https://www.wsj.com/articles/boston-sets-restrictions-for-saturday-protests-1503083342?mod=e2tw
Boston officials will permit a rally organized by a right-wing group Saturday on a downtown public park, the Common, but with tight rules to try and prevent clashes between rallygoers and counterprotesters.
The rules include: no weapons, nothing sharp, no shields, no cans or glass containers, no bats, clubs, flagpoles or even sticks attached to signs. The city is cordoning off streets, extra mindful of security after the terror attack in Barcelona, according to police Commissioner William Evans.
The “Boston Free Speech Rally,” planned since at least mid-June, has become a major source of tension for the city following the deadly white-supremacist event in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend.
“We’re going to respect their right of free speech,” Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, a Democrat, said at a press conference Friday. “In return they must respect our city.” The Boston Free Speech group has been working with police to plan the event, he said.
Organizers of the Boston event say they are politically diverse, but the logo on the rally’sFacebook page reads, “Right Wing Safety Squad,” and the page says the rally won’t be stopped by any “radical-left organization.” The group behind the rally, Boston Free Speech, rejects associations with groups that marched in Virginia, and it says on its Facebook page that the group “will not be offering our platform to racism or bigotry.”
Thousands of counterprotesters, including local Black Lives Matter groups, are expected to march to the downtown Common on Saturday. Boston officials vowed that there would be cameras, barricades and police throughout the scene.