State Rep. Betty Poirier usually has little trouble getting to the Statehouse in Boston on time, but Thursday morning was another matter with protesters blocking the Southeast Expressway.
The group was protesting the recent killings across the country of unarmed black men by police.
Poirier said she was on her way into Boston when she realized she needed an alternate route.
Google Maps guided her through the Blue Hill Reservation on the Canton-Milton line, but then a road she needed to take was blocked by state police.
She got back on the Expressway after police had cleared the road, and entered the highway north of the protest.
Traffic the rest of the way was extremely heavy, but moving, she said.
Poirier might have been one of the lucky ones, however.
Thousands of commuters came to a stop for hours as the protest tied up traffic for miles.
State police shut down Interstate 93 North at East Milton Square south of the city, and I-93 South at Mystic Avenue north of the city.
Two of the four northbound lanes at East Milton Square reopened to traffic and all the southbound lanes were reopened just after 8 a.m.
Police needed power saws to free some people who had chained themselves to the barrels.
Twenty-nine protesters were arrested by state police.
The Boston contingent of Black Lives Matter said in a statement that the protest was intended “to confront white complacency in the systemic oppression of black people in Boston.”
“Our nonviolent direct action is meant to expose the reality that Boston is a city where white commuters and students use the city and leave, while black and brown communities are targeted by police, exploited and displaced,” organizer Katie Seitz said in a statement.
State Rep. Paul Heroux, D-Attleboro, was one of those stuck in traffic near Route 24 before the Expressway begins.
He said he was about to turn around and take the Turnpike into Boston, when traffic loosened up about 10:20 a.m.
His travel companion, Paul Jacques, a firefighter union official, said a friend texted him that he had pulled his car over and took the train into Boston because the traffic was so bad.
If the protesters were looking to win support for their cause, it backfired among state officials.
State Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, said the protesters endangered the lives of themselves, the police and commuters.
“That’s irresponsible. There is always a time and place to make a statement, but this put lives at stake,” he said.
Timilty noted that ambulances going to Boston hospitals could be tied up in traffic and endanger their patients.
“In the end, I think they hurt their cause, rather than helped it,” Poirier said.
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