8 Charged In Boat-Tied Protest At Gov. Baker's Swampscott Home

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Members of a group calling itself "Extinction Rebellion Boston" tied themselves to a boat outside of Gov. Charlie Baker's Swampscott home in a climate protest Tuesday morning.

The group posted a photo of the pink boat with the words "CLIMATE EMERGENCY" printed on its side on social media. The group posted that members were "locked in" about 7 a.m.

"We demand climate justice and a declaration of climate and ecological emergency," the group said on its Twitter account. "The time to act is now."

State police said they issued orders for the protesters to "unchain themselves and disperse," but that they refused. Troopers then cut them from the boat and arrested eight people — seven protesters chained to the boat and one more who was on top of the vessel.

Police said the protesters were to be arraigned on trespassing and disorderly conduct charges at Lynn District court.

They were: Gregory Mangan, 69, of Somerville, Gerard Frank, 67, of Dudley, James Comiskey, 31, of Somerville, Jennifer Smith, 47, of Watertown, Dylan Sessler, 27, of Hampstead, New Hampshire, Allen McGonagill, 32, of Somerville, Nora Maynard, 38, of Turners Falls and Alexander Chambers, 23, of Boylston.

The Essex County District Attorney's office said Judge Curran released them on their own recognizance and ordered them to stay at least 100 yards away from Baker's residence, have no direct contact with the governor and not to block the driveway or roadway on Monument Avenue in Swampscott.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Nov. 4.

According to its website, Extinction Rebellion is a "politically non-partisan international movement that uses non-violent direct action to persuade governments to act justly on the climate and ecological emergency."

Lilly Worthley identified herself on a Swampscott community Facebook page as a town resident and part of Tuesday's protest.

"For those saying we should 'bring it to the State House' we have many times," she posted. "We've spoken at town halls and public hearings and taken every official pathway we can to stop these dangerous projects and still do.

"Governor Baker ignores us at every turn and these issues are too important for the future of our state and planet to drop. He needs to listen and unfortunately has refused to, which is why we forced him to listen this morning."

Among the group's "demands" are for governments to declare a climate emergency, to act immediately to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gases to net-zero by 2025, to move "beyond politics" and transfer power on climate decisions to a "Citizens' Assembly" as well as establish "indigenous sovereignty and remediation led by and for communities suffering environmental injustice."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)