Thread by @MatthewWilding

There was a protest in downtown Boston tonight, and the police presence was really disproportionate and unhelpful. A thread for the consideration of @MayorWu, @bostonpolice and #Boston.

I left work tonight at about 7:15pm. I work at the Old State House on Washington St. Downtown Crossing was bustling, but as I arrived at Winter St, I saw dozens of police putting up barricades at both ends, completely shutting down the pedestrian entrance from Boston Common.

I got there before it was completely closed and was able to walk through. Between the two ends there were at least 20 police, maybe more.

When I got to Boston Common, I saw a small protest on the corner of Tremont and Park. Probably 40-50 people if I’m guessing.

They were protesting another death of a Black man at the hands of police. They were incredibly respectful, and seemed peaceful. But for the purposes of this thread, what stuck out most was that they were small. Dozens of people, not hundreds.

I thought “this seems like a lot of police for this demonstration,” and then as I walked through the park, I saw dozens more police all over, and then around the monument on the hill, at least 20-30 police on bikes, all waiting.

I got through the park and the garden, and came out at the other end, where I turned onto Newbury St. To my surprise, Newbury St was also being blockaded by a large number of police. At this point it was clear that there were significantly more police than protesters.

So I approached an officer and asked him “why are there so many police and barriers on the streets?” The officer would not meet my eyes, but said to me that it was because of the protesters and that they were there to make sure things didn’t “end up like last time.”

I asked what he meant, and he told me that last time there was all that looting and damage. I told him I worked at a museum that had been damaged and he said “so you know what I mean.”

I told him I didn’t. This protest seemed very small and they were very peaceful.

I then said that the police presence felt disproportionate. The officer told me that they “can lose control of the situation quickly” which I can’t imagine would make anyone more comfortable to see them given the nature of the protest…

…and then he said “you should just be grateful we’re here to keep you safe.”

This was a pretty tone deaf statement, given the nature of the protester’s complaints, but it left me with a more practical question:

How does the Boston Police barricading the street entrances to Downtown Crossing and Newbury Street on a Friday night to halt a few dozen protesters serve the businesses of downtown Boston. There were too few of them to cause any real damage if faced with even a few dozen police

And even if the sheer volume of police didn’t deter people, the barriers obviously would.

This seemed to me, a person passing through, like intimidation of protesters against police brutality by the police.

It didn’t appear to make the area more safe (on the contrary, it felt like the police presence encouraged confrontation), while at the same time making it a less enjoyable place for people visiting the area.

I don’t expect that this was the BPD’s intention—I’m sure that they believed there was some kind of threat. But there clearly wasn’t a threat, and this response was disproportionate to similar protests that happen in Boston all the time.

There have been multiple anti-vax protests, for example, that are incredibly disruptive in Downtown Crossing and near the common, which have been met by absolutely no police presence, despite similar or even larger size.

I’d love to know why Boston had this kind of response to this event but not others.