In Boston over the weekend, tens of thousands of people showed up to protest against fascism as a small band of far-right activists staged a protest on behalf of free speech.
Overall, there were very few arrests as a percentage of the people who showed up. According to Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans, about 40,000 people were there — mostly to protest against the protesters who showed up — and there was no property damage.
Boston PD Commissioner William Evans: We had 40,000 people "standing tall against bigotry and hatred in our city, and that's a good feeling" pic.twitter.com/g7NBoLxieR
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 19, 2017
#Boston police estimated 30K-40k protesters today. 32 arrests. So 99.99% of people protested peacefully, but let's focus on .01% of people.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) August 19, 2017
The organizers of the “Free Speech Rally” were a different bunch from the Charlottesville, Virginia crew. Saturday’s protest featured a different contingent of demonstrators, including one man wearing an Israeli flag and a Trump hat, who was harassed and treated as if he were a fascist. One counter-demonstrator even boasted that he would steal the Trump fan’s identity.
Update 2017-08-29 23:11 ET. This story originally referenced a Colorado man named Joshua Witt who claimed that he had been stabbed by someone who believed him to be a neo-Nazi due to his haircut.
A subsequent police investigation discovered that Witt had allegedly lied about his injury. Witt has been charged with making a false report to police, according to a Denver television station.
