Demonstrators across Boston gathered Saturday in several protests sparked by the national Black Lives Matter movement — including a group with far-right links that was behind last year’s Straight Pride Parade.
The protests near the State House, one honoring mothers in Copley Square, and a rolling bike ride through Roxbury and Dorchester, come as thousands rally for an end to police violence against Black Americans, and the dismantling of systemic racism that has plagued the nation.
Among those demonstrators were hundreds who gathered for March Like a Mother for Black Lives Boston in Copley Square — an event organized by Black mothers to “summon all mothers” to stand in solidarity against anti-blackness and racism, organizers said on Facebook.
Advertisement
At Copley Square, Latoya Gayle and Sarah Iddrissu, cofounders of the event, weaved in and out of the crowd of volunteers, coordinating the final details of an event they had spend the past two weeks planning.
“A mother’s love is radical, and it’ll make you do things you didn’t think you could do,” Gayle said.
The mothers’ event follows the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died while in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day. Four officers have been charged in Floyd’s death.
As an officer pushed his knee into Floyd’s neck, he said he couldn’t breathe and called out for his mother.
Gayle, 41, is the mother of three teenager. Iddrissu has an 18-month-old boy and said her son’s birth made organizing for justice all the more urgent.
“When a grown man is calling for his mother, you see a child. You see your child,” Iddrissu said.
Among the volunteers were several members of the Kappa Alpha Psi alumni chapter in Boston — the fraternity brothers’ red shirts stood out in the crowd as they passed out yellow roses to attendees and coordinated with March Like a Mother volunteers to monitor the crowd.
Advertisement
Marcus Bishop, 33, said that Black mothers bear the grief of seeing their sons die at the hands of police, and he wanted to support them.
“We talk a lot about Black lives, but we need to talk about Black mothers as well,” Bishop said. “I know I love my mom and everything she’s done for me.”
Some said showing up at this particular protest was about returning the love and support they said Black women show them as Black men.
“If we expect support, we have to extend that same support,” said Jeremy Evans, 23.
Trinity Church supported the event, with speakers addressing the crowd from the church steps, where a Black Lives Matter banner was draped above them.
Gayle and Iddrissu, the co-founders, said the event also called for justice in education and economics, and addressed the health crisis facing Black mothers, who are more likely than any other group in the US to die from childbirth.
“Black lives matter not just when we die and how we die, but Black lives matter all the time, so it matters how we live,” Gayle said.
In Roxbury, the Ride for Black Lives was expected to take participants along a roughly 10-mile course in Roxbury and Dorchester. The ride was set to begin at the White Stadium entrance in Franklin Park Saturday morning and end near Nubian Square.
Organizers in a Facebook post said the bike ride was “in solidarity with the fight against systems and acts of oppression, police brutality against, criminal injustice system against, and murder of Black people, including and especially LGBTQ+, disabled, and poor folks.”
Advertisement
The event was a Black-led and Black-centered solidarity ride co-organized by Boston Bike Party and Black Boston Bike Party members, organizers, businesses, and activists, according to the post.
Not all of the demonstrators in Boston Saturday showed up to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Super Happy Fun America, which organized last year’s Straight Pride Parade, had planned a “Restore Sanity” rally at the State House Saturday afternoon in support of law enforcement.
John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America, told the Globe Friday his group wants to put a spotlight on the Black Lives Matter movement, which he alleged “has nothing to do with saving Black lives.” He referred to the recent demonstrations throughout the country as a “communist takeover.”
“Enough already, it’s time to support the police,” he said during a phone interview on Friday.
A Facebook post for Saturday’s Super Happy Fun America demonstration, which will include a march through Boston Common, states, “Across the nation violent mobs are rioting and committing vandalism, looting and arson while being cheered on by the media. While the police have a duty to protect the rights of those peacefully protesting, they are increasingly being outnumbered by those intent on destruction.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office has said the city has not issued any permits for the event. T
Advertisement
he rally has also sparked a counter-protest organized by Solidarity Against Hate Boston. The counter-protest group said in a Saturday statement it was organizing to oppose the “anti-Black Lives Matter event.”
“Super Happy Fun America supports the police because both of these forces have the same goal: to uphold white supremacy by force of violence,” said a spokeswoman who gave her name as Claudia. “After seeing how many people have showed up for justice in the past month, they’re realizing they’re outnumbered and are becoming more and more blatant with their white nationalist messaging.”
Super Happy Fun America, which has denied its organizers and events are bigoted, has ties to the far right. A Straight Pride Parade organizer, Mark Sahady is part of Resist Marxism, a group founded by a leader with a history of violence. The group also put together the 2017 “Free Speech” rally in Boston Common, where thousands of counter-protesters descended on the city.
In May, Super Fun Happy America protested at the State House and outside Governor Charlie Baker’s Swampscott home, calling on the governor to reopen the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The group also was behind last summer’s Straight Pride Parade, during which a few hundred marchers faced opposition from thousands of counter-protesters along the route. Police and counter-protesters clashed following the parade.
The two sides faced off in February outside Boston Police headquarters in Roxbury, where a few dozen attended the Super Happy Fun America protest. They were kept separate from about 100 who gathered with the demonstration organized by Solidarity Against Hate Boston.
Advertisement
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald. Dasia Moore can be reached at dasia.moore@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @daijmoore John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.
"gather" - Google News
June 28, 2020 at 12:48AM
https://ift.tt/3eFhkFv
Protesters gather in demonstrations across Boston Saturday - The Boston Globe
"gather" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Sqdbwp
https://ift.tt/2Yjhqxs
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Protesters gather in demonstrations across Boston Saturday - The Boston Globe"
Post a Comment