Anti-Racism Counterprotest Shuts Down "Free Speech" Rally In Boston
Thousands of anti-Nazi counterprotesters flooded Boston Common and marched through the streets earlier today, successfully drowning out and squashing a “free speech” rally attended by about 50 people from right-wing and white supremacist groups, Boston Globe reports.
More than 500 police officers on the Common kept the conservative rally separate from the counterdemonstration, which had visible LGBT representation. When rally attendees ventured outside of the barriers, they were promptly confronted by counterprotesters, shouting, "Shame!" and "Go home!"
Rally attendees ultimately left or were escorted by police out of the Boston Common pavilion, effectively ending their event in under an hour without any of their planned speeches. Counterprotesters danced in celebration and chanted slogans such as, “Hey hey, ho ho! White supremacy has got to go!" and “No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!”
Estimated by some accounts as 40,000 people strong, the counterdemonstration was largely peaceful, but some minor physical altercations with police have been reported. According to a law enforcement official, 20 arrests were made on disorderly conduct and other charges, prompting President Trump to tweet that they were “anti-police agitators.”
The Boston showdown comes one week after hundreds of angry protesters from various white nationalist organizations and other right-wing groups convened in Charlottesville for a “Unite the Right” rally, which was organized in protest of the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a public park. Three people were killed and many others were injured.
The Boston rally, which organizers insist was neither about white supremacy nor Confederate monuments, was nearly canceled following the violence in Charlottesville. “We will not be offering our platform to racism or bigotry,” organizers wrote in a Facebook post earlier this week. “We denounce the politics of supremacy and violence.”
"They have the right to gather, no matter how repugnant their views are," says Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. "But they don’t have the right to create unsafe conditions. They have the right to free speech. In return, they have to respect our city.”
Thousands of protesters are expected to attend rallies this weekend in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in cities across the country.