A Bethlehem man was among the nine people arrested and charged with assaulting police at the controversial Straight Pride Parade in Boston on Saturday, according to Boston police.
Kenneth Kraft Jr., 24, will be arraigned Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court on charges of assault and battery of a police officer, a Boston Police Department spokesperson confirmed.
In total, 36 people were arrested at the parade, mostly on disorderly conduct charges. Four officers sustained injuries, police said.
The march faced public scrutiny after Boston approved its application in June. Organizers said they were responding to the “identity politics” of the left that has made straight people the “oppressed majority.” Counterprotesters argued the parade was a mockery of progress made by LGBT rights advocates. Some protesters yelled expletives and called straight-pride marchers, “Nazi scum.”
A couple hundred marchers met more than a thousand counterprotesters Saturday, many of whom identified with the anti-fascist group antifa. A massive presence of police wearing gas masks attempted to mitigate the competing demonstrations.
Some of the protesters confronted police, and USA Today reported police used pepper spray on a group of them.
The city’s Democratic mayor, Marty Walsh, has opposed the message of the parade but said he could not deny a permit based on that.
Poster Comment:
All of the headlines I've seen about this story have tried to make it look like the straights were the violent miscreants - nothing could be further from the truth.
Free speech for the alphabet people, not for normals.
#1: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#0)
Funny how there's no mugshots.
I'd say it's a safe bet there will be no Kenneth Kraft III upcoming in the Kraft family tree. That's a branch that will remain missing on the way to the Kraft family name going extinct.
Tooconservative posted on 2019-09-03 11:22:07 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: Deckard (#0)
Just kidding.
misterwhite posted on 2019-09-03 11:34:02 Reply Private Reply