Friday, August 18, 2017
BOSTON (AP) — Boston’s mayor and police commissioner say about 500 officers are being deployed to make sure there is no violence involving people attending a free speech rally and planned counterprotests this weekend.
Mayor Marty Walsh said Friday that officials “will not tolerate any incitements of violence” at the rally planned for Saturday on Boston Common.
The Boston Free Speech Coalition says its rally Saturday has nothing to do with white nationalism and they are not affiliated with the organizers of a rally in Virginia last weekend that erupted into violence and left one person dead.
But Walsh and other critics say many of the speakers invited to the rally “spew hate.”
Organizers of a counterprotest expect as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people to join them on a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) march.