A city speaks: Thousands expected at rallies across Boston
By Jan Ransom, Travis Andersen and Emily Sweeney GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 18, 2017
The city plans to dispatch more than 500 police officers to patrol Saturday’s “Boston Free Speech” rally on Boston Common Saturday, and city officials vowed to shut it down if it turns violent, as they prepared for what is one of the first big demonstrations since the violence in Charlottesville, Va., last week.
Authorities fear white supremacists will attend, and two of the rally’s keynote speakers have ties to extremist elements — including one who attended the Charlottesville rally.
Rally organizers have maintained the event is open to all political views and not a forum for hate groups, and the permit issued by the city is for only 100 people. But tens of thousands of counterprotesters are expected to show up to denounce racism and anti-Semitism.
The heightened concern comes in the aftermath of the Charlottesville rally, where one counterprotester was killed and dozens of people were injured. The violent rally prompted a series of remarks by President Trump that were widely denounced as divisive.
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