Details below. This is a very bizarre story.
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What was a TSA air marshal doing at an Occupy camp at 3:40 on a Saturday morning, just an hour before protestors were evicted by Boston police?
Stealing the iPhone of one of the camp’s prominent voices, then slapping her, apparently.
TSA air marshal Adam Marshall was arrested by the Boston police department at 3:50 a.m. on Dec. 10 after he allegedly argued with members of Occupy, called some of them prostitutes, struck one of Occupy’s organizers in the face, grabbed her iPhone and then fled.
Marshall was pursued by some 25 occupiers, according to witnesses, ditching the phone as he ran, and then was arrested by Boston police who were preparing to evict the camp.
Occupy founding organizer Jacks and a few other women from the occupation went to the nearby Intercontinental Hotel looking for a bathroom. This, they say, is where they ran into Adam Marshall.
“This guy intercepted us in the lobby,” said Jacks. “It was odd. He was pleasant, but super animated.”
According to Jacks, he began to antagonize them. They left, returning to the occupy.
“Maybe a half an hour or so later he was standing in the middle of camp,” said Leah Filler, an occupier who was with Jacks. Jacks says she then saw him arguing with some of the occupy musicians, and asked him to leave. Instead of leaving, he called Jacks and her companions prostitutes. Jacks began filming him with her phone, and Marshall responded by grabbing Jacks’ phone, hitting her twice, and running, according to Jacks and the police report.
“Just to be clear this guy followed us here … and called all of us prostitutes,” she narrated while filming him.
Leah Filler, one of the occupiers, was beside Jacks at the time.
“He turned around and grabbed the phone with his right hand, and he hit her with his left hand,” Filler said. With that, he took off running. He was chased by the occupiers and was arrested by Boston police in minutes. He threw her phone into a tent while being chased. Jacks chose to press charges.
“When he was getting into the (police) car he alternated between saying ‘I’m a UMass (University of Massachusetts) student!’ and ‘I’m a federal agent!’,” Jacks said, adding she thought it sounded hilarious at the time. Many of the occupiers, and possibly a few police, laughed at Marshall’s assertion.
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Here is the best clip from Occupy Boston: