Is Worcester breaking Open Meeting Law by going virtual? What the AG's office says
The city hall itself will be closed to the public at 5 p.m., per the notification.
In a statement released on Tuesday morning, Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said that the change in venue is due to 'threats of violence' made to elected and city officials.
Petty said tensions in the city have been high since a Brazilian woman was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Eureka Street last Thursday.
Following the incident, the 'events of the last few days ... have been deeply disturbing and raised many questions,' the mayor said. 'As a result, many people — regardless of their viewpoint — are frustrated and angry.'
'Unfortunately, elected and city officials have received threats of violence,' Petty continued. 'City employees and department heads have also faced threatening calls and emails. It is important to remember that the people that keep city hall alive are just that — they are people. Employees have shared concerns about their safety."
The announcement of the change in venue was made public less than 48 hours before the meeting, raising the question as to whether the city violated the state's Open Meeting Law.
Guidance on holding meetings remotely under a continuation of COVID-19 measures in Massachusetts reads that meetings, including meeting locations, need to be posted at least 48 hours in advance — that's true even if the meeting is taking place remotely.
Section 20 of the law states that, except in the case of an emergency, 'a public body shall post notice of every meeting at least 48 hours prior to the meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.'
According to the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, a public body, in this case the city council, is allowed to change venues and post an amended notice at least 48 hours in advance.
However, if a meeting location is changed less than 48 hours in advance, the public body needs to provide the public with sufficient notice of the location change.
Additionally, a public body should also publicize the location through whatever channels it uses to communicate with the public, according to the Attorney General's office.
Examples of these channels include automated email notifications, social media platforms and online messaging boards, according to the Attorney General's office.
The public body must also be able to provide a rapid response to any email or phone inquiries from the public about meeting access.
Monday's announcement of the venue change was publicized by the city on social media platforms such as X, Instagram and Facebook.
On the city's website, a notification about Tuesday's meeting is highlighted at the top of the webpage. Clicking on the notification will bring the viewer to the full statement from the city along with a Zoom link, access code and telephone number to call into the meeting.
'In order to ensure active public engagement, remote participation for both meetings is available through at the City Council's Zoom link,' the statement reads.
A protest at City Hall against the actions of ICE and the Worcester Police Department is set to take place on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
The protesters will demand that the city council request City Manager Eric D. Batista write a new policy for the Worcester Police Department that would prevent them from becoming involved in ICE operations, according to organizer Jim Miller of Worcester.
Protesters had planned to attend the city council meeting in person and speak during the meeting's public comment period, Miller said.
He confirmed to MassLive on Tuesday that the protest is still on for 5:30 and that some rally members will speak at the city council meeting remotely.
Worcester judge sets trial date for woman detained by ICE on separate charge
Worcester mayor says council meeting will be remote due to 'threats of violence'
Worcester City Council meeting to be held virtually 'due to public safety concerns'
Read the original article on MassLive.
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USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
He lived an immigrant's nightmare. One problem: He's a citizen, got his arrest on video
Caught on video: Federal ICE officials detained US citizen, others for hours after stopping landscaping crew, pulling them from van and tasing one. PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida ‒ Kenny Laynez's cellphone camera captured every undocumented immigrant's nightmare on video when he was arrested. One problem: He is a U.S. citizen. The video, shot May 2, showed Florida Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents stopping the 18-year-old landscaper and his three coworkers ‒ one of them his mother ‒ as they drove past luxury buildings to a job. The camera captured officers dragging his coworkers out of their van by their necks and twisting Laynez's arms and pushing him face down to the pavement. The video also recorded an officer shooting one of Laynez's coworkers with a Taser, saying he had resisted arrest. 'I have rights. I was born and raised here," Laynez told the officers, according to a copy of the video shared by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of Lake Worth Beach. "You don't have any rights here. You are a 'Migo,' brother,' the officer said, referring to his ethnicity. He hurried the 18-year-old into a van. Laynez was released from a Riviera Beach federal facility six hours later, with the video still on his cellphone. His coworkers, including the one who was tased, were undocumented and weren't as fortunate. They were transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami. Laynez said they are free on bail but fear they will be arrested if they show up in court. Deportations accelerate: Shock and anger: Florida immigrant communities react to 'Operation Tidal Wave' The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, recently interviewed Laynez and made multiple attempts to contact FHP, ICE and Border Patrol for comment about the incident and the body-camera footage, as well as multiple requests for copies of the arrest reports. None of them responded. Laynez said he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction without violence simply to get the incident over with. He entered a pretrial diversion program on June 4. The state will drop the charges July 30 if he completes the program by then. "They treated us like dogs they picked up in the street," Layzez said. "They are just pulling over people and kidnapping people who are hard-working." "We are not criminals. We were just heading to work." Trump at 'Alligator Alcatraz': Facts on Florida Everglades immigration detention center ICE arrests spread fear among immigrants Videos like Laynez's showing federal agents arresting day laborers have left immigrant families across Palm Beach County and the rest of the country in fear. Even families in which some members are documented have laid low, sometimes not going to school or church. West Palm Beach attorney Jack Scarola has reviewed Laynez's footage and has talked with him about the incident. He said the footage shows how FHP and Border Patrol agents are under "extreme pressure" to meet daily arrest and deportation quotas and that the response has led to a "reckless disregard" of the rights of both undocumented and legal immigrants and even the rights of U.S. citizens. 'All of us should be not only offended, but outraged by that misconduct,' Scarola said. 'And if we fail to appropriately respond to that outrageous disregard of the civil rights of others, all of our civil rights are in serious jeopardy.' Stopped while heading to work Kenny Laynez was born in 2005 at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach to a Guatemalan single mother who is in the U.S. legally but is not a citizen. He attended Palm Beach Lakes High School and got a job at the landscaping company where his mother drove crews to work sites. Neither Laynez nor his mother works for the company any longer. Laynez said he and his mother met two coworkers on May 2 at a gas station and drove to a landscaping job near North Palm Beach. The coworkers, Esdras and Marroquin, are undocumented but neither had criminal records, Laynez said. The Post is withholding their last names to protect their families. Although his mother wasn't speeding, just after they crossed the bridge on Singer Island, they heard a police siren. An officer rolled down a tinted window and signaled to her to pull over. The officer asked where they were headed. Laynez said they were going to work and the officer took his mother's license and the truck's registration and insurance. The officer returned and said his mother's license was suspended, to all their surprise. Laynez said he asked the officer why he pulled them over. He didn't see how the officer could have known his mother's license was suspended by running the company truck's license plate. Laynez said the officer asked if they were "illegal." Laynez said they were not and asked what that had to do with the license. A van pulled up and more armed agents swarmed the truck. A female officer approached his window and ordered them in Spanish to shut off their phones. Laynez said that at that moment, he started recording with his phone instead: "I assumed something was going to happen.' The video of the raid What he captured on video begins with a question. "Who in here is illegal?' The officer asked in Spanish. "Whoever takes longer to answer will get more charges and spend more time in jail.' Esdras, who is seen clenching a towel in his hands, raised his hand. The male agent ordered them to open the door. Laynez grabbed onto the handle. 'Wait, hold up,' Laynez said. 'You don't have the right to do that.' 'I don't have a right?' the officer said with a laugh. He reached inside the car and popped the door open. The video shows an agent grabbing Marroquin by the hair and placing his neck in the crook of his arm. Another agent pulled Esdras, called Kevin by his coworkers, by the leg and tightened his hands around his neck. The video then shows Laynez stepping out of the car, but an officer who had ordered him to get on the ground pushes him from behind, twisting his arms and kneeling him to the pavement. Esdras stood rigidly as three officers tried to force him to the ground. They told him in English to lie down, while Laynez urged him in Spanish not to resist. 'Aye! What are you doing? That is not how you arrest people,' Laynez said. The video shows an officer pulling out a yellow Taser and firing twice into Esdras' stomach. Laynez saw his body and legs spasm before he slammed onto the pavement, crying. An agent pressed his knee on Laynez's back and forced him face down to the pavement. An officer later ordered Laynez to stand up, but he said he was too scared to move. 'I am not going to get up because you are going to do to me whatever you were doing to Esdras,' Laynez said. 'That is not how you arrest people." 'Be quiet,' an officer said, cutting him off and picking him up. 'I've got the right to talk,' Laynez said. 'I was born and raised here.' 'You have no rights here. You are a 'Migo,' brother," the officer said in a comment Laynez said sounded like racial profiling. Laynez's mother can be heard crying in the background. Video records officers laughing at immigration arrest Laynez's phone continued recording on the sidewalk and captured a conversation between the agents over the next four minutes. 'Once she got the proper spread on him, he was done,' the officer said. "You're funny, bro.' 'It was funny,' an agent said, laughing. 'It was,' another chimed in with laughter. Another agent said more people are resisting their immigration arrests. "They are starting to resist now," an agent said. "We're going to end up shooting someone." On the video, an agent recounted how Laynez said they didn't have the right to come in the door and says: 'I already told you to come out. If you don't come out, I'll pull you out.' 'God damn. Wow,' the officer cheered. 'Nice!' 'Just remember you can smell too with a $30,000 bonus,' another officer chimes in. It was not immediately clear to what bonus the officer referred. On the tape, an officer is heard saying that Laynez's coworker was resisting arrest, so he should be charged. 'He was being a d*** right now. That is why we tased,' an agent said. The phone recording stopped shortly after that exchange, its memory out of storage. The agents confirmed Laynez's mother had legal status and issued her a ticket for driving with a suspended license. Laynez said she told them he was a U.S. citizen and showed them a picture of his Social Security card. They still took Laynez into custody. Laynez said that before leaving, the officers held his mother's driver's license to her face and tore it in half. U.S. citizen spent six hours in detention facility: What he saw Once at the Riviera Beach facility, Laynez said he saw rows of men. Most spoke Spanish and wore construction clothes like his own. Two looked like they were his age, 17 or 18. Laynez said he appeared to be the only one inside the packed room who spoke English. He said the men told them they had been detained for hours without water or food. Laynez wanted to use the bathroom, but the only toilet available was out in the open, without any doors or covers. After almost four hours, the female officer who detained them took Laynez to a room and asked for his date of birth three times, even though he had already written it down for another officer. Finally, she came out with a ziplocked bag with his phone, wallet and headphones. In Spanish, she asked him to unlock it. Laynez said she told him she needed to see if he had filmed videos of the arrest. Laynez said he unlocked his phone, closed all his apps and locked it again. He said he declined to open it and set it down on the table. He said she told him they would wait in that room until he opened it. She asked again for his date of birth. Laynez said he trembled. That was his password. Laynez said the officer threatened to press charges if he didn't unlock his phone, but then a person who appeared to be a supervisor interrupted them. Laynez said the supervisor said Laynez wasn't supposed to be in that room because he is a U.S. citizen. The supervisor took Laynez's fingerprints and said it was only to leave a record that he had been in the facility. Then he told Laynez he couldn't leave without signing some paperwork and that he would have to show up in court. "What did I do?' Laynez said he asked while signing. "I didn't do anything. Why do I have to present myself in court?' The arrest report said Laynez was being charged with nonviolent police obstruction. In a copy of the report that Laynez provided to The Palm Beach Post, officers wrote that Esdras had resisted his arrest. Laynez is not mentioned. After six hours, Laynez said he walked out the door of the Riviera Beach building and ordered an Uber home. He had almost 100 missed calls from his mother. Laynez said the footage of the arrests haunts him, but he doesn't regret filming. "I would basically have nothing, no evidence,' Laynez said. 'And no one would believe what happened or how they escalated the situation. "There might be even more happening that is not being recorded."
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Pope Leo says migrants and refugees can bring light and aspiration from dark corners of the world
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New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Leaders of Canada's ‘Freedom Convoy' facing up to eight years in prison: ‘political vengeance'
The leaders of Canada's 'Freedom Convoy' are facing up to eight years in prison, an 'abusive' sentencing recommendation critics are ripping as 'political vengeance.' Tamara Lich and Chris Barber sat in an Ottawa courtroom for their sentencing hearings this week after being found guilty in April of mischief for organizing the trucker protest against then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ultra-strict vaccine mandate. 4 At the height of the protest, thousands of trucks joined in to push back against COVID mandates. REUTERS The protest paralyzed the Great White North's capital for three weeks in 2022. The Crown is seeking seven years for Lich, 51, of Alberta, and eight for Barber, of Saskatchewan — who was also found guilty of counseling others to disobey a court order. 'It seems like a considerable overreach,' Lich told The Post Friday, during a stop on her three-day drive back to Alberta. 'They're trying to deter others, I believe, from ever protesting something like this again.' Prosecutors are also pushing to seize Barber's truck, 'Big Red,' which was used in the protest — through a forfeiture order they filed three years after the fact. 4 Prosecutors want to seize Barber's truck. Chris Barber "Big Red" official /Facebook 'I've owned this truck for 21 years,' said Barber, 50, who runs a family trucking business and co-owns 'Big Red' with his son. 'This is how I make a living. And the Crown wants to remove that from me and destroy it, which is absolutely disheartening to see that they will go to such a level of vileness.' 'It's just this vindictive vendetta of pettiness,' Lich added. 4 Lich was one of the organizers of the 'Freedom Convoy.' REUTERS Barber's lawyer slammed the Crown's sentencing recommendation as 'excessive, abusive and unconstitutional.' Both Lich and Barber have been under bail conditions for the past three and a half years. 'This is political vengeance, not actual justice, and it's why trust in our institutions is dwindling,' fumed Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman. 4 The protest lasted close to a month during the winter of 2022. Getty Images The convoy started in revolt of Trudeau's vaccine mandate for US-Canada cross-border truckers — but quickly grew into a mass demonstration against the government's excessive COVID-19 restrictions. 'The Freedom convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates,' President Trump said at the time. Lich and Barber are set to be sentenced on Oct. 7, with their lawyers pushing for absolute discharges, which would absolve them of any criminal record.
