Right-wing Boston demo falls apart
Counter-protesters swamp US rally
RIGHT- WING activists abandoned a planned rally in the US city of Boston after tens of thousands of counterprotesters took to the streets.
A fenced- off area in the city where the event took place was surrounded with anti- racism demonstrators who were held back by police barriers.
Fears had been raised about clashes between the rival groups after a similar demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly.
But American media reported there was no violence as the socalled Boston Free Speech Coalition were escorted away by police with “barely 20 people” turning up.
One man wearing a red hat emblazoned with Donald Trump’s election slogan “Make America Great Again” was swamped by left-wing activists.
A video shows him standing with his hands behind his back while he is surrounded on the street.
Sean Cronin, a supporter of the US President who tried to get to the rally, claimed: “It just turned into a mob pit.”
Counter- protesters, who gathered near Boston’s Malcolm X Boulevard, chanted: “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
Many wore stickers with the face of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who died when a car was driven into a crowd of counter-protesters at last Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville.
President Trump has been mired in controversy over his response to violence at the white supremacist rally in Virginia, which featured neo- Nazis and white supremacists amongst others.
Republicans and Democrats alike have criticised him for insisting that anti- racism protesters were equally to blame for the violence.
He has now pulled out of a White House event after stars threatened to boycott it
Some of those due to take part in the Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony, including singer Lionel Richie, said they would refuse to attend the reception, which take place before the main event.
The White House said in a statement: “The President and First Lady have decided not to participate in this year’s Kennedy Center Honors activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.
“First Lady Melania Trump, along with her husband President Donald J Trump, extend their sincerest congratulations and well wishes to all of this year’s award recipients for their many accomplishments.”
Meanwhile, left- wing groups and Berlin residents prevented more than 500 far-right extremists from marching to the Berlin prison where high- ranking Nazi official Rudolf Hess died decades ago.
Police in riot gear kept the neo-Nazis and an estimated 1000 counter- protesters apart as the two sides staged competing rallies in the German capital’s western district of Spandau.
Far-right pro testers had planned to march to the site of the former Spandau prison, where Hess hanged himself in 1987, but were forced to turn back after about a kilometre because of a blockade by counter-protesters.