Sidewalks in Watertown Square were filled with Black Lives Matter writing in chalk until this afternoon when, as Mary Burns reports a guy with a bucket and mop walked around whitewashing out every single "Black" mention.
2/3 As I asked him why he was doing this, another older white guy, in a mask, started yelling & swearing at me. Amazing. Called @WatertownPD who could or would not come. @WatertownMANews pic.twitter.com/8mgz5ErFHu
— Mary Burns (@countykerrymary) June 9, 2020
Of course, two can play at that game. Jack reports:
There's a bunch of people out here filling everything back in already, if that helps.
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Comments
This just in
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 4:32pm
Unrepentant racist acts like a childish bully. Nobody surprised.
The Armenians in Watertown
By anon
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:28pm
The Armenians in Watertown might be a bit touchy about not having a message simply say "LIVES MATTER" considering they were subject to a brutal genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire which modern day Turkey offensively continues to not acknowledge.
Watertown Armenians
By The Beer Guy
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 5:30am
I know for a fact that quite a few Armenian families took part in the protest in the Square.
Unrepentant but ashamed
By elise
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:42pm
Unrepentant but ashamed enough to wear a balaclava in June.
Asshole Lives Matter
By Ari O
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 4:37pm
But it's pretty easy to kick a mop bucket over.
Police Response
By Rob O
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 4:39pm
Don't get me wrong, this mop guy looks like a complete a-hat. But what were the police supposed to respond to?
If anything, the "defacing" of the sidewalk with chalk deserves a bigger response police than the "clean up."
Let's leave the police out of it and make a statement with just how outnumbered he is.
Agreed
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:25pm
This is likely a mental health issue.
Nah
By MostlyHarmless
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 7:43pm
Being a raging asshole isn't actually in the DSM.
I agree
By Parkwayne
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:46pm
but let's not give him a ride back to the Russian consulate either.
You heard right?
By AgingCynic
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 6:08pm
That Russia thing was sorta made-up? Proveably?
Uhhh...
By lbb
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 8:25pm
...did you miss the part about the other guy yelling and swearing in her face?
Or give them a good reason to
By anon
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 7:50am
Or give them a good reason to come...
Either way certainly can't let that stand.
Can't believe publicly
By Refugee
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:01pm
Can't believe publicly admitting calling the cops for this.
I'd suspect it was calling
By Rob
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 6:26pm
I'd suspect it was calling the police on the second guy, not the first.
Yes..to call the police was
By JT
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 9:08pm
Yes..to call the police was extreme since they were also writing "defund police" "disband police" and most of the Watertown kids writing this know cops in this town were considered heros after the marathon bombing..SMH
So should the family of
By anon
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 7:51am
So should the family of George Floyd feel that everything's ok now because you found some heroic Watertown cops?
heros?
By anon
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 8:17am
IIRC, wasn't the police response in that shootout widely panned as ineffective and dangerous? Didn't the MBTA officer (whose name is escaping me at the moment) get shot by other officers in the crossfire? and the little brother neutralized the older one when he ran him over trying to flee...
yes
By anon
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 10:55am
The Watertown residents were most definitely fans of opening their doors to having AR-15's pointed at their faces while they looked for the marathon bomber around town.
LMAO
By Kaz
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:28pm
The orange hood pulled tight like a South Park Kenny cosplay was the best part.
Wait, she called the cops?
By I. Ronee
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 5:34pm
She called THE COPS? The same outfit that her bff’s are demanding be defunded? The same PD that took on the Tsarnaevs in a running gun battle? (Bet the locals were happy they had cops that night.)
SHE CALLED THE COPS???
Eye roll
By BlackKat
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 12:32am
Defunding the police simply means they don't respond to the call in an armored truck with rifles out. It doesn't mean no more police.
Is that what it means? It
By anon
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 1:23am
Is that what it means? It sounds to me like it means no funding, and police aren't going to work for free.
If I needed a slogan for no armored trucks or rifles, I'd say demilitarize the police.
Nobody seems to get that @BlackKat
By Don't Panic
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 1:30am
Admittedly it is a poor choice of phrasing.
The cops!?!
By The Beer Guy
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 5:33am
You mean the guys that shot one of their own that night, and couldn't even find the guy that they were looking for until a private citizen went out for a smoke?
Don't forget about
By fungwah
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 9:30am
stripping an innocent dude naked because he happened to have a darker skin tone so he must have had a bomb.
Forgot about that!!
By The Beer Guy
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 9:38am
What happened with that guy? I remember some locals were crowdsourcing a documentary about it, but never heard more. Afraid to google "naked dude Watertown MA"
Sidewalk Chalk ‽
By FlyingToaster
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 6:09pm
[I saw this at 9:30 this morning; bozo had already left by the time I walked through. Since I was en route from the car repair to my house, I lacked sidewalk chalk.]
Watertown encourages people to use sidewalk chalk, because it's so easily washed away. Our block's sidewalks were filled a couple weeks back, thanking the 3 medical professionals who live here.
The WPD will NEVER respond to complaints about sidewalk chalk unless it's defamatory or uses profanity.
We have a number of (generally elderly) residents who are right wing nut jobs. I live next to one, and two doors down from another. It makes them crazy that most everyone else on the block is either a Democrat or possibly a Socialist.
How about...
By lbb
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 8:26pm
How about responding to a report of someone yelling, cursing, and acting aggressively? Will they respond to that?
Viewpoint Discrimination
By RWC
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 11:03pm
If the quoted position of WPD is accurate it’s an interesting legal issue. Treating speech differently because of its content is an obvious first amendment issue. They can disallow all sidewalk chalk. They cannot choose to allow some and disallow others based on the content. The only really exception is directly threatening speech.
So...
By lbb
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 7:55am
...if I stand directly in your face and scream at high volume and spray spit, that's got nothing to do with content. Clear?
You can call if you feel threatened...
By FlyingToaster
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 8:04am
And oh, yes, they will come. However, if you're getting cursed at because you accosted someone, as it sounds like in this instance, they'll tell you to walk away. Which I'm pretty sure is what happened.
I've dealt with the dispatchers at WPD (note, I live here), and they ask questions. They know that everyone is stressed out, easily freaked out, and don't want to ratchet any situation up if they can help it. They keep getting calls about the assholes without masks on the Charles River Greenway. They get calls about the kids' sidewalk chalk thanking their teachers. They're getting complaints about lost cat signs on phone poles.
And I'm sure the next patrol through the Square circled through the trolley turnaround to make sure everyone had walked away.
Wtown RWNJs
By The Beer Guy
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 8:49am
Do you live near the short, loud, cigar chomping one?
I'd suggest
By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 6:22pm
That he go get laid...but who would (expletive) him?
Incels explained.
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 7:11pm
A succinct explanation for some of those "very fine people".
This Gentleman is Well Known
By sco
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 8:13pm
This person is a fixture in right-wing Watertown politics. He shows up to many events and can usually be found using the computers at the library (when it's open). He was around the edges of tonight's vigil as well. I imagine he'll be out there with a mop and bucket again.
I used to work with seniors
By Lawrant
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 8:39pm
I used to work with seniors in Watertown... wondering if it’s who I think it is
Which is fine
By BostonDog
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 10:03pm
If his protest (which is his right) is limited to a mop and bucket on public property, that's fine. I disagree with his stance, but as right wing tactics go, this one is pretty docile.
So we can go draw swastikas
By anon
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 8:00am
So we can go draw swastikas around town with chalk? And say this is fine, it's just our viewpoint? That's what we want our children growing up around?
Racist writings, even in chalk is not acceptable in our town.
Hmmm
By The Beer Guy
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 5:38am
The only RW fixture that I can think of in Watertown is about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide so I'm guessing it's not him.
When I have taken the kids to the WFPL, I have seen a car in the parking lot covered with Trumpesque bumper stickers with stuff like "I Don't Believe the (((MAINSTREAM MEDIA)))" and shit like that...
Its literally as much his
By some guy
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 10:33pm
Its literally as much his right as the people who put the chalk in the first place. I appreciate how his revision now means that those kids who get their heads chopped off with rusty knives by the cartels in latin america matter. How the uyghurs who are being systemically oppressed in china also matter. I appreciate how it's more inclusive as a result.
As long as they are not
By brianjdamico
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 11:46pm
As long as they are not inducing harm on others, I welcome the racists to out themselves.
I'm a little ambivalent on this notion. On the one
By MC Slim JB
Wed, 06/10/2020 - 1:15am
hand, Trump has caused enormous, profound damage to America: to our physical and economic health and security, the prosperity of our grandchildren, our global stature as a country to be emulated and admired, the rule of law, the essential fabric of our comity as a democracy, our forward momentum as an increasingly inclusive, tolerant society.
On the other hand, Trump's ascendance has revealed many relatives, friends, acquaintances and colleagues you once thought of as upright, intelligent human beings to be raving bigots, adolescent bullies, conspiracy-minded failures as critical thinkers, stark religious hypocrites, and drop-outs on basic science, civics, ethics and morality.
Okay, that's actually two awful things, a horror, but the backward folk are a shrinking minority, and it's better to know than not to know. The broken, ignorant and hateful among us have outed themselves. You can despair at that, or go to work. I haven't forsaken my benighted Trumpie friends: I hold out hope they may yet find their inner core of empathy and decency (plus you're never too old to learn the scientific method). At least nobody's unclear on the challenge anymore. America may be on the plague cart, but we're not dead yet.
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