Surrounded By National Guardsmen, Protesters Speak Out: 'The System Is Working, But Not For Us'

Standing before a crowd of more than 1,000 protesters spilling out into the Boston Common Wednesday, organizer Matthew Burchfield noted a few significant absences.

"Where are the Democrats? Where is [Senator] Elizabeth Warren? I haven’t seen Liz Warren at a protest, have you? Where is [Mayor] Marty Walsh?” Burchfield asked. “Marty Walsh is too busy meeting with the police chief to go out to a protest. He and the police chief are talking about how many canisters of tear gas they need to disrupt this peaceful protest.”

Just days prior, tear gas had filled the air in the very spot where Burchfield stood, as police and protesters clashed in the aftermath of what had been a peaceful march from Roxbury to the Boston Common.

Organizer Yasmeen Kahdir says Wednesday’s protest was designed to end before the city’s curfew, in an effort to avoid violent escalation.

"We wanted it in the middle of the day, broad daylight, and we’re ending it pretty early too, and we have an organization that’s helping people get rides home,” Kahdir said. “Sometimes the best protest is short and sweet: go in, make your point heard, show all the people that are here today, and then go home.”

On Sunday, following what had been a peaceful march from Roxbury to the State House, police and protesters clashed amidst looting, violence and destruction of property that took place into the night. Standing before Wednesday’s crowd, Robin Heard pleaded with the group not to make destruction of property the main focus of attention on the movement.

“The system puts value on property and profit, even more so than black and brown bodies,” Heard said. “Police are here to protect capitalism and property — not to protect us. The system is working, but not for us."

Wednesday's action, "Justice for George Floyd," was organized by several local groups, including Socialist Alternative and Mass Action Against Police Brutality.

Brock Satter, an organizer with Mass Action, called on local officials to reopen the cases of Burrell Ramsey, Usaama Rahim, and Terrence Coleman, all black men who died in police-involved shootings in Boston in 2012, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

“District Attorney Rachel Rollins, Mayor Marty Walsh, Police Commissioner Willie Gross, you are hypocrites if you don’t demand reopening the cases,” Satter said. Pointing to the national guard vehicles and nearby officers, Satter told the crowd, “don’t be afraid. Don’t sweat this military intimidation and this rhetoric. They’re more scared of us than we should be of them.”

Organizers at the march listed specific demands in a Facebook post prior to the event, including an end to qualified immunity for police officers, demilitarizing police by taking away armored vehicles, riot gear, tear gas and other military equipment, and disarming police entirely “except in special circumstances with prior approval.”

The event page reminded attendees to social distance and be safe during the pandemic, and at the protest, volunteers handed out masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.

A medical trainee from a local hospital who asked not to be identified out of concern for her job security, wore her white doctor’s coat and held a sign that read, “white coats for black lives.” When asked if it was worth the risk to be in a large crowd during a pandemic, they said yes.

“Racial disparities in infant and maternal mortality, racial disparities highlighted recently with the COVID-19 pandemic and racial disparities with pain medication in hospitals are all reasons why physicians should be out here protesting,” they said.

Following speeches and a march around the park, the crowd took off up Tremont street, looping around past the state house where national guardsmen stood watch along the side of the route, blocking side streets with military vehicles and holding automatic weapons. Boston police vehicles slowly drove backwards to make room for the marchers, who unded the corner, ending in a "die in" near the gazebo.

For eight minutes and forty-seven seconds — the amount of time Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on the neck of George Floyd before killing him — demonstrators lay in silence, gathering in numbers as bodies began to cover the grass across the park.

Activists then urged protesters to get home safely and peacefully before the curfew, leaving the crowd with a few short speeches about the message of the movement.

“Although we’re here to point out police brutality, the issue is a lot larger than police brutality," protester Adam Diaz said. “Black people in America have been at war for 400 years, and it has taken until 2020 for the white people to realize.”