By Ray Sanchez, CNN (CNN) — Thousands of counterdemonstrators marched Saturday in downtown Boston in response to a self-described free speech rally that had sparked concerns of possible violence.<\/b>
\nBy Ray Sanchez, CNN
(CNN) \u2014 Thousands of counterdemonstrators marched Saturday in downtown Boston in response to a self-described free speech rally that had sparked concerns of possible violence.
The largely peaceful march and rally came one week after racially motivated protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly.
Amid a heavy police presence, men, women and children from diverse backgrounds showed up Saturday morning to march from the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury to Boston Common, the nation\u2019s oldest park.
A Facebook page purportedly linked to the Boston rally sought to distance it from last weekend\u2019s white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville. Counterprotester Heather Heyer, 32, was killed in that college town when a car plowed into a crowd of anti-racism advocates gathered to oppose the \u201cUnite the Right\u201d rally.
A coalition of mostly left-leaning groups and activists such as the Black Lives Matter movement organized Boston\u2019s counterprotest.
Some carried signs with messages such as \u201cNo Trump. No KKK. No racist USA\u201d and \u201cAmericans against hate.\u201d At times, they chanted \u201cHey hey, ho ho, white supremacy has got to go\u201d and \u201cBlack lives matter.\u201d
\u201cBoston is a beautiful city, but Boston needs to get it together, \u201d counterdemonstrator Lewis Goody said. \u201cIt has always been a racist city.\u201d
Police maintained a buffer zone between marchers and rally participants \u2014 averting major incidents except for occasional clashes and shouting matches between the counterprotesters and supporters of President Donald Trump.
At one point, police escorted a rally participant wearing an American flag over his shoulders as counterdemonstrators shouted \u201cShame\u201d and \u201cBoston hates you.\u201d
The rally began at noon on Boston Common, and by 1: 30 p.m., police tweeted: \u201c \u2018Free Speech\u2019 rally is officially over. Demonstrators have left the Common.\u201d
Around the same time, helmeted police officers could be seen on news footage moving in to separate rally participants from counterdemonstrators. The event had been scheduled to end at 2 p.m.
At least nine people \u2014 apparently counterprotesters \u2014 were detained, according to a CNN correspondent and producer on the scene.
The event, which was planned before the Charlottesville violence, took place amid a heated national debate about racism and the future of Confederate monuments.
Smaller protests were expected in cities throughout the nation.
In Portland, Oregon, hundreds took to the streets Friday night for an \u201cEclipse Hate\u201d demonstration, which organizers said was intended to show solidarity with the people of Charlottesville, CNN affiliate KPTV reported. The event included a moment of silence for victims of hate.
In Hot Springs, Arkansas, a pro-Confederate rally was planned for Saturday amid heightened security concerns following the clashes in Virginia, according to CNN affiliate KATV
Rally organizers in Boston had invited \u201clibertarians, conservatives, traditionalists, classical liberals, Trump supporters or anyone else who enjoys their right to free speech, \u201d according to a group calling itself the Boston Free Speech Coalition.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh had appealed for calm via Twitter earlier Saturday: \u201cI ask everyone to be peaceful today and respect our City. Love, not hate. We stand together against intolerance.\u201d
After Boston granted a rally permit this week, Walsh had issued a warning to the demonstrators: \u201cMake no mistake: we do not welcome any hate groups to Boston and we reject their message.\u201d
\u201cWe have made it clear that we will not tolerate incitements to violence or any threatening behavior.\u201d
A Facebook page linked to the Boston event identifies participants as a \u201ccoalition of libertarians, progressives, conservatives, and independents and we welcome all individuals and organizations from any political affiliations that are willing to peaceably engage in open dialogue about the threats to, and importance of, free speech and civil liberties.\u201d
Some of the same groups organized a similar event on the Common in May, where there were two arrests.
One organizer, John Medlar, a student at Fitchburg State University, told CNN affiliate WCVB that his group is libertarian and opposes bigotry and the Ku Klux Klan.
Medlar also told CNN affiliate WBZ, \u201cContrary to a lot of the rumors out there, the purpose of the rally is to denounce the kind of political violence that we have seen \u2014 a sort of rising tide throughout the country, and particularly most recently in Charlottesville.\u201d
The Anti-Defamation League said the Boston rally, as planned, is not a white supremacist event.
\u201cIt has been organized under the auspices of the alt lite, which embraces civic nationalism, rather than the alt right, which advocates white nationalism, \u201d the ADL said in a blog post .
\u201cThe alt lite, sometimes referred to as the New Right, is a loosely-connected movement whose adherents generally shun white supremacist thinking, but who are in step with the alt right in their hatred of feminists and immigrants, among others. Many within the alt lite sphere are virulently anti-Muslim; the group abhors everyone on \u2018the left\u2019 and traffics in conspiracy theories.\u201d
Some speakers had dropped out, while others were uninvited after Charlottesville. But rally organizers said on social media that Kyle Chapman, Joe Biggs, US Senate candidate Shiva Ayyadurai and congressional candidate Samson Racioppi were to speak.
Chapman and Biggs are probably the most controversial.
Chapman is well-known in right-wing circles for arming himself with a stick and confronting anti-fascist demonstrators in Berkeley, California, according to the ADL. Known by the nickname Based Stickman or the Alt Knight, he has urged members of his group to battle left-wing activists, the ADL said.
Biggs, a former contributor to Alex Jones\u2019 InfoWars, is chief operations officer at the online outlet Rogue Right Media.
The counterdemonstration was organized by an array of groups, including the Coalition to Mobilize and Organize Boston against Trump, the Act Now to Stop War & End Racism Coalition, Boston Democratic Socialists of America and Black Lives Matter, according to a Facebook page for the event.
\u201cAs we have seen with the events in Charlottesville and around the country, white nationalists are emboldened by the current political administration and growing police state, \u201d organizers wrote on Facebook.
\u201cRallies and marches organized by white supremacists are more prevalent than in recent years, and \u2014 as always \u2014 it is the most marginalized who are left vulnerable.\u201d
Monica Cannon, an organizer with the group Violence in Boston, said activists who participated in last week\u2019s Charlottesville event were to attend.
Walsh, the mayor, and Boston Police Commissioner Williams Evans said before the rally that the city was prepared.
More than 500 police officers \u2014 including some undercover and others with cameras \u2014 were to be on hand.
Backpacks were to be searched and weapons, and objects that could be used as weapons \u2014 including glass containers and flag poles \u2014 were to be banned.
\u201cIf anything gets out of hand, we will shut it down, \u201d Walsh told reporters Friday.
Walsh said the city had no choice but to issue a rally permit.
\u201cThe courts have made it abundantly clear they have a right to gather no matter how repugnant their views are, \u201d he said.
He added, \u201cThis so-called free speech rally \u2014 some of the people speaking have said some very hurtful things about the Jewish community, about the African-American community, about a whole bunch of other communities. I don\u2019 t want them here.\u201d
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Filed in: News
Topics: BOSTON, Charlottesville, protest, rally<\/p>\n

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