Lawmakers Want Harsher Penalties for Protests on Highways

Photo: State Rep. Colleen Garry and State Sen. Richard Ross.

Two Massachusetts lawmakers have proposed bills that would increase the penalties for protesters on highways, according to reports.

State Rep. Colleen Garry, a Democrat from Dracut, and State Sen. Richard Ross, a Republican from Wrentham, did so in reaction to Thursday’s protests on Interstate 93, which stalled traffic during Boston’s morning commute and led to 29 arrests.

According to the Lowell Sun, Garry has filed two bills that would amend the state’s “attempted-murder and manslaughter statues to include ‘purposefully causing harm to an individual or killing an individual by blocking access to and/or a public highway or roadway.’”

Thursday’s protesters caused an Easton ambulance transporting a car-crash victim with life-threatening injuries to be diverted from a Level 1 trauma center in Boston to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, police said.

According to the Sun Chronicle, Ross has proposed a bill, “An Act Relative to Preserving Public Safety and Preventing Trespassing on State Highways,” that would up the minimum for trespassing on a state highway without just cause from “a fine not more than $50 or imprisonment not more than three months” to “a fine not less than $5,000 or imprisonment not more than six months.”

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