Trump Praises Boston Police, Protesters

By Todd Beamon | Saturday, 19 Aug 2017 04:26 PM

President Donald Trump weighed in on the demonstrations in Boston on Saturday, saying that crowd "looks like" it contained "many anti-police agitators" — while complementing officers for "looking tough and smart."

He also praised local officials, including Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, for their efforts.

But the president also thanked those in attendenance who were prostesting against "bigotry and hate."

Here are the president's tweets:







Thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday from the city's Roxbury neighborhood to Boston Common, where the "Free Speech Rally" was held one week after the Charlottesville violence that killed a local woman and injured 19 others.

Walsh and Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker warned that extremist unrest wouldn't be tolerated in Boston — and Police Commissioner William Evans said that 500 officers would be deployed to keep the groups apart.

Authorities estimated the size of the crowd participating in the march to the Common at about 15,000.

Some confrontations involving counter-protesters occurred, including a group that grabbed an American flag out of an elderly woman's hands, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground.

Rally organizers have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis and white nationalists who fomented the Aug. 12 melee in Charlottesville.

Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, died and 19 others were injured after a car allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr. plowed a crowd in the city's downtown mall area.

Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder and other felony offenses, including malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death.

He remains in jail without bond.

In addition, two Virginia State Police troopers died in a helicopter crash relating to the violence.

Trump Praises Boston Police, Protesters