FACE OFF

Counter-Protesters Drown Out Right-Wing ‘Free Speech’ Demonstrators in Boston

Thirty right-wing activists faced off with 300 counter-protestors Saturday.

About 300 counter-protestors drowned out about 30 right-wing “free speech” activists on Saturday, one year after a similar face off, The Boston Globe reports. Demonstrators on opposite sides of the political spectrum exchanged barbs and accusations, but there was no apparent violence. Boston police apprehended one counter-protestor, but a department spokesperson said there were no arrests. The counter-protesters assembled to disrupt the rally, which they said was a platform for neo-Nazis. “They seem to think if they just don’t use swastikas that we won’t notice what they actually believe in,” counter- protest organizer Peter Berard told The Globe. “What we’re trying to do today is we’re trying to show that Boston is no place for their hate.” The group behind the right-wing rally, Boston Free Speech, denied it had racist intentions, though one participant interviewed by The Globe had a tattoo of a neo-Nazi symbol and wore a shirt promoting an alleged white supremacist group. The organizer of last year’s rally, which drew about 40,000 counter-protesters, said the left-wing demonstrators were disrupting the group’s right to free speech. “We’re trying to have a civil discourse,” he said. “It’s these people who are trying to shut us down.” Far-right protesters snuck out after they were outnumbered at the Unite the Right II rally last week in Washington D.C.