Hundreds turn out for boisterous vigil in Roslindale

People socially distanced themselves as much as possible inside Adams Park and along Washington, Poplar and South streets in Roslindale Square this afternoon for a neighborhood vigil for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and to show that black lives matter.

Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale and Roslindale Is for Everyone, which organized the event, called for a silent vigil. But as a car or truck or bus came through the square with its driver beeping his or her horn, people clapped and cheered. A lot of drivers beeped, including drivers of T buses, a UPS truck and a Boston EMS van, so many so that for nearly an hour, the square was filled with the sound of horns blaring and people clapping and cheering.

The contrast in police presence between Monday's vigil in West Roxbury and the one in Roslindale was remarkable: There were no Boston cops standing in lines behind barriers, wearing protective helmets and holding large batons ready for action, no squadrons of suburban motorcycle cops, no SWAT team, no Transit Police mobile surveillance tower. Instead, a cruiser and a prisoner wagon sat up on Taft Hill and a few cops wandered the square, almost more like their presence for the Roslindale Day parade than for a potential flashpoint.

Also not present, unlike in West Roxbury: An assemblage of local middle-aged tough guys, ready to apply their fists to any Antifa who dared try to rumble.

Still, the post office was boarded up - and closed early.

Also boarded up: The Unleashed by Petco on South Street, where would-be looters wouldn't have found anything to loot, since the place closed in 2018 (also shut, but not boarded up: the CVS way, way up Washington Street near West Roxbury Parkway).

The vigil was scheduled to end at 6:15 p.m., but many people stayed later.

At the northern end of the park, at the turn from Washington Street onto South Street, Wendi Gray, who has been painting lots of Roslindale scenes in recent months, spent the time painting a vista of the vigil.