By Christopher A. Szechenyi, Boston.com Staff, and Associated Press, 03/23/00
Organizers of an anti-biotechnology rally planned for Boston on Sunday say they don't want to spark the kind of window-shattering riots that tore through Seattle in December.
But police must show an equal amount of restraint, they said.
"If they overreact like the Seattle police, everyone is watching," said Jessica Hayes of Northeast Resistance Against Genetic Engineering, one of the protest organizers.
At dueling news conferences today, protest groups and police both outlined their plans for the rally.
The coalition is expecting as many as a 1,000 protesters to attend what they are calling the "Biodevastation" rally in Copley Square and march down Boylston Street toward the Haynes Convention Center, the site of BIO 2000, a five-day biotechnology industry conference.
The conference is expected to draw thousands of scientists, academics and CEOs to discuss advances in genetic engineering.
Overshadowing the debate are fears that strong emotions could lead to violence.
At the city's press briefing, held this afternoon, Mayor Thomas Menino and Police Commissioner Paul Evans promised to be fair toward both protesters and BIO 2000 conference attendees.
Menino said the authorities must uphold the constitutional rights of the protesters to express themselves. But Evans added, "We will not allow individuals to jeopardize public property or public safety."
"It's our job to prepare for the worst," Evans said, adding that he doesn't expect major disruptions. "We don't want to create paranoia. But we would be remiss if we didn't prepare," he said.
Evans said the Police Department has learned that some people who took part in protests at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, which degenerated at times into a pitch battle with police, will be in Boston this weekend.
"All the necessary precautions have been taken," Evans said. The commissioner said members of Seattle's police department had come to Boston two weeks ago to better prepare the local officials to cope with potential problems.
He said the protesting groups have assured the police that they plan a peaceful rally and parade. "Our concern," he said. "is with small groups that may break away and jeopardize lives."
Protest organizers have had two face-to-face meetings with police and have tried to keep them up-to-date about changing crowd estimates, according to Mark Pelletier of the Boston Center for Non-Violent Social Change.
Coalition groups will begin organizing their protest Friday at 8 a.m. at Northeastern University.
At their press conference this morning, coalition members aired their concerns about the booming biotechnology industry.
They say nearly 60 percent of the food in grocery stores today contain genetically engineered ingredients. The altered foods can spark unexpected allergic reactions, increase consumers' resistance to antibiotics and have other adverse affects, Brian Tokar, another of the event's organizers, said.
He called the boom in genetic engineering "an assault on our health and the integrity of our environment."
The opposition to the genetic engineering of foods has gathered momentum as concerns about its affects have spread from Europe and Asia to the United States.
"This is one of the fastest growing movements in years," said Tokar, who works at the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vt.
"It's motivated by concern for the future here on earth and suspicion of corporate power. If all the money being spent on genetic engineering were going into sustainable agriculture and those kinds of pursuits, we all could live more harmoniously."
