There Will be Blood: Boston's Straight Pride Parade.

[TurkeysGhost]

I skimmed the article.
I don't know who wrote that but I think I can guess their agenda.

Contrast to this AFP article published by Yahoo! News:
US police fire pepper spray after pro-Trump 'Straight Pride' parade



I wasn't there, so I don't know, but I'm a bit skeptical of these reports.

The job of the police was to prevent violence between the sides by keeping them separate and to restore order (re-open the roads) after it was over. Throwing dirt and eggs at the police, berating them for just doing what they're supposed to do, is not nice.

Honestly, this is probably the alt-right's goals when they come to Boston. They know that they will be dwarfed 10:1 by counter-protesters. They also know that the police here will segregate the two groups and are pretty quick to quell any rowdiness.

Alt-right knows if they show up that a bunch of lefties will show up and a few will lose their cool and get thumped by the cops.

 

[Mumbles]

Honestly, this is probably the alt-right's goals when they come to Boston. They know that they will be dwarfed 10:1 by counter-protesters. They also know that the police here will segregate the two groups and are pretty quick to quell any rowdiness.

Alt-right knows if they show up that a bunch of lefties will show up and a few will lose their cool and get thumped by the cops.

Looking at the videos, it was mostly the cops losing their cool and "thumping" random people with fists, bicycles and pepper spray.

Which, given my own experiences with BPD, and those of every single black person I knew there for a significant length of time, is not a shock. Also, I already saw the videos in question, and know full well that the streets they supposedly "HAD TO CLEAR!" by their own words, had been specifically closed off for the counterprotestors and cops apparently didn't bother asking anyone to actually clear said streets before turning violent.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Looking at the videos, it was mostly the cops losing their cool and "thumping" random people with fists, bicycles and pepper spray.

Which, given my own experiences with BPD, and those of every single black person I knew there for a significant length of time, is not a shock. Also, I already saw the videos in question, and know full well that the streets they supposedly "HAD TO CLEAR!" by their own words, had been specifically closed off for the counterprotestors and cops apparently didn't bother asking anyone to actually clear said streets before turning violent.

What fun would actually telling people before thumping them be for the cops?

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Looking at the videos, it was mostly the cops losing their cool and "thumping" random people with fists, bicycles and pepper spray.

Which, given my own experiences with BPD, and those of every single black person I knew there for a significant length of time, is not a shock. Also, I already saw the videos in question, and know full well that the streets they supposedly "HAD TO CLEAR!" by their own words, had been specifically closed off for the counterprotestors and cops apparently didn't bother asking anyone to actually clear said streets before turning violent.

Yeah, BPD overreacting and being general jackboots is nothing new. Alt-right is probably pleased as punch that BPD is doing their dirty work.

I think the general tactic that BPD uses, keeping the sides separated and breaking up fights before they snowball, is good. Their contempt for citizens is a general problem not only seen at protests.

All things considered, I much prefer the BPD response to the Portland response. That's not to say there isn't real reason for complaint.

 

[plague311]

Which, given my own experiences with BPD, and those of every single black person I knew there for a significant length of time, is not a shock. Also, I already saw the videos in question, and know full well that the streets they supposedly "HAD TO CLEAR!" by their own words, had been specifically closed off for the counterprotestors and cops apparently didn't bother asking anyone to actually clear said streets before turning violent.

It's not just with the BPD. Black baseball players say playing in Boston is absolutely horrific. There was an outcry by several players because they just didn't want to go. CC Sabathia said that when you go to Boston you just expect to be called the N word. I'm not sure what it is in Boston's water, but maybe that's why that alt-right picked the spot.

 

[plague311]

Apparently it's not just the police, and baseball fans, but the judges too!

Link:

A judge Tuesday denied almost every request to dismiss charges or ease bail for three dozen counterprotesters who were arrested at the Boston Straight Pride event on Saturday, despite prosecutors' requests, according to NBC’s Boston affiliate.

The Boston police liked it though:

"We think these offenders that are here, most of them outside the city of Boston, not residents here, came here as agitators, here for a specific reason, here to create havoc,” Larry Calderone, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, told NBC Boston.

The DA and politicians are saying the judge overstepped his authority, and there should be an investigation into the police's tactics.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Things getting buck wild in the courtroom for the counter protesters.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/09/03/judges-refuse-dismiss-assault-charges-against-protesters-straight-pride-parade/eNe0W4pgOc6gPbVgOmxU6O/story.html

Judge refuses to accept nolle pros decision from the district attorney (the DA is deciding not to prosecute these cases, as is her discretion). Now the Judge has ordered one of the defendant's attorneys to jail for contempt because she would not stop reading case law how denying nolle pros is unlawful.

Judge is really hellbent on taking a stand here. He won't win, but given the massive leniency that judges enjoy, I doubt he'll face any serious consequences.

 

[jimbob]

Wut?^^

 

[plague311]

Wut?^^

The judge is refusing to drop cases that the DA doesn't want to prosecute, and one of the defense attorneys was basically telling him that's not an option by reading case law.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Wut?^^

The judge isn't going to let prosecutors get in the way of delivering justice the police demand.

 

[TragicMonkey]

The courtroom is no place for the law!

 

[TurkeysGhost]

A little primer on DA Rollins. She was recently elected as the DA of Suffolk county, which includes Boston. She is best known for her progressive policy of non-prosecution for a selection of petty crimes, as part of a policy of de-criminalization. She was already butting heads with the police over her progressive policies, now she is refusing to prosecute many of the counter protestors arrested over the weekend, most of whom are charged with disorderly conduct and/or resisting arrest.

https://rollins4da.com/policy/charges-to-be-declined/

 

[Cavemonster]

Everything old is new again. Here's a bit from an article about former Alabama Governor George Wallace who ran on a pro-segregation platform:

Wallace wrote Martin that "we have never had a problem in the South except in a few very isolated instances and these have been the result of outside agitators." Wallace asserted that "I personally have done more for the Negroes of the State of Alabama than any other individual," citing job creation and the salaries of black teachers in Alabama. He rationalized segregation as "best for both races," writing that "they each prefer their own pattern of society, their own churches and their own schools." Wallace assured Martin that Alabamans were satisfied with society as it was and that the only "major friction" was created by "outside agitators.

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/george-wallace-segregation-1964

"outside agitator" has a long history as an idea used to dismiss protestor concerns and justify violence and legal persecution against demonstrators.

Notice also how the explicitly pro-segregation candidate likes to say (paraphrased) "My policies aren't against black people, look how many jobs I create for them". Sound familiar?

 

[dudalb]

A little primer on DA Rollins. She was recently elected as the DA of Suffolk county, which includes Boston. She is best known for her progressive policy of non-prosecution for a selection of petty crimes, as part of a policy of de-criminalization. She was already butting heads with the police over her progressive policies, now she is refusing to prosecute many of the counter protestors arrested over the weekend, most of whom are charged with disorderly conduct and/or resisting arrest.

https://rollins4da.com/policy/charges-to-be-declined/

Actually quite a few DA's decline to prosecute in these kind of cases. The idea to get the demonstrartors resorting to violence off the streets for a few hourse until things calm down.

 

[dudalb]

Honestly, this is probably the alt-right's goals when they come to Boston. They know that they will be dwarfed 10:1 by counter-protesters. They also know that the police here will segregate the two groups and are pretty quick to quell any rowdiness.

Alt-right knows if they show up that a bunch of lefties will show up and a few will lose their cool and get thumped by the cops.

Which is why I think the best tactic is to let the alt right fools display their idiocy to the world. Violent counter protests just play into their hands. But too many on the left seems to have a "this is the way we did it in the Sixties, so this is the way we will do it now" mentality.

 

[dudalb]

*colonists throwing cases of tea into the harbor glance up*

Let's not forget the BOston massacre of a few years before.
Or a few cases of tar and feathering...

Yeah, Boston has sort of lost it when it comes to violent protests since the Revolutionary period.

 

[dudalb]

And as much as I despise the alt right, if they don't break the law they have as much right to demonstrate as the next person.
I know this an opinion that is not popular here. Distrubed that so many supposed skeptics seem to dislike freedom of speech.

 

[cullennz]

Same with his misogamy. He cheated on wife A publicly with B, etc. Not even kind of privately. It was blatant and in the open. He's also had a myriad of degrading comments about females. Calling them dogs, implying that whenever they're made it's because they're having their period, and more.

TBF What Clinton got away with tends to be largely brushed over, so it seems US presidents get given a bit of leeway when it comes to sexism.

 

[luchog]

And as much as I despise the alt right, if they don't break the law they have as much right to demonstrate as the next person.
I know this an opinion that is not popular here. Distrubed that so many supposed skeptics seem to dislike freedom of speech.

Everything You Think You Know About ‘Free Speech’ Is a Lie
How far-right operatives manufactured the “crisis” of free speech with books, think tanks—and billions of dollars.

The article does not lend itself well to sound-bite excepts, so you'll have to actually read it.

The gist is, this "dislike freedom of speech" is nothing but a Right-Wing talking point that has not basis in reality, and even the phrase "freedom of speech" has been re-defined by the Right to mean something completely different; said re-definition having been funded by arch-conservative billionaires to squash dissent and criticism.

 

[Mumbles]

Which is why I think the best tactic is to let the alt right fools display their idiocy to the world. Violent counter protests just play into their hands. But too many on the left seems to have a "this is the way we did it in the Sixties, so this is the way we will do it now" mentality.

Except, again, the counterprotests weren't violent - the cops were just randomly attacking and arresting people. This is why the DA is refusing to prosecute most of the charges, even when the police are alleging that they were violently attacked. When there's an extended video of the people involved clearly just standing around when a cop just starts shoving a bicycle into them and knocking them over, and then arresting them because "THEY WOULDN"T CLEAR THE AREA!", when no such instruction was given, the case is over.