Boston Mayor to attend briefing on regional white supremacy

BOSTON, Mass. — Mayor Michelle Wu said the civil rights investigation into Saturday’s alleged assault of a black man by white supremacists is ongoing.

“We’re looking into their identities and there already has been some information shared,” Wu said.

Wu also announced she will attend a briefing at Boston Police Headquarters regarding white supremacist activity in the region on Tuesday — along with U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, local elected officials and community leaders.

Charles Murrell III complained to Boston Police he was assaulted near Back Bay Station.

An image published on the front page of The Boston Herald shows Murrell surrounded by men carrying shields. They were part of a larger group of about 100 who marched Saturday down Boston’s Freedom Trail, up Commonwealth Avenue and into Copley Square. The group, identically dressed and with faces concealed, carried various provocative flags — including that of the Patriot Front — a group well known for advocating white supremacy.

Monday, Murrell appeared at a press conference outside the Boston Public Library — along with leaders from Boston’s black and religious communities — to call on the city to do more to monitor racism and protect groups vulnerable to racial attacks.

Some were also critical of police response to the march in general — and to the attack on Murrell, in particular.

“The reality that there was an appropriate police presence isn’t clear,” said Kevin C. Peterson of the New Democracy Coalition. “And while the city investigates the perpetrators of the crime, perhaps there should be some investigation of the police — in terms of their capacity, their ability and their presence. I, as an activist, have concerns around the lack of a police presence as they are supposed to protect black people in this city against racists.”

Mayor Wu said Boston Police officers moved quickly once they knew the marchers were in town. But part of the problem was, they got very little notice.

“Here it was an unexpected, unannounced drop-in,” Wu said.

She called the drop-in insulting to the city of Boston — but a sign of the times.

“It is a moment when we are seeing the rise of hate and white supremacist groups across the country,” Wu said. “Boston, given our history, given the national attention that we get — does become a little bit of a platform for that.”

Wu said this is less about a single group’s activities and more about a troubling trend — one that she thinks Bostonian’s reject.

“We are truly a city for everyone,” Wu said.

Nonetheless, Peterson called on Wu to convene a “race commission” to get a baseline read on the state of race relations in the city.

“We want to create a society that’s just,” Peterson said. “We want to correct the old harms in order to move forward. A commission won’t be a cure-all because individuals across the city have to do some work on themselves, with themselves — and with others — in order to foster this healing for generations.”

While Murrell’s injuries were minor — including lacerations to a hand — friends wondered if police did everything they could to protect him.

“To isolate or look at this incident as a one-off is an atrocity and a crime,” said Mawakana Onifade. “What about the officers that were there who just simply said, ‘we’re outnumbered.’”

Murrell, known to many in Boston as an artist and activist, refused to discuss Saturday’s incident — pending legal representation.

Instead, he sang a song about slavery and invited the public to an artistic event in Copley Square on July 14 that he described as a “call to action.”

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