Right, left-wing groups face each other in fiery public confrontations in Boston, Seattle

The right and the left have faced off in Boston and Seattle, the latest of vitriolic protests between the opposing groups. The showdown comes a week after thousands rallied in the US capital to oppose a white supremacist protest.

Seattle

Hundreds of opposing demonstrators gathered in Seattle’s downtown area with police separating the raging crowds with metal barriers. The right-wing groups Washington 3 Percenters and Patriot Prayer rallied against the US government’s push to launch a gun-control initiative that would see the age in Washington state raised for those purchasing semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 and expand the background checks for those buying semi-automatic rifles.

They were met by Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity, Radical Women, and the Freedom Socialist Party, who yelled and used cow bells to drown out the speeches of their right-wing opponents.

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According to the Seattle Times, a police spokesperson confirmed that three were arrested. One person was injured and was treated at the scene of the protests.

Boston

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Roughly 300 left-wing counter-protesters descended on Boston’s City Hall Plaza, where 30 right-wing activists from Boston Free Speech had planned to rally. The opposing sides were kept separate by police as they shouted insults at each other over the barricade, but no violence was reported. According to the Boston Globe, one counter-protester was handcuffed. A police spokesman said no arrests were made but one person was detained for a short period as part of an unspecified investigation.

Boston Free Speech was behind a rally last year in Boston that attracted an estimated 40,000 counter-protesters.

Members of left-wing groups Stand Against Hate—Boston, the Democratic Socialists of America, Black Lives Matter Boston, and other groups came together to oppose the ‘free speech’ rally, as they say the rally gave neo-Nazis a platform.

Organizer of the counter-protest Peter Berard said that the free-speech groups “seem to think if they just don’t use swastikas that we won’t notice what they actually believe in.” He added: “What we’re trying to do today is we’re trying to show that Boston is no place for their hate.” Organizer of last year’s Boston Free Speech Rally Brandon Navom said the claims were an “absolute lie” that the right-wing rallies have racist ties.

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