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A small number of right-wing "Free Speech Rally" demonstrators disbanded early from Boston Common after they were confronted by thousands of counterprotesters shouting anti-Nazi and anti-KKK slogans.

a reporter with member station WBUR in Boston

, said that "a few dozen" rally attendees were escorted from Parkman Bandstand by police and placed into police vehicles "for their own safety."


"The counterdemonstrators cheered as the group was escorted out of the area in police wagons," reports WGBH's Phillip Martin.


"I didn't realize how unplanned of an event it was going to be," Samson Racioppi, a Libertarian candidate for Congress who was expected to speak at the rally, was 

 "I really think it was supposed to be a good event by the organizers, but it kinda fell apart."


The conservative activists had insisted they have no connection to last week's violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., which drew white nationalists and sparked violent clashes and a deadly vehicle attack. But that did not satisfy those who opposed their message. Many of them handed out stickers showing the face of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed in Charlottesville when a man who attended the white nationalist rally allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators.

Earlier, a speaker who addressed the crowd condemned what many see as President Trump's tepid response to events last week in Charlottesville.

"If you don't condemn it, you condone it," the speaker said. Demonstrators also chanted "black lives matter" and "our streets."


On Saturday afternoon, Trump tweeted his response to the rally, 

protesters on speaking out against bigotry

Some at the rally carried signs — among them: "Alt-Right Delete" and "The only thing we hate in Boston is the Yankees."

Martin says: "Boston police waded into the crowd at times before the march began to confiscate sticks and poles that were used to hold placards, one which read: 'death to Nazis, impeach Trump, this land is our land too.' "

Chris Hood, an 18-year-old Boston resident who planned to join the Free Speech rally, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying: "The point of this is to have political speech from across the spectrum, conservative, libertarian, centrist."

"This is not about Nazis. If there were Nazis here, I'd be protesting against them," Hood said.

Some 500 officers, both uniformed and undercover, were to be deployed to maintain order, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, both had warned that extremist unrest in the city would not be tolerated.

, an organizer of the self-described free speech rally insisted that the message from the demonstrators "is one that [is] anti-hate and pro-peace."


"I think we've taken pretty much every precaution, not only with [Boston police], but with the other organizers, to make sure our message is clear," John Medler, of the Boston Free Speech Coalition, said ahead of Saturday's rally.

 that a "free speech" rally in Boston in May drew not only more mainstream conservative activists, but also some of the same groups that caused violence in Charlottesville:



For Saturday's rally, police banned signs on sticks and backpacks, although many were seen among the counterprotesters. 

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Phillip Martin works for WBUR. He actually works for WGBH.

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A small number of right-wing "Free Speech Rally" demonstrators disbanded early from Boston Common after they were confronted by thousands of counterprotesters who shouted anti-Nazi and anti-KKK slogans.

Boston 'free speech' rally dwarfed by counterprotesters

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