Anti-vaccine protesters entered the closed State House Wednesday morning without authorization and staged a demonstration, calling for everything from the reopening of the capitol to the end of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as condemning Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
A group of eight protesters, many wearing clothing with anti-vax or anti-mandate messages or insults against President Joe Biden, entered the State House's Ashburton Park entrance on Bowdoin Street some time between 10:30 and 11 a.m., passed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation rangers who serve as State House security and gathered about 10 feet from the entrance for the better part of two hours.
"The vaccine mandate should not be happening. The mask mandate should not be happening. People should not be losing their jobs. We just want to be able to talk to our politicians. And they can’t just close the buildings. There is not a pandemic," one woman told a state trooper when asked why the group was there. While she spoke to the trooper, several of the other protesters chanted “ban the vaccine."
None were armed and no arrests were made. State police gave the group an ultimatum to leave the premises or be arrested for trespassing in the closed building just after 12 p.m. The group left voluntarily just before troopers were about to arrest them. Roughly 30 state police troopers gathered to contain the eight demonstrators as they chanted — in rhyme — against vaccine mandates, called Wu a "fascist" and accused Baker of being a "medical raper."
"The emergency is over. Leave the kids alone," chanted one protester who spoke about her views that the COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe for children.
"They're coming for six-month-olds. How dare you come for babies? I have never heard of anything so evil," said the same woman, who declined to idenify herself.
The State House has been closed to the public for 701 days, since March 10, 2020. Reopening the people's house was the initial subject of the protest, which quickly expanded in scope to include stories about jobs lost because of vaccine mandates, comparisons of vaccines to socialism and Nazism and claims that the COVID-19 vaccines have no medical benefit.
Another protester was escorted out of the State House earlier after also entering without permission and shouting that Baker is "a murderer" outside his press conference on removing the mask mandate for schools.
