Mainstream media reports on the so-called “Free Speech” rally and counterprotest on Boston Common on Saturday afternoon keep emphasizing how “peaceful” the event was and how well behaved the left-wing counterprotesters were as they spread their message of love and tolerance against the rally organizers’ message of bigotry and hate. That’s the message coming from top city officials, too.
That leads to several questions not being asked by the mainstream media.
1.
Is a counter-protest peaceful when people get punched, are impeded, are threatened, and have things thrown at them?
That’s what happened to several rally participants as they tried to make their way through the crowd. One rally goer, a man who apparently tried to engage the counterprotesters in dialogue, ended up running a slow-motion gauntlet through about half the Common surrounded by police officers. Radicals surrounded the small circle created by cops, screamed at the guy, and tried to hit him. Near Charles Street one of the counterprotesters from behind threw a bottle of blue Gatorade into the middle of the scrum, which may have hit the guy but if not must have hit cops around him.
2.
Are anti-fascists supposed to look like fascist fascists?
Members of the group Antifa wore black masks over their faces as they marched and chanted. (“Antifa” stands for anti-fascist.) Later, they attacked police officers.
Earlier, some members of Black Lives Matter on the Common chanted “FTP, [bleep] the police!”
When confronted by any message they didn’t like, such as a religious woman proclaiming Jesus, many counterprotesters simply tried to drown it out.
Cries of “Shame, Shame” confronted a rally organizer wearing a Donald Trump baseball cap. Counter-protesters tried to drown him out as he was being interviewed by television reporters.
Remind us: Aren’t fascists the ones who try to suppress the opposition?
3.
Is it enough to win a public encounter against your enemies? Or is it also necessary to hurt them?
On Boylston Street, when police officers tried to evacuate the rally goers from Boston Common, the process took well more than a half-hour because counterprotesters kept blocking the way for police vehicles. On multiple occasions, a loud chant went up from the counterprotesters: “Make them walk! Make them walk!” Many wanted a chance to scream at them, throw things at them, and even attack them. It wasn’t enough that the rally people were leaving the scene; many counterprotesters also wanted a pound of flesh.
At last count, 33 of the counterprotesters were arrested — some for blocking the paddy wagons that brought the rally goers off the common, some for attacking police after the rally goers were gone.
4.
Why is it O.K. to allow an event to take place in public but not allow reporters to cover it?
Boston police issued a directive the day before the rally that included this sentence:
“NO media personnel will be allowed inside the barricaded area around the Bandstand.”
That meant that no reporters could hear what the rally speakers said, because they were at least 300 feet away.
Do you feel like you know what the so-called Free Speech Coalition Rally organizers stand for and what they said?
How could you? Nothing they said at their rally has been reported in the media, because apparently no reporters were there.
This isn’t a criticism of rank-and-file cops. Police officers did a good job keeping rally participants from being injured and keeping rabid counter-protesters at bay, and without being heavy-handed about it. Cops showed remarkable restraint in patiently and even courteously ordering counter-protesters off scaffolding bars along Boylston Street. Motorcycle cops at Boylston Street and Essex Street ignored provocations by left-wing thugs from inches away.
Nobody got killed, and nobody got seriously injured, and for that we should be grateful.
But the ban on media coverage of the rally is disturbing.
Were Boston city officials trying to sandbag the rally holders and control the message?
Why are there no members of the mainstream media howling about not being able to cover the rally?
