The City of Boston and its residents are on edge, preparing for a so-called ‘free speech’ rally on Boston Common Saturday afternoon that is expected to draw tens of thousands of conservative activists and leftist counter-demonstrators.
Many here in Boston worry the event will attract some of the same white supremacists and Neo-Nazis who sparked violence on and near the University of Virginia in Charlottesville last weekend, attacking hundreds and killing a 32-year-old woman.
But organizers of the so-called free speech rally are trying to distance themselves from those groups.
“There’s been a lot of misinformation out there about what we actually stand for,” said John Medlar, 23, who leads the Boston Free Speech Coalition, the organization holding the permit for Saturday’s rally.
“We were planning this rally long before Charlottesville,” Medlar explained. “We saw the rising tide of political violence in this country. Charlottesville is just the latest example. We wanted to do something that was, to us, fun and interesting but also more broadly important on a deeper level.”
Medlar says that broader goal was to bring people together around Constitutional values, specifically the First Amendment.
Critics of the rally, however, point out many of the invited speakers spew hate speech, and KKK members are expected to attend.
On Malcolm X Boulevard in Roxbury, local civil rights activist Monica Cannon spoke to reporters on Friday.
“There is a misconception that Boston is not racist, and that this is a haven for black folks and other marginalized communities,” Cannon said, reading from a statement. “It is a fact that deep-rooted, anti-black racism and white supremacy thrives here just as it does everywhere else in the world, and there is a history that affirms that fact.”
Cannon is founder of the nonprofit Violence in Boston, one of many local groups partnering with the national Black Lives Matter movement to sponsor a counter-protest.
“You can’t say you don’t stand for something, but everybody you have on your speaking agenda stands for exactly just that,” Cannon said.
Cannon sees it as moral obligation to confront the kind of speech and violence seen in Charlottesville and widely expected in Boston on Saturday.
“I’m a black woman living in Roxbury and I don’t have the privilege of ignoring this problem,” Cannon said. “Ignoring the problem has never made it go away, so I think it’s an obligation morally, but more so as a community member to stand up and resist it.”
Organizers of the counter-protest expect as many as 30,000 people will join the resistance, marching from Roxbury Community College to the Common.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh wants the community to come together and stand against hate, white supremacists and their ideology, but, hoping to avoid conflict, he’s urging counter-protesters to stay away from the Common.
“At the same time, we can’t look away,” Walsh said at a news conference Friday. “The children of our city are watching. We have to make it clear what we stand for in the City of Boston.”
Walsh says more than 500 officers are being deployed, and police won’t tolerate any incitements of violence at the rally.
“We’re going to respect their right to free speech. In return, they must respect our city,” Walsh said. “If anything gets out of hand, we will shut it down.”
There are severe restrictions in place. No backpacks, sticks or anything that could be used as a weapon.
The Boston Common Garage, the Swan Boats and the Frog Pond will all be closed due to public safety, and the MBTA says it will work with state and city partners to “maintain a safe transit environment.”
Fencing and concrete barriers are lining streets along the Common, and crews have installed cameras at the bandstand, where speakers will address the crowds.
