Radical counter-protesters add acid to their armoury, say Boston police
AMERICAN police fear radical bands of counter-protesters are adding acid to their arsenal of extreme violence as they try to disrupt far-Right rallies.
The US has endured a week of demonstrations and soul-searching as the country re-examines its troubled racial history and the fallout from Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency.
Yesterday, about 15,000 counterprotesters gathered in the centre of Boston in a show of strength dwarfing a far-Right rally on the city’s common.
The day passed off largely peacefully – with 27 arrests reported – but police said they were becoming increasingly concerned that militants were arming themselves with acid.
“We think it’s what they had in Charlottesville,” said one policeman, referring to violence last weekend in Virginia. “They are using hydrochloric acid or battery acid.
“Their tactic seems to be to cause so much trouble that the event gets shut down before it can even begin.”
A law enforcement official told the Boston Globe that officers were investigating reports that radical counterprotesters were planning to throw acid.
More than 600 officers patrolled fences and concrete blockades arranged on Boston Common to keep the two sides apart.
Among them were more than 100 socalled “antifa” Left-wingers, wearing black scarves over their faces, chanting: “Nazi scum, off our streets.”
The vast numbers of counter-protesters meant a tiny group of free speech advocates and Right wingers – no more than about three dozen huddled together on a bandstand – cut
‘Their tactic seems to be to cause so much trouble that the event gets shut down before it can even begin’
short their event. Their words were drowned out by cries of “Where’s the rest of your rally?” and after 45 minutes of the scheduled two-hour programme they admitted defeat.
Jake Phelan, who stood with the counter-protesters, said: “We always hear from a vocal minority but today people are realising that decency can’t be silenced.”
The Boston event had been three months in the planning but took on greater significance after clashes in Charlottesville where a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, died when a car crashed into a crowd.
Organisers insisted they were promoting only free speech rather than hate groups.
However, the list of speakers included Kyle Chapman, founder of the far-Right Fraternal Order of AltKnights, who was this week charged with an alleged assault at a Trump rally in March.