A free-speech rally, minus the free speech - The Boston Globe - Jeff Jacoby:
Ausust 21, 2017 - "Participants in the 'Boston Free Speech Rally' had been demonized as a troupe of neo-Nazis prepared to reprise the horror that had erupted in Charlottesville. They turned out to be a couple dozen courteous people linked by little more than a commitment to — surprise! — free speech....
"Indeed, nothing about the tiny rally seemed in any way connected with bigotry or hatred. One of the speakers was Shiva Ayyadurai, an immigrant from India who is seeking the Republican nomination in next year’s US Senate race. As Ayyadurai spoke, his supporters held signs proclaiming 'Black Lives Do Matter.'
"But he and the others who gathered at the Parkman Bandstand had never stood a chance of competing with the rumor that neo-Nazis were coming to Boston. That toxic claim was irresponsibly fueled by Mayor Marty Walsh, who denounced the planned rally — 'Boston does not want you here'....
"A massive counterprotest, 40,000 strong, showed up to denounce a nonexistent cohort of racists. Boston deployed hundreds of police officers, who did an admirable job of maintaining order. Some of the counterprotesters screamed, cursed, or acted like thugs — at one point the Boston Police Department warned protesters 'to refrain from throwing urine, bottles, and other harmful projectiles' — but most behaved appropriately....
"The speakers on the Common bandstand were kept from being heard. They were blocked off with a 225-foot buffer zone, segregated beyond earshot. Police barred anyone from approaching to hear what the rally speakers had to say. Reporters were excluded, too.... The free-speech rally took place in a virtual cone of silence....
"Even some of the rally’s own would-be attendees were kept from the bandstand. Yet when Police Commissioner Bill Evans was asked at a press conference Saturday afternoon whether it was right to treat them that way, he was unapologetic. 'You know what,' he said, 'if they didn’t get in, that’s a good thing, because their message isn’t what we want to hear.'
"No, Commissioner Evans. It was not a 'good thing' that people with a right to speak were effectively silenced by the operations of the police. The ralliers did nothing wrong.... They absorbed the slanders flung at them by the mayor and others. They didn’t try to shut their critics down, and they weren’t the ones hurling 'urine, bottles, and other harmful projectiles.'
"All they were guilty of was attempting to defend the importance of free speech. For that, they were unjustly smeared as Nazis and their own freedom of speech was mauled."
Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/21/free-speech-rally-minus-free-speech/vymrZBl1NLtz04oW2IBpKK/story.html
'via Blog this'
This column is adapted from the current issue of Arguable, Jeff Jacoby’s weekly email newsletter.
Ausust 21, 2017 - "Participants in the 'Boston Free Speech Rally' had been demonized as a troupe of neo-Nazis prepared to reprise the horror that had erupted in Charlottesville. They turned out to be a couple dozen courteous people linked by little more than a commitment to — surprise! — free speech....
"Indeed, nothing about the tiny rally seemed in any way connected with bigotry or hatred. One of the speakers was Shiva Ayyadurai, an immigrant from India who is seeking the Republican nomination in next year’s US Senate race. As Ayyadurai spoke, his supporters held signs proclaiming 'Black Lives Do Matter.'
"But he and the others who gathered at the Parkman Bandstand had never stood a chance of competing with the rumor that neo-Nazis were coming to Boston. That toxic claim was irresponsibly fueled by Mayor Marty Walsh, who denounced the planned rally — 'Boston does not want you here'....
"A massive counterprotest, 40,000 strong, showed up to denounce a nonexistent cohort of racists. Boston deployed hundreds of police officers, who did an admirable job of maintaining order. Some of the counterprotesters screamed, cursed, or acted like thugs — at one point the Boston Police Department warned protesters 'to refrain from throwing urine, bottles, and other harmful projectiles' — but most behaved appropriately....
"The speakers on the Common bandstand were kept from being heard. They were blocked off with a 225-foot buffer zone, segregated beyond earshot. Police barred anyone from approaching to hear what the rally speakers had to say. Reporters were excluded, too.... The free-speech rally took place in a virtual cone of silence....
"Even some of the rally’s own would-be attendees were kept from the bandstand. Yet when Police Commissioner Bill Evans was asked at a press conference Saturday afternoon whether it was right to treat them that way, he was unapologetic. 'You know what,' he said, 'if they didn’t get in, that’s a good thing, because their message isn’t what we want to hear.'
"No, Commissioner Evans. It was not a 'good thing' that people with a right to speak were effectively silenced by the operations of the police. The ralliers did nothing wrong.... They absorbed the slanders flung at them by the mayor and others. They didn’t try to shut their critics down, and they weren’t the ones hurling 'urine, bottles, and other harmful projectiles.'
"All they were guilty of was attempting to defend the importance of free speech. For that, they were unjustly smeared as Nazis and their own freedom of speech was mauled."
Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/21/free-speech-rally-minus-free-speech/vymrZBl1NLtz04oW2IBpKK/story.html
'via Blog this'
This column is adapted from the current issue of Arguable, Jeff Jacoby’s weekly email newsletter.
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