‘Free Speech’ Rally Counter-Protest Turns Ugly, Targets Rally Goers, Cops

Shortly before noon, the counter-protest Saturday against the so-called Free Speech Rally on Boston Common had a festive feel to it, with music, smiling faces, and colorful displays and signs.

The atmosphere changed after a Free Speech rally goer apparently tried to engage in dialogue with counterprotesters, and ended up getting escorted off the Common by about a half-dozen Boston police officers surrounded by a crowd of angry men screaming at them and trying to get at them. As the slow-moving circle neared Charles Street between the Common and the Public Garden, one of the counterprotesters lobbed a bottle of blue Gatorade into the scrum. Police officers got the rally goer onto Charles Street and then eventually into a paddy wagon, which took him away.