A couple dozen racists and Nazis, one dressed as a Minuteman, spent an hour or so standing on and near the Parkman Bandstand this afternoon under the baleful eyes of thousands of jeering protesters before slowly walking away and towards the Boylston Street side of Boston Common, to await a ride out in four Boston Police prisoner vans.
They fled before a phalanx of marchers who'd walked up from Roxbury could give them a piece of their minds.
Police kept the racists well separated from the crowds on the Common - they set up perimeters 200 to 300 feet around the bandstand.
Things were a bit closer in on Boylston Street near Tremont, where cops in heavy black armor cleared a path for the transport wagons to leave towards Tremont.
DPW trucks blocked every entrance into the Common - some supplemented by Jersey barriers.
A few Nazi sympathizers roamed the crowds of protesters. After one was uncovered people began booing him as he tried to flee. Somebody broke out a beach ball so people further away weren't sure at first if the crowd was reacting to an uncovered racist or the beach ball.
Compare the crowds: Racists at the bandstand vs. protesters on the surrounding hills:
.@universalhub Anti-Hate gathering at State House 11am pic.twitter.com/YibBId1IXt
— Craig Caplan (@CappyinBoston) August 19, 2017
Photo by Phil R.:
Fire and furry:
#notallbaldguys:
One of the Trumpkins who braved the crowd (photo by Ben Walsh)
No actual pugs were harmed in the making of this protest:
Both Vermin Supreme and Keytar Bear provided succor to the anti-fascists:
#BostonStrong #FuckNazis #FuckHate @universalhub pic.twitter.com/YS9auSaqH7
— TyrantII (@TyrantII) August 19, 2017
Due to Nazis, both the Frog Pond and the neighboring playground were shut, save for the occasional kid of protesting parents:
Shortly before 1:30, cops in armor marched onto the Common from Boylston Street and then back out onto Boylston to clear the way for the vans carrying the racists:
Boston sends #nazis and #whitesupremacists home in cop cars. #bostoncommon @universalhub never come back. pic.twitter.com/a8krF1yDk6
— Jonathan Berk (@berkie1) August 19, 2017
Things were briefly tense there as a self-described Libertarian wrapped in a "Don't Tread on Me" flag began arguing with a protester about the meaning of democracy, but his butt was saved when the Veterans for Peace marched in, chanting, "No violence! No violence!"
Among those awaiting the exit of the racists onto Boylston Street was Police Commissioner William Evans (photo by Sandy G.):
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Comments
Some Photos
By anon²
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 4:46pm
Some photos I took here: [url]http://imgur.com/a/ZNBBy[/url]
Favorites (right click, view new tab for larger):
[QUOTE]Colors at the State House
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YtLFVC3.jpg[/img]
Massachusetts 54th: Black Civil War Regiment Memorial, directly across from our state house
[img]http://i.imgur.com/oNbYRlx.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/0fuWLVO.jpg[/img]
Nazi/White Nationalist Scum
[img]http://i.imgur.com/uN5kUQu.jpg[/img]
Even The Furries
[img]http://i.imgur.com/sgeXxJ8.jpg[/img]
Need a shirt with this
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UH0bWlO.jpg[/img]
Heated Debate
[img]http://i.imgur.com/eLJdhTz.jpg[/img]
So does the Commonwealth
[img]http://i.imgur.com/H1AS0wq.jpg[/img]
20,000 #BostonStrong
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZcCctas.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xljOaZH.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gzj7r3R.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/1oZ3Hen.jpg[/img]
Replace Vermin like Trump with Vermin Supreme
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ejqnVNa.jpg[/img]
Remember
[img]http://i.imgur.com/OlyR7P6.jpg[/img]
Shows Over, we won
[img]http://i.imgur.com/JuCdFhR.jpg?1[/img]
Martins Legacy
[img]http://i.imgur.com/C7fAO9N.jpg[/img]
Keytar Bear's game
[img]http://i.imgur.com/JLLhBYL.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Great rally against hate and ignorance. Not much to shoot but a bunch of Bostonians and visitors from all walks of life coming together to preach against hate and bigotry.
Proud of this city. #BostonStrong
Hurray for Keytar Bear!
By Heather
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:27pm
Hurray for Keytar Bear! Hurray for Boston!
More photos
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 4:52pm
Cybah was there.
Genuine question...
By Serious question
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 4:56pm
Genuine question...
Didn't the thousands of protesters need a permit also?
I wasn't there but just wondering how all this works since I read the Free Speechers had one for 100 people even though i guess nobody really showed up.
Band Stand
By anon²
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:02pm
They wanted the bandstand, And I heard their permit was so for sound equipment that they ended up not bringing / using.
What ended up happening is these 20 dodos were part of one group that got a permit and the others never bothered / no showed once they realized how massive the opposition would be post Charlottesville.
So small props for these folks for at least putting themselves.
Maybe they decided to stay
By Heather
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:43pm
Maybe they decided to stay home and volunteer or do something productive to build up their own city, rather than being a nuissance in ours.
AFAiK you only need a permit
By Felicity
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:17pm
AFAiK you only need a permit if you plan to suck electricity from the common.
Amplified Sound
By frobot
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 9:33am
The permit was required for amplified sound. They were responsible for providing their own electricity.
How are you to say they are
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 4:57pm
How are you to say they are racist if they say nothing? The only nazi symbol I saw was a sign made by a counter protestor. The only violence I saw was counter protestors too.. can you explain this ?
We've been through this before
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:09pm
But here's a photo of "rally" organizer John Medlar wrapped in a racist flag at the last racist thing on the Common (if you scroll through his feed, you'll also find photos of him palling around with racist Kyle Chapman).
Looks
By anon²
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 11:12pm
Looks like he's scrubbing his history to hide his racist nonsense as the MSM reached out for interviews.
Did anyone save it? Anyone got any more on this not very successful Nazi?
I'll just copy-paste from yesterday
By erik g
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:18pm
What if the confederate apologists waving swastikas and beating black people are just here to play Ultimate Frisbee on the Common? Why should we believe them when they openly pronounce their own white supremacist views? I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt, despite them never having done a damned thing to deserve it. All this talk of "racism" is probably just an elaborate disinformation campaign by those mean leftists.
The Nazi salute I saw one of them give was a pretty big hint
By MSchuldt
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:31pm
That they're racist scum.
Concern troll much?
By K. deZ
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 7:48pm
Concern troll is concerned. Ignore.
A nothing burger.
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:00pm
Like I said yesterday.
I'm glad you were right.
By ZachAndTired
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 7:37pm
I'm glad you were right.
Replace "Nazis" with "Commies
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:06pm
Replace "Nazis" with "Commies" and it resembles a newsstory from 1947.
Great coverage
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:09pm
Well done, Adam and the Uhub photo corps
Warms my heart to see these scumbags get the proper reception on the Common. Makes me proud to be a Bostonian.
Question:
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:24pm
Why are these radical far leftist groups so disproportionately LGBTQ? Same BLM. Nothing wrong with being LGBTQ, but how can any observant person not notice ? And I get the impression when they list the alleged oppressed groups, that what they're really obsessed with is the LGBTQ angle, tagging on black, brown for street cred.
Yeah, and why so many Jews, huh?
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:34pm
Think for a moment about which groups have borne a disproportionate share of the hate on this planet over the past few years, decades, millennia. See if you can come up with an answer to your question then.
Why is it always the straight white people
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 7:47pm
"Think for a moment about which groups have borne a disproportionate share of the hate on this planet over the past few years, decades, millennia. See if you can come up with an answer to your question then."
As an LGBT man, I notice it is always the straight white people who have all the answers as to what LGBT people are thinking, and what their motives are. Well, I'm glad they have the answers, because I certainly don't.
Fine, I don't know what you personally think ...
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:13pm
I'm glad you're perfectly fitting into society and having a grand old time.
Speaking strictly as a Jew, I could tell you why Jews have long been involved in great numbers in civil-rights protests and the like, but you couldn't possibly understand what we've been through, so I won't bother.
The victim card
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:34pm
There are indeed some LGBT people like myself who, if not "perfectly fitting into society" as you facetiously put it, are at least not constantly playing the victim card which is such a popular thing to do these days. But my attitude does not fit into the mainstream gay agenda, so you don't hear about us as much.
And then there are those of us...
By lbb
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:50pm
And then there are those of us who have a functional brain and understand that people like you will call it "playing the victim card" anytime someone points out oppression that is, y'know, still a thing, even if you got registered at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Victims are the new celebrities
By anon
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:46pm
I am a gay male in my 50s, somewhat on the effeminate side, who has faced oppression and bigotry my whole life. I have never failed to stand up against such oppression where I see it. Yet I have also done my level best to rise above such oppression and not consider myself a victim. Many of my LGBT brethren of my era did the same.This attitude has served us well. Then something strange happened and society has become a victim culture. Victims are the new celebrities. I see many of LGBT people reluctant to let go, or rise above, what Camille Paglia has referred to as "their precious victim status".
As an LGBTQ person myself, I second Adam's take
By bibliotequetres...
Sun, 08/20/2017 - 9:28am
You don't have to be a dinosaur to be a paleontologist. Adam can make a brief observation & take about LGBTQ people without "speaking for all of us" or stealing our voice, for gods sake.
Per your question? I was marching with a few other bi & lesbian women, and a bunch of our straight friends, most of whom were also wearing rainbow bling. So, I don't know that all the marchers you assumed are LGBTQ actually were.
You're experiencing observer-expectancy effect
By Samuel Murphy
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:27pm
I was in the middle of the march and moved around (just to find shade ;-) and saw trans lgbt black hispanic older straight folks, younger straight folks, (a few wtf folks) missed the furry, but other that the incredible volume of people it would have been any group in Boston, looked just like the folks jammed in on the Esplanade on the 4th (well 3rd, I've only gone the day before).
Nonsense
By anon
Sun, 08/20/2017 - 10:54am
You have no idea if "radical far leftist groups" as you call them, are "disproportionally LGBTQ". You see some rainbow flags and you panic .LGBTQ's are probably according to various studies, about 5-15% of Americans, and from what I saw, the number of people carrying rainbow flags or LGBTQ signs was probably less than 5-10% of the people I saw at the rally and march . Of course that doesnt count people who were not publically displaying their sexuality.
And what if you are correct? If LGBTQs were out in force yesterday, then I guess it just means they are on the right side of history.
I am a gay man who marched with my straight black friend. Neither of us had signs or flags. How did you count us in your alleged analysis?
Trump sent props to Walsh
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:24pm
Didn't expect that to happen
Days like this remind me of
By erik g
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:26pm
Days like this remind me of all those horrible diseases we've eradicated through vaccination have fallen out of living memory. I haven't seen anyone with smallpox scars since the 80s. It's history textbook stuff. Now there's so few people with first hand experience, (oh so stupid) people feel skeptical about vaccines.
This rally wouldn't have happened 70 years ago. All the veterans of that war didn't just punch nazis. They fought the real thing with bombs and bullets and won. These chickenshits wouldn't dare throw a nazi salute in public with all those returned soldiers around with fresh memories of the battlefield.
Now those memories have faded into history, which doesn't seem to be taught anymore. Do these assholes even know that the nazis lost? The nazis are losers. The confederates are losers. Did they skip the last chapter in the textbook?
Do we need a new plague to remind people that vaccines are really cool? Do we need another holocaust to remind people that when you see a nazi, you declare war on them?
Southern racists fought the nazis
By EM Painter
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:24pm
Southerners made up lots of combat troops in WW2 because they had experience shooting.
Experience shooting?
By anon
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 10:34am
Um. Wow. That's way ignorant. I'd bet westerners could take them at the range any day.
Except it is totally irrelevant. They all got basic training.
People came from all over the US and there weren't as many Southerners as there would have been had CERTAIN Southerners not thrown massive and infantile hissy fits about OMG WE MIGHT HAVE TO SERVE WITH BLACK PEOPLE!!!
Uhub...
By lbb
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:52pm
...needs a Love upvote. Thanks erik, ya nailed it again.
Beach ball, Nazi...
By Hamsterdam
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:31pm
just punch it.
"All officers enroute to the Common bring their gas masks"
By O-FISH-L
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 5:37pm
At 5:23 pm, the "peaceful protest that is long over" just resulted in a call for more cruisers to the Common from each district across the city, nine wagons from all over the city and a commander ordering all officers to wear their helmets and gas masks. The Area E (JP, HP, West Roxbury, Roslindale) wagon is now transporting four additional prisoners to C-11 in Dorchester because there is nowhere left to put them.
Commissioner Evans, although admitting officers were pelted with bottles of urine and rocks has a novel explanation, there were now three distinct groups, Free Speech, those opposed and "troublemakers" even though the "troublemakers" were part of those opposed to the free speech group. When asked for a comment on President Trump's praise today for BPD, Evans said, "I don't want to get political" as his political appointing authority, Mayor Walsh (D-Dorchester) looked on approvingly beside him.
UPDATE: An ambulance now at 5:36 pm for a person viciously sprayed with a chemical on Avenue de Lafayette.
He's pretty accurate
By Samuel Murphy
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:31pm
There were definitely a few tiny (young) groups there looking for trouble. A few were masked from the beginning of the march. Vast number of regular folks calm, polite and patient.
Numbers
By anon²
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 7:57pm
3/20 Nazis were arrested, or 15%
30/40,000 anti-facists or 0.075%
Photos
By johnmcboston
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:10pm
A few more images in my Flickr album
Police commissioner on the day
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:54pm
A different view, starting in Roxbury
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 6:58pm
Chris Faraone at the Dig reports.
Dan Kennedy also walked in from Roxbury.
Sad Nazis are sad
By anon²
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 7:50pm
Apparently the 101st keyboard Nazis are posting images from years ago trying to claim they're from the rally today.
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/8990352750...
It's pretty funny the pathetic length they'll go to insulate their safe spaces.
And then there's this
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 8:53pm
Guys, at least try to match the photos to the weather, would ya?
Strange thing is ...
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:25pm
Antifa doesn't identify as leftist or of the left - they are anarchists. They have a lot more in common with the "I don't have to license my car" people.
Expecting "the left" to control them is kind of like me expecting to train my cat to herd sheep: theoretically possible, maybe, but not bloody likely.
Now if our government were taken over by anarchist radicals who were swept in on a DNC platform, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect.
Search Boston antifa on
By anon
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 8:32am
Search Boston antifa on youtube for some good laughs...
"Boston antifa" is a right wing group
By lbb
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:08pm
So-called "Boston antifa" is the creation of two right-wing activists seeking to discredit antifa.
So you're disavowing Anti-fa?
By jonbowen
Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:26pm
Lulz... You can't do that.
Vancouver
By adamg
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 8:51pm
Nazis didn't do so well there, either.
I wonder how many were arrested in the 2010 Hockey Riots?
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:28pm
It would be interesting to see if there are any correlations.
Confusing
By bgl
Sun, 08/20/2017 - 12:32am
Why would you wear a 'Trump is my President' to a protest in Canada?
Who kept the media from the bandstand?
By anon
Sat, 08/19/2017 - 9:06pm
A TV reporter I saw said they were not allowed near the bandstand, but not why.
Whose decision was it that the media not capture the Free Speech going on?
Police? Free Speech organizers and speakers? (who also didn't seem to have a PA System)
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