Roadblocks, Weapons Bans as Boston Braces for 'Free Speech' Rally

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

August 18, 2017 5:21 PM
Reuters

BOSTON —
Boston officials are planning road blockades and even banning food vendors from the historic Boston Common as they step up security around a "Free Speech" rally on Saturday featuring right-wing speakers, aiming to avoid a repeat of last weekend's violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia.

Some 500 police officers will be on the streets around the popular tourist destination. They are planning to close some roadways to vehicles, mindful of the car attacks that killed a woman in Charlottesville and 13 in an attack in Barcelona on Thursday.

“We all know the tragedy that happened in Barcelona. That only makes us more vigilant,” said Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, who was the department's second-in-command during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

Intense concern

Saturday's rally has drawn intense concern from city and state officials following the violence in Charlottesville, when white supremacists at a “Unite the Right” rally fought in the streets with anti-racism protesters. A woman was killed at that event when a man said to have neo-Nazi sympathies crashed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, injuring another 19 people.

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/roadblocks-weapons-bans-as-boston-braces-for-free-speech-rally/3991783.html

[frazzled]

1. This is not a rally advocating for "free speech."

The free-speech movement at Berkeley in 1964-65 actually was about free speech. It was students requesting the university administration to "lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom." That they then used the freedom they gained to speak against the war and in favor of civil rights was the result of their campaign to have free speech on campus.

These goons (to my knowledge) are not demanding free speech, which no one has curtailed for them; they just will make hateful speeches.

[canetoad]

2. I wonder

If we'll see more masks and covered faces, so they are not identified from photos and video. A KKK hood would do the job.

[riversedge]

8. the kkk did not show up yesterday in Durham NC. We can for the same today.

[Initech]

3. This is not a free speech rally. This is assholes being assholes!

[JDC]

4. The idea of these guys on the Common makes me sick.

[secondwind]

5. Me too! As a former resident of Boston, it makes me sick to think of the beautiful,

peaceful Commons being used as a soapbox for These haters. I hope nobody shows up to hear them.

[lindysalsagal]

6. Please. Put them on ignore. Sheetcaking! Tina's right!

[riversedge]

7. Sticks, bats and weapons of all kinds would be banned, he said.

I assume by weapons they mean guns???


Violence won't be tolerated

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said the city had granted a permit for Saturday's event but would not tolerate violence. Sticks, bats and weapons of all kinds would be banned, he said.

“We are going to respect their right to free speech. In return they have to respect the safety of our city,” Walsh said. “If anything gets out of hand, we are going to shut it down.”

The rally could be dwarfed by a "Fight White Supremacy" march starting in the city's historically black Roxbury neighborhood and ending at the Common, which organizers expect to draw thousands.