Boston protesters silence Right rally

THOUSANDS of demonstrators chanting anti-Nazi slogans converged on downtown Boston in a boisterous repudiation of white nationalism, dwarfing a small group of conservatives who cut short their planned “free speech rally” a week after a gathering of hate groups led to bloodshed in Virginia.

Counter-protesters marched through the city to historic Boston Common, where many gathered near a bandstand abandoned early by conservatives who had planned to deliver a series of speeches.

Police vans escorted the conservatives out of the area, and angry counter-protesters scuffled with armed officers trying to maintain order.

Members of the Black Lives Matter movement later protested on the common, where a Confederate flag was burned and protesters pounded on the sides of a police vehicle.

Later in the afternoon, Boston’s police department tweeted that protesters were throwing bottles, urine and rocks at them and asked people to refrain from doing so.

Boston Commissioner William Evans said 27 arrests were made – mostly for disorderly conduct, while some were for assaulting police officers. Officials said the rallies drew about 40,000 people.

President Donald Trump applauded the people in Boston who he said were “speaking out” against bigotry and hate. Mr Trump added in a Twitter message that “our country will soon come together as one!”

Organisers of the conservative event had distanced themselves from the Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who fomented violence in Charlottesville on August 12.

A woman was killed at that Unite the Right rally when a car ploughed into counterdemonstrators.

Rallies in other cities around the country each attracted hundreds of people showing their opposition to white supremacist groups.