RALLY’S RETURN RELATIVELY CALM
Three arrests, no violence as factions hit the Common
Scores of self-described free speech supporters met on Boston Common for a “Resist Marxism” rally aimed at denouncing the perceived efforts of Mayor Martin J. Walsh and black-clad counterprotesters to squelch their constitutional rights, with the promise they’d return in the spring.
The rally, a reprise of a similarly tense event in August, drew hundreds of counterprotesters, including a group of anti-fascist or “Antifa” demonstrators. In all, police said three people were arrested — two for disorderly conduct and one for assaulting a cop.
The approximately 75 rallygoers, escorted by police, briefly clashed with counterprotesters on the way to the Parkman Bandstand for a midday speaking program.
Rally organizer Mark Sahady boomed into the microphone, “Free speech is alive in Boston,” before railing at Walsh and other organizations for trying to prevent his group from sharing its message — both yesterday and in August.
“Today we will demonstrate that the lie of Mayor Marty Walsh and the violence of those mobs will not silence free speech in Boston,” Sahady said. “Mayor Walsh, we call upon you to apologize for slandering your fellow Americans.”
A spokeswoman for Walsh declined to comment on the remarks.
Although organizers were denied a permit because of a road race on the Common, they held the rally anyway and vowed to hold another in the spring.
When asked how they felt free speech was under attack, Sahady and other organizers said police officers monitoring their August rally violated their rights by preventing the public and media members from gathering around the bandstand.
“If the violence of mobs and city governments don’t let that happen, they are infringing on your rights,” Sahady said.
One speaker, Samson Racioppi, asked any white supremacists present to raise their hand; none did.
“If you think you’re better than anyone else just because of the color of your skin or your belief system, let me tell you something: You’re not, you’re worse,” Racioppi said.
On the protesters’ side of the police barricades, one member of a black-clad bandana-wearing group said organizers’ “free speech” concern is a facade for racist motives.
“The organizers call it a free speech rally. It’s so they can make white nationalist speech,” said the member of the Bay State Red Sentinels, who declined to give his name. “We are not protesting free speech. We are protesting what (prominent white nationalist) Richard Spencer calls a ‘peaceful ethnic cleansing.’”
Kyle Chapman, a right-wing “American nationalist” who is facing eight years in prison for attacking protesters at a rally in California in March, cast the issue in dark, cosmic terms.
“We are on the side of good. They are on the side of evil,” Chapman said while wearing a pair of mace proof goggles and a spiky ring. “I want everybody to take a minute. Feel your ancestors looking down smiling upon you. Feel God, feel his grace as he looks down on us, knowing we are fighting for good.”
Chapman spoke about what he saw as rampant white guilt.
“There is war against whites right now,” Chapman told reporters. “Whites are constantly made by the media and academia to feel guilty for past wrongs that were committed.”
Following the speaking program, the small crowd of protesters was escorted by police from the bandstand to the front steps of the State House, where they recited the Pledge of Allegiance and chanted “USA.”