Although the “free speech” rally that took place in Boston over the weekend ended up being significantly more peaceful than the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, where 32-year-old Heather Heyer and two Virginia State Troopers were killed, that does not mean it was not without incident.
Videos by Rare
RELATED: Watch: Elderly woman with an American flag gets dragged by violent protester in Boston
Video recorded by France24’s Philip Crowther now making the rounds on the internet now showed things weren’t exactly peaceful.
My footage from Boston: violent clashes between the police and protesters. pic.twitter.com/S1vWB0hDV0
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) August 20, 2017
Nowhere was that clearer than in an encounter between a black protester and a black police officer.
The woman approached the police officer in riot gear and hurled verbally abuse, calling him “a stupid ass bitch” and “black bitch!” because he was on the other side of the line.
“You’re supposed to be on our side!” she yelled.
The response to the video has been negative.
https://twitter.com/ruther_michael/status/899230263003066368
Arrested, charged and made to clean up the mess they left, kind of like teaching a spoiled brat.
— Bobby Lee Pettimore (@BobLocomotive) August 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/ruther_michael/status/899244422310670336
One person criticized Crowther for being one sided.
Huh, pretty one sided of you. How much footage of the 20-40k non- violent people did you record/publish? Have an agenda of your iwn?
— Christine Hersh🇺🇲 (@GOAT_Mom) August 20, 2017
He replied that he was also just doing his job.
There's plenty. No agenda whatsoever. I just record what happens.
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) August 20, 2017
33 arrests were made over the weekend and police even had to ask people not to throw urine and bottles at law enforcement.
#BPD is asking individuals to refrain from throwing urine, bottles and other harmful projectiles at our officers.
— Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) August 19, 2017