a Lexington resident and organizer of the pro-democracy demonstration group, Lexington Alarm, said during the meeting. “Our resistance to tyranny today is deeply grounded in history, and reflects the values the Minutement defended on the Battle Green.”
Lexington resident Clarence LaBonte urged the Select Board to remember the rich history of demonstration on the Green when deciding how to amend the rules.
“The minute we put any restriction on or give anyone the power to control our ability to speak, then we are in a downhill crime,” Lebonte said during the Board’s June 9 meeting. “I have to remind people, [a police officer] arrested John Kerry for trespassing. Well that showed how it projected John Kerry into national prominence, so I just want to say to you, be careful who you arrest.”
This is absolutely NOT a day of celebration, but rather a day of mourning. The despicable ‘bill’ that was passed by the repugnants is horrible and harming to America. We are all in a very bad place.
I think that’s why we heard no fireworks last night in the Metrowest area. We are in mourning for the death of American Democracy.
I agree that the Republicans, led by a convicted felon and convicted sex offender, are repugnant. They passed a budget that they know will be bad for their constituents. Rural hospitals will close. People who depend on Medicaid will lose their insurance. The national debt will balloon to levels previously not even imagined.
But I haven’t stopped loving this country because crooked Donnie has turned the government into a wretched hive of scum and villainy. On July 4th I celebrated the idea of the United States, which includes the ideals set forth by our founding fathers. I was absolutely not celebrating the current occupant of the White House or the budget that was passed by his cowardly, pandering sycophants in congress.