U.S.
Counterprotesters Surge Into Boston, Overshadowing Rally
BOSTON
— Thousands of demonstrators, emboldened and unnerved by the fatal
eruption of violence in Virginia last weekend, surged into the nation’s
streets and parks on Saturday to denounce white supremacy and Nazism.
The
demonstrations were loud but broadly peaceful, even as tensions and
worries coursed through protests that unfolded from Boston Common, the
nation’s oldest public park, to Hot Springs, Ark., and the bridges that
cross the Willamette River in Portland, Ore. Other protests were
expected on Saturday in Chicago, Dallas and Houston.
Boston
faced dueling demonstrations, but a rally to promote “free speech” was
brief and unamplified. It was undercut by police planning and starved by
an enormous buffer zone between protesters and their opponents, many of
whom had feared that the rally would become a haven for neo-Nazis and
white nationalists.
“This
city has a history of fighting back against oppression, whether it’s
dumping tea in the harbor or a bunch of dudes standing around with
bandannas screaming at neo-Nazis,” said a 21-year-old protester in
Boston who would identify himself only as “Frosty” and wore an American
flag to obscure much of his face.
Saturday’s
demonstrations, one week after a 32-year-old woman died amid clashes
between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville,
Va., occurred as the nation was again confronting questions about race,
violence and the standing of Confederate symbols.
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President
Trump, who has faced unyielding, and bipartisan, criticism after he
said there was “blame on both sides” in Charlottesville, wrote on
Twitter on Saturday that it appeared there were “many anti-police
agitators in Boston.”
“Police are looking tough and smart!” he continued. “Thank you.”
Law
enforcement officials were on alert, wary of being seen as irresolute
and ineffective after the protests in Virginia turned fatal when someone
drove a car through a crowd of protesters. Officers patrolled on
bicycles, on foot and from helicopters. In some instances, officers in
riot gear faced off with demonstrators and tried to maintain order.
There were some scuffles and arrests.
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The
epicenter of the weekend’s demonstrations appeared to be here in
Boston, where the Common had been the expected setting for a pair of
protests, including one that the Boston Free Speech Coalition organized
before the Charlottesville violence. Organizers said they were appealing
to “libertarians, conservatives, traditionalists, classical liberals,
Trump supporters or anyone else who enjoys their right to free speech.”
But
supporters of the free speech rally, scheduled for noon, faced
thousands of counterprotesters, many of whom marched toward the Common
from the Roxbury neighborhood.
As
the minutes ticked by on a day that began with fog but became hot and
sticky, counterdemonstrators on the Common shouted, “Scum! Scum!”
Earlier,
the counterprotesters had shouted down their opponents — “No Nazis! No
K.K.K.! No fascist U.S.A.!” — as Massachusetts state troopers used their
bikes to keep rival demonstrators apart. City officials had said they
would enforce a policy of zero tolerance for violence.
“If anything gets out of hand,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said on Friday, “we will shut it down.”
The
rally, which could have lasted until 2 p.m., concluded by about 12:50
p.m. The bandstand emptied, officials removed flags tied to the free
speech rally and the crowd of counterprotesters sang, “Hey, hey, hey,
goodbye.”
A
spokesman for the Boston police, Lt. Detective Mike McCarthy, said the
free speech demonstrators had “decided they were done, and they left the
Common.” The police escorted them as chants of “Shame!” rained down
from the crowd.
Rondre
Brooks, 36, who said he had traveled from Detroit for the
counterdemonstration, said he was pleased to see the apparent early end
of the free speech rally. “It’s a very good look for America as a
whole,” he said.
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But
another man, who said he supported the speech rally and gave his name,
after some hesitation, as Matt Staley, interjected to ask if those
demonstrating in support of free speech were not Americans, too.
“I think it’s awful that people can’t speak out to express opinions,” Mr. Staley said.
The
counterprotesters descended on the Common for hours before the planned
rally, and they found fliers showing symbols of white supremacists and
neo-Nazis. The leaflet, which protesters appeared to have prepared,
urged people to “learn to identify these symbols and let anyone
displaying them know that they are not welcome in our city!”
“Boston is an anti-fascist zone!” it added.
“Charlottesville
is what forced me out here,” said Rose Fowler, 68, a retired teacher
who is black and was among the people who had gathered to march from
Roxbury toward the Common, about two miles away. “Somebody killed for
fighting for me. What is wrong with me if I can’t fight for myself and
others?”
Although
the protests in Boston were expected to be among the weekend’s largest,
several hundred people gathered on Friday evening in Portland for an
“Eclipse Hate” rally. The protest soon swelled to more than 1,000
people, many of whom used chants that demonstrators used in Boston on
Saturday.
The
demonstrators swarmed two of Portland’s bridges, halting traffic in
both directions and chanting, “Whose bridge? Our bridge!”
In
Arkansas on Saturday morning, a small demonstration supporting
Confederate symbols drew about 50 people in Hot Springs. A small group
of opponents walked by occasionally, denouncing Mr. Trump and racial
hatred.
Along
a side street in Charlottesville, the mood was somber at about 1:30
p.m. as people marked the time when, a week earlier, a man drove his car
into a crowd, killing Heather D. Heyer.
Ms.
Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, stood before a memorial of flowers and
candles, weeping as she leaned into her husband, Kim Bro. Hundreds of
people gathered around and watched silently as someone wrote with purple
chalk — Ms. Heyer’s favorite color — on the pavement, “I miss you baby
girl, love mom.”
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After a few minutes, Ms. Bro turned to address the crowd.
“Thank you guys for coming,” she said. “I know she’s gone on, but this is the spot where I lost my baby.”
She
encouraged people to come closer to her, and the crowd came in, some
people laid hands on her, and they sang “This Little Light of Mine.”
Ms.
Bro said she hoped that some good could come out of her daughter’s
death. And for those who might take joy in seeing her grieve, she said,
“Karma’s a you know what.”
Law enforcement officials made extensive plans for the demonstrations in the wake of the Virginia bloodshed.
In
Dallas, where a gunman killed five police officers who were protecting a
protest in July 2016, the authorities planned to form a barricade
around Saturday’s demonstration site with buses and heavy equipment to
“lock down” the area and keep any cars from drawing too close to the
crowd.
The
Boston authorities cleared the Common of vendors and their carts, and
they shut down the Swan Boats, a major tourist attraction in the nearby
Public Garden.
Marchers
were banned from bringing weapons, bats, sticks, flagpoles or anything
that might be used as a weapon or a projectile, and backpacks were
subject to search.
Boston’s
approach to the day’s protests represented something of a balancing
act. Mr. Walsh, the mayor, said the city had consulted the Southern
Poverty Law Center, a group based in Montgomery, Ala., that monitors
extremist behavior, on how to handle hate groups.
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He
said the center warned that “interacting with them gives them a
platform to spread their message of hate” and that it recommended that
people “not confront” them.
“So we’re urging everyone to stay away from the Common,” Mr. Walsh said. “At the same time, we can’t look away.”
The
mayor had begun the week by telling hate groups that they were not
welcome in Boston. By Friday, he acknowledged their right to assemble
and express their views.
“The
courts have made it abundantly clear they have the right to gather, no
matter how repugnant their views are, but they don’t have the right to
create unsafe conditions,” Mr. Walsh said. “So we’re going to respect
their right of free speech, and in return they must respect our city.”
Still, tensions here had been rising all week. On Monday night, a teenager threw a rock at the New England Holocaust Memorial, shattering the glass; passers-by quickly tackled the youth before the police arrived.
And
with the national spotlight on the debate over Confederate monuments in
the South, John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, said he was “haunted”
by the racist legacy of his predecessor, Tom Yawkey, who resisted
integrating the ball club long after every other club in Major League
Baseball had hired black players.
Mr. Henry said he wanted to lead an effort to rename Yawkey Way, a public street outside Fenway Park, “in light of the country’s current leadership stance with regard to intolerance.”
Duke
University announced early Saturday that it had removed a recently
vandalized statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee from the entrance to its campus
chapel in Durham, N.C.
“I
took this course of action to protect Duke Chapel, to ensure the vital
safety of students and community members who worship there, and above
all to express the deep and abiding values of our university,” Vincent
E. Price, the university’s president, said in an email to students, employees and alumni.
Dr.
Price said the statue would be “preserved so that students can study
Duke’s complex past and take part in a more inclusive future.”
Katharine Q. Seelye and Jess
Bidgood reported from Boston, and Alan Blinder from Atlanta. Reporting
was contributed by John Eligon from Charlottesville, Va.; Manny
Fernandez from Dallas; Rob Moritz from Hot Springs, Ark.; and Courtney
Sherwood from Portland, Ore.
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