A massive sea of citizens descended upon the streets of Boston in what was planned to be a right-wing conservative rally, but transformed into a counter-protester's march against racism, on Saturday, August 19.
Approximately 40,000 people participated in the unifying juncture, with the organizers and attendees of the actual "Free Speech" rally being vastly outnumbered by dissenters looking to denounce their alt-right leaning brand of patriotism as hateful. Video and photos of the action showed a couple of hundred people under a gazebo centered at Boston Common, being protected from the crowd drowning them out.
While the protest was largely peaceful, the event, which scheduled to go from noon to 2 p.m., was called off at 1:30 p.m. for safety reasons. A small but aggressive faction of anti-fascist protesters did squabble with police, but by accounts of the mayor and head of Boston police, only 33 arrests were made, and there was no significant breakdown in crowd control. No injuries were reported.
Boston wasn't the only city staging rallies on Saturday. There were protests challenged by counter-protests in New Orleans, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Dallas among other places. However, none came close to the showing that reared up in Bean Town. By the time all was said and done scores of people had taken to social media to tell of how inspired they were by the unity on display. Actor/comedian Michael Rapaport was one of those people.
"Yo, Boston, yo I've never had so much respect and admiration for your city and the state of Massachusetts as I do today. You guys held it down. You were Boston f**king strong. Salute! I'm a native New Yorker, and you know when it comes to sports we have a long history. We f**ked you guys in 2008 in the Super Bowl and then we came back four years later and we f**ked you again. But this ain't about that, this is about life," Rapaport said, as he wove a few humorous quips into props given to the city for bringing it all together. "Life is bigger than sports. Boston did it beautifully today. You shut 'em down. I hope the rest of the country takes your lead," he went on to say, adding that while the city's sports teams have a history of epic blunders and ugly players, it was all love on Saturday.
