"The traffic shutdown, affecting hundreds of thousands of commuters, is the central and most controversial piece of a security plan that includes closing the airspace over the city even to traffic-spotting helicopters - who would presumably have plenty to report - and closing a triangle of streets next to the Fleet Center to nonemergency vehicles."
A quirky little note about the "triangle of streets" closed during the convention. If you look at any map of the street closures you will see how bizarrely asymmetric the closure pattern is. For example, you can get quite close to Fleet Center from the west/northwest but 6-8 blocks away in another direction will be closed to the public (democratic convention credentials necessary). The area closed coincides with a bar/restaurant district, so are the Democrats just trying to get themselves really good places in bars and restaurants??
Also, the official protest pen is in that weird area too. I plan on going down a few times to take pictures of the absurdities (I work nearby). The protest pen has two 12 foot high fences! What kind of security is that for the protestors (if anything bad happens its fencing and squash for the protestors).
A lot of protests will happen outside of this area for the obvious reasons.
But, the whole thing (not just the cop issue) has been badly botched. It is nothing like the lead up to the 96 Dem convention in Chicago that was pretty positive (except for the protestors). The "security" planning does not seem to have anything to do with security but mainly the result of weird compromises between Republicans trying to piss off the public so that Dems get the blame and Boston Dems trying to make the region bear the social costs.
Employers have been using a lot of heavy handed methods to get people to "volunteer" to take vacation that week. That has caused some anger.
There is a huge backlash against the distributional issues surrounding the convention. The highway closures mean suburban cities and police face the costs and headaches rather than the city itself. The policy of randomly searching bags on the subway (even when the train goes nowhere near the Fleet Center) has been widely derided. Note, that no motorist will be randomly searched. Also, anyone who wants to evade this security can easily do so (so it really is not about security--what is it about?).
Other unions are also picketing and have caused some delegations to cancel parties (Maine I know about). Most unions are focused on getting a fair deal for their members, but the police seem mostly interested in embarassing Menino (the mayor). After all, the state cuts are a major source of the city budget shortfalls and they have done no picketing against state decision makers. Nearly all unions (police unions of course did not show) have demonstrated against the state leaders when those cuts were made 2 years ago.
Also, the cops already picketed the Fleet Center during construction prep. I was down there when the cops were angrily and viciously yelling "scab!" at the majority of construction workers who crossed (this is a little known story with all the hubbub, the construction workers nearly all crossed the picket lines of the police--afterall it is not too many years ago when the police savagely beat construction workers protesting a non-union constructed KMart going up). It was a very tense and bizarre scene. I have no problem honoring a police union picket (there are cops in my SEIU local) and think it is a good thing that Kerry did not address the Mayor's Conference when the police put up a picket; but I certainly do not blame the construction workers who had signed a "no-strike" clause for crossing either).
Jim