BOSTON -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-Nazi slogans crammed Boston Common and marched through Boston's streets Saturday morning, dwarfing a group that cut short its planned "free speech rally."
By 1 p.m., the rally attendees had left the downtown park pavilion without making their planned speeches for an event that was scheduled to last for another hour. A cheer went up among the counterprotesters, and many of them began to leave. Hundreds of others danced in circles and sang, "Hey hey, ho ho. White supremacy has got to go."
In anticipation of potential violence, city officials had more than 500 police officers corralling the downtown park, installed security cameras and constructed elaborate barriers to separate the "free speech" ralliers from the counterdemonstrators.
The handful of rally attendees gathered under a pavilion near the center of Boston Common, surrounded by metal barriers and dozens of police. Several hundred feet away, thousands of counterprotesters carried signs declaring "Black Lives Matter" and "Hate Has No Home In Boston," while chanting "we can't hear you" when it appeared that the ralliers had begun to speak.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said there were 27 arrests, primarily for disorderly conduct. He said no officers or protesters were injured, and there was no property damage.
Marchers were banned from carrying weapons, bats, sticks, flagpoles or anything that might be used as weapons or projectiles. Backpacks were subject to search. Evans said three attendees were wearing ballistics vests, and one of the people was later found to be armed. It was unclear if those three people were among the arrests.
Evans said there were three groups in attendance: attendees of the "free speech" rally, counterprotesters, and a small group of people who showed up to cause trouble.
"Overall everyone did a good job," Evans said. "99.9 percent of people were here for the right reason, and that's to fight bigotry."
President Donald Trump complimented Boston police Saturday, tweeting: "Looks like many anti-police agitators in Boston. Police are looking tough and smart! Thank you."
He also complimented Boston's Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh, who had said Friday, "If anything gets out of hand, we will shut it down."
Trump applauded the people in Boston who he said were "speaking out" against bigotry and hate. Trump added in a Twitter message that "Our country will soon come together as one!"
About 10 minutes after Trump's compliment, Boston's Police Department tweeted that protesters were throwing rocks and bottles of urine, and asked people publicly to refrain from doing so.
Later Saturday afternoon, members of the Black Lives Matter movement protested at Boston Common, where a Confederate flag was burned and protesters pounded on the sides of a police vehicle.
Counterprotesters had feared the presence of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, even though organizers of the conservatives rally had publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who fomented violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12.
Chris Hood, a "free speech" rally attendee from Dorchester, Mass., said people were unfairly making it seem like the event was going to be "a white supremacist Klan rally."
"That was never the intention," he said. "We've only come here to promote free speech on college campuses, free speech on social media for conservative, right-wing speakers. And we have no intention of violence."
WHY THEY WERE THERE
Boston officials said at least 40,000 people participated in the counterprotest, 20,000 of whom joined in a march across town.
Some counterprotesters dressed entirely in black and wore bandannas over their faces. They chanted anti-Nazi and anti-fascism slogans, and waved signs that read: "Make Nazis Afraid Again," "Love your neighbor," "Resist fascism" and "Hate never made U.S. great." Others carried a large banner that read: "Smash White Supremacy."
Rockeem Robinson, a youth counselor from Cambridge, Mass., said he joined the counterprotest to "show support for the black community and for all minority communities."
Katie Griffiths, a social worker also from Cambridge, who works with members of poor and minority communities, said she finds the hate and violence happening "very scary."
"I see poor people and people of color being scapegoated," she said. "Unlearned lessons can be repeated."
Rose Fowler, a retired teacher who is black, was among the people who had gathered to march from Roxbury toward Boston Common, about 2 miles away.
"Charlottesville is what forced me out here," said Fowler, 68. "Somebody killed for fighting for me. What is wrong with me if I can't fight for myself and others?"
One moment of tension came when rally attendees ventured outside the barriers and were promptly confronted by counterprotesters. One man, draped in a Donald Trump flag, was immediately surrounded by media, while demonstrators chanted at him to "go home."
After Saturday's mostly peaceful showdown, and after demonstrators dispersed, a picnic atmosphere took over with stragglers tossing beach balls, banging on bongo drums and playing reggae music.
The Boston Free Speech Coalition, which organized the rally, said it has nothing to do with white nationalism or racial bias, and its group is not affiliated with the Charlottesville rally organizers in any way.
HOT SPRINGS RALLY
Rallies also were planned Saturday in other cities across the country.
In Arkansas, 350-400 people attended a rally and counterprotest in Hot Springs where authorities said three people were arrested Saturday.
The Confederate Square Group held a demonstration on the Arlington Lawn to show support for preserving monuments to Confederate history. Organizer James Brock of Hot Springs said Thursday that the rally was focused on preservation and did not support neo-Nazism, white supremacy or white nationalism.
It was the fourth rally of its kind to be held on Arlington Lawn this year, officials said, but the first since the violence in Charlottesville. It drew a group of counterprotesters, but there were no reports of widescale violence between the two groups.
The Hot Springs Police Department arrested Maya Williams of North Little Rock and Thomas Bemberg of Hot Springs on disorderly conduct charges during the rally, the department said in a news release. The National Park Service arrested Donald Tankersley of Hot Springs on charges of disorderly conduct and violating a federal burning ordinance, the release said.
The Police Department, National Park Service, Garland County sheriff's office, Arkansas State Police, FBI and other state and local officials collaborated for several days to develop a security plan for the rally, the release said.
"Collectively, their actions provided for a peaceful demonstration where Americans were able to express their freedom of speech," Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe said in a statement Saturday.
In Dallas, police estimated that about 2,300 people showed up for a rally against racism at City Hall Plaza and chanted "take them down," in reference to the city's Confederate statues.
Raymond Simmons, a 48-year-old from Dallas, arrived at the rally wearing a picture of the two Virginia state troopers killed in a helicopter crash as they patrolled the gathering in Charlottesville. He said people who engaged in violence there should be charged with treason and murder.
Police on horseback later worked to break up a scuffle between Confederate monument supporters and counterprotesters at Pioneer Park, a Civil War cemetery that houses a Confederate memorial.
About a half-dozen people at the Dallas cemetery were seen earlier wearing camouflage and carrying long guns and other weapons. The group said they wanted to ensure that no one tried to vandalize the graves or the Confederate memorial.
In Austin, hundreds of people gathered at City Hall on Saturday morning, holding signs in support of racial equality.
In Atlanta, a diverse crowd of several hundred people marched from downtown to the home of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in protest of white supremacists and other hate groups. Organizers urged marchers Saturday to practice King's values and make sure there was no violence.
In Laguna Beach, Calif., an anti-racism rally was held one day before the group America First planned to hold a demonstration in the same place against illegal aliens.
Mayor Toni Iselman told the crowd gathered near a lifeguard tower that "Laguna Beach doesn't tolerate diversity, we embrace diversity."
Saturday's demonstrators said they didn't want to confront the other group, but counterdemonstrators are expected today and police will be out in force.
Protesters also gathered Saturday outside Trump's private golf club in New Jersey, where he recently spent a 17-day vacation.
The protesters staged a "No Hate in the Garden State" rally, with those in attendance sharply rebuking Trump's response to the protests in Charlottesville. Many also blasted his assertion that "both sides" -- the white supremacists and the counterprotesters -- were to blame for the Charlottesville violence.
And along a side street in Charlottesville, the mood was somber about 1:30 p.m. as people marked the time when, a week earlier, a man drove his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer.
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 -- Heyer's favorite color -- on the pavement, "I miss you baby girl, love mom."
After a few minutes, Susan 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."
Susan Bro said she hoped that some good could come out of her daughter's death. And for those who celebrated Heyer's death or mocked her, Bro said, "Karma's a you-know-what."
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Photos by Emma Pettit
Photos by Emma Pettit
Information for this article was contributed by Steve LeBlanc and staff writers of The Associated Press; by Wesley Lowery and Christina Pazzanese of The Washington Post; by Katharine Q. Seelye, Alan Blinder and Jess Bidgood of The New York Times; and by staff members of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Sentinel-Record.
A Section on 08/20/2017