Boson Mayor Welsh Vows to Reopen City Despite Massachusetts Governor's Lockdown Order
Boson, MASS(AP) — The mayor of the South Shore city announced Thursday that he will allow small businesses to reopen next week in defiance of
the governor’s order that shuttered nonessential businesses to prevent
the spread of the coronavirus.
Boson Mayor Marty Welsh said he's giving businesses permission to reopen on Friday, May 1st. Mayor Welsh is ordering the police force in the city of about 90,000 people on the south bank of the Neponset River to prevent State Police officers from issuing lockdown violation citations or making any arrests or seizure of property.
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“The
governor is oppressing us. Governor Baker is totally oppressing us with his close down orders,” Mayor Welsh said. “Capitalist must have workers making things and moving things and selling things to make money, which is capital. This is a capitalist system. We must create capital. So we
have no choice. So right now, we are reopening. Let State Police come
down here. Capitalism didn't come from God, or a university study, people had to fight to get capitalism. People in Hong Kong are fighting the Communist government for capitalism. So, we have a duty to fight for capitalism, even if people call us 'racists' or 'white nationalists.' As if capitalism has a nation.”
Mayor Welsh made the announcement after 81 businessmen and women held a mass Zoom teleconference video meeting and signed an online petition calling for the reopening of the city that sits on the edge of the Southeast Expressway/Rt93. With close access to shipping lanes in Massachusetts Bay, Boson still has an active seaport.
Gov.Charles Baker announced Wednesday that he’s putting together a
bipartisan group of mayors who will work with her office on plans to
reopen businesses across the state.
"What kind of 'plans' do we need to reopen?" asked Mayor Welsh. "People open and close places of work all the time without the governor acting like the public health dictator who gives the okay."
First-time
lockdown offenders can be given warnings, second citations for the same
offenders are petty misdemeanors with a fine of up to $100 and
third-time violators can be fined up to $5,000.
State officials have not said how many businesses have been cited since Governor Baker imposed the lockdown on March 24.
“I
understand where the mayor is coming from. I get it,” Colonel John Philip of the Massachusetts National Guard said, adding
that he hoped he would not have to put any of his troops lives at risk backing up the State Police when making COVID-19 shut down violation arrests. Col. Philip just returned from Iraq and has intimate knowledge of fighting house to house and setting up bomb proof checkpoints and blast walls around neighborhoods. "I hope we don't have to do it, but we could seal off most of Boson in a 48 hour period. We know how to do it."
Mayor Welsh is a Republican who supports President Trump while Governor Baker is a Republican who is highly critical of Trump and viewed as a pragmatic moderate. But Mayor Welsh does not see Governor Baker as an ally in political struggle.
A bombastic Welsh said, “I’ve
told businesses to call 911 for the Boson Police if State Police show up to their place. We
are going to stop Charlie Baker and his Gestapo,” Mayor Welsh said, referring
to the secret police of Nazi Germany.
The governor's spokeswoman Nora Sackett denounced Welsh for making that comparison.
“To
compare an elected official making difficult decisions to protect the
public health of all Massachusettonians to Hitler is disgusting,” Sackett
said. “We condemn it in the strongest possible manner. The world
recently observed Holocaust Remembrance Day, and to make such a
horrifying and misguided comparison while Commonwealthers are taking action
to protect themselves and their communities from a terrible virus is
beyond the pale. Calling the state government 'public health fascists' or calling Charlie Baker the 'Massachusetts Medical Mussolini' warrant investigation by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination."
Sackett declined to comment on the mayor’s promise to challenge State Police if they try to issue citations.
Cheryl
Pynes, 68, co-owner of the Handbag Lady store in Boson and an oil storage
facility at the waterfront, said small businesses want the right to decide if they should
remain open and how they should run their business.
“I’m still going to follow safety guidelines and do things differently,” Pynes said. “But it’s our Constitutional right.”
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This version corrects that Massachusetts residents are called 'Massachusettsites.'
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