‘Boston doesn’t want you here’: Mayor sends message to alt-right conference attendees
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh didn’t mince words during a press conference on Monday addressing an alt-right group that had plans for a free speech rally in his city.
“Boston does not want you here,” Mayor Walsh said, speaking to those who were working to plan and organize the Free Speech Rally on August 19. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this demonstration does not happen here.”
Walsh did not say what actions he was taking, but the Boston Herald previously reported that the mayor was exploring “legal and tactical options” in order to prevent the kind of rally and violence that was seen this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.
— Boston paper tosses Obama’s name in hat to replace Harvard president —
Gavin McInnes, leader of the Proud Boys, an alt-right group that wears costumes, said before Walsh spoke that he would no longer be attending the rally, claiming that Walsh was revoking the permit in an attempt to incite violence.
“Nope, I am not going,” McInnes said in an interview with Boston Herald Radio. “The context has changed. Charlottesville has changed everything. Mayors have a language you can suss out if you’re careful. The mayor of Charlottesville said, ‘I am going to revoke your permit’ … that’s mayor speak for ‘I want a riot to happen so I can take more power.’”
During the press conference, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker also condemned the Charlottesville attack as terrorism.
“[Boston] will not tolerate the kind of hated and bigotry we saw in Virginia,” Baker said. “What happened in Charlottesville was an act of terrorism, where an individual sought to hurt people and killed an innocent woman bystander.”
More About:News
