I've been watching the live TV broadcast of NECN all morning now, and just logged into ATS to see what sort of disinformation was being spread.
Summary of my view of the events to date (2:15pm ET)
From watching it live I saw the Boston Police Dept (BPD) did a great job of managing this situation so far. They setup a 75 ft DMZ between the Rally
center where the permitted speeches were to take place and the counter-protester crowds. I watched as a column of protesters marched from Roxbury down
Tremont Street (past my building even) toward the Boston Common. Mostly peaceful rhetoric through the day.
The rally speakers could not actually be heard with the unaided ear due to the 75 ft space the police setup, but they were legally allowed to speak
their minds and not stopped. The counter-protesters also were allowed to speak and display their myriad of signs and mixed messages with a range of
topics.
The police were in their standard day uniforms, with high-visibility yellow vests (as typically worn) and just keeping the peace, not preventing
anyone from speaking, and keeping a close presence when a group gathered to debate some issue or another amongst themselves.
There was one incident of a man wearing a TRUMP T-Shirt that was trying to attend the counter-protest (which is his right) but was surrounded, spit
upon, and harassed by the crowd. It took a woman counter-protester from the midwest (Iowa I think?) to step in to help this man and attempt to escort
him safely through the crowds. They began to push ansd shove her, calling her a Nazi, and one man got in her face then PUNCHED her in the face! This,
from the "peaceful" anti-nazi crowd?
The rally speakers were scheduled form noon to 2pm, but left about 1:30pm or so (early), escorted by BPD for their safety away from the venue down a
separated pathway blocked by barriers. At the exit of the common, a mass of counter-protesters gathered to block the exit. Where the BPD was then
forced to dawn their riot gear at that time, behind a few BPD police transport vehicles (we know them here as "Paddy Wagons"). The police in riot gear
then proceeded in a formation of 4-files across and about 12 ranks deep to bengin clearing the street to allow passage out of the venue ahead of the
BPD vehicles.
At that time they were met with massive resistance from the counter-protest crowds, to chants of "who are you protecting" and "why are you protecting
Nazi's", etc... At one point a few AntiFa members in the crowd (they were wearing clearly AntiFa shirts and masks on their faces) began taunting the
police and resisting to move. Some physically began to assault the police as they were trying to push the crowd back with their batons as horizontal
"people movers". They were not swinging them at the crowd, nor poking them at all. These AntiFa supporters assaulted the police in the front rank, at
which point they were grabbed, pulled behind the front ranks of officers to a safe area, dropped to the ground and "cuffed" with plastic zip-ties
behind their backs. The BPD showed great restraint doing this, with not overly abusive force, only enough to immobilize them and get the cuffs on
them. At which point they were lifted off the ground and walked calmly to be arrested in the back of the column of polices.
When I turned it off, I saw about a dozen (12) of these people arrested, all of which were physically assaulting police at the time. The BPD was
repeatedly explaining to the crowds the rally was over and to disperse now.
That was when I logged into ATS and lost my personal coverage. I am anxious to speak to many of my friends later that actually attended there today,
so get their first-hand perspective of the events they witnessed across the different areas. If I do, I may make a thread here to outline their
personal experiences (names withheld of course).
ADDENDUM:
I did see one man in a TRUMP shirt surrounded by the crowds, splashed with water, people calling him a Nazi and yelling at him. He never raised a hand
only responded verbally with "I am NOT a Nazi". At one point someone in this peaceful crowd threw a plastic water bottle that him him in the face (in
the left eye to be exact). His reaction was simply to give a pissed off stare at the location where it came, and another man behind him pointed at the
person. They tried to get the police to take action for that assault.
edit on 8/19/2017 by Krakatoa because: (no reason given)