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Parkman panopticon

Cameras being installed on the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common

Brian Moore spotted workers installing security cameras atop the Parkman Bandstand today, in advance of tomorrow's racist protest and counter demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Union Capital Boston has sort of formalized the idea of making lemonade from Nazi lemons with a pledge-a-dollar-for-every-racist site. Use the site to pledge $1 for every white supremacist and your money will go to a variety of anti-racist groups.

Also, the city Parks and Recreation Department confirmed this morning that, in addition to banning pushcart vendors and shutting the Swan Boats, the city has ordered the Earl of Sandwich to shut down for the day.

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Comments

By the time this is over, with all the security and prep and cops and cameras, these racist jerk offs (all 150 of them by my prediction) are going to cost the city of Boston tens of millions of dollars.

What's the per capita expense on these shitheads at the end of the day?

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intent on being attention whores and a pain in the ass, protesters of all political persuasions, including anarchists, do their attention whoring somewhere else. Saturday is a day the majority of people, who aren't living off a trust fund, have off and must do chores. These endless attention whoring protests cause A LOT of problems for the majority of people. And lets not forget the 'who must work in tue city and use the MBTA. They have my utmost sympathy. The whole thing sucks.

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... learned punctuation and spelling and word usage ...

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smart ass. I have to change the keyboard.

Again,

ATTENTION ALL NARCISSISTIC 'Warriors':

GET AN F'ING LIFE...nobody wants to deal with your endless demands and attention whoring.

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in the above post. Perry is making an asumption that the poster didn't, in fact, leave text out.

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Look up "logical fallacy" in wikipedia

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... the proper use of ellipses?

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why not comment specifically about the substance of the post?

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there was more substance in the ellipses.

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I have been saying since this entire hoo-ha started that the counter protesters need to stay home. It is the counter protesters causing this massive tie-up. Left to their own devices, the racists without any audience or opposition to feed on would fall away of their own weight and their silly little protest would pass like a minor irritation. But with hordes of reactionary "counter protesters" reacting out of emotion and not strategy, look what an ordeal this has already become. A large and positive rally against racist groups such as this could be held on another occasion with a great outcome. But nobody will listen to me about this. A few years ago I inadvertently stumbled onto one of these neo-Nazi rallies at Faneuil Hall, believe it or not. They were a sad bunch and nobody was paying any attention t them, despite a large police presence. IIn fact, a concurrent protest of PETA folks protesting something about veal was attracting a far larger crowd.

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After that experience of being ignored, here they are gathering again and with greater numbers.

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"After that experience of being ignored, here they are gathering again and with greater numbers."

Nobody said the hate groups would cease to exist by being ignored. But that potential violence, turmoil and free for all, caused by the presence of "counter protesters", would not ensue. There are more effective and strategic ways to show disapproval of these groups than to try shout them down. A well planned event on another day is one of them.

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Please tell us about the depths of your activist experience that lead you to such conclusions. Because you sure sound like an armchair warrior talking out your ass.

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Anon says there not enough single family homes
Anon said I attended many gay rights rallies at the Parkman Bandstand
Anon said "Bless your hearts. I'm gonna pray for you."

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Exactly how the Nazis grew in popularity? Good ole Germans and neighboring European Countries just let the Nazis be...because you know what squashes hate-ignoring, said no one ever.

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Fallacy. 5 yard penalty.

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Other than tshirt vendors and people selling lemonaid, the only thing you can normally get on the Commons is drugs.

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Thanks.

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You can pledge as much or as little as you want per person marching. It can be 10 cents if you want.

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So the rally has not even happened yet, but you're ready to declare it to be racist.

I hope the counter protester folks will at least let them speak, rather than trying to shut it down. We'll see.

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Oh, but don't take my word for it. You know Medlar, the organizer photographed on his little dorm bed at Fitchburg State? Here he is at the May Nazi rally on the Common. He's the one wrapped in the green Nazi-inspired racist flag on the left.

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A racist collaborator is worried they'll look racist.

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What if the confederate apologists waving swastikas and beating black people are just here to play Ultimate Frisbee on the Common? Why should we believe them when they openly pronounce their own white supremacist views? I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt, despite them never having done a damned thing to deserve it. All this talk of "racism" is probably just an elaborate disinformation campaign by those mean leftists.

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Why do you act like the rally's organizers or topic will be a surprise? The speakers who were announced were pretty blatant about their views. Yes, many of them have since canceled, but why would you assume the tone of the event would suddenly change?

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These idiots self identify as racists.

It isn't an insult to call them racists. It respects their heritage and their right to self-identification to call them racists!

What part of that do you not get? The part where you agree with them but don't even have the guts to self-identify as a coward?

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I attended many gay rights rallies at the Parkman Bandstand. Are the haters spraying it for cooties? Homo germs can last decades.

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...costing businesses a day's revenue.

I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the city ordering vendors to relocate and businesses to shut down. I don't see how they would be increasing potential for violence, and if they freely chose to stay open despite any potential danger, they would assume the risk for whatever damage they might suffer.

Plus, if the Earl of Sandwich is forced to close, why not the nearby Tremont Street businesses like McDonald's, Burger King, et. al.? Seems kinda arbitrary to me, but perhaps I'm missing something?

[This was a reply to Dante's comment above]

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Don't know about the stores, though.

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I may be wrong-- this could have changed since I got the email, this morning-- but I work on Tremont & we were told that only the businesses directly on the Common (slushie stands, hot dogs stands, arepas stands, etc) would be closed. As far as we've been told, only bars on Tremont will be closing, and that was at bar owner's decision, not the city's.

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More like "Well, if I remain open and a neo-nazi and a counter protestor get into a fight outside my bar, I win a free trip to the Licensing Board."

Discretion? Try "self-preservation."

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Police will be focusing their attention within the perimeter of the Common. Having lines or crowds at the vendors with be a distraction. As the City holds the lease for the Earl and street vendors/carts, they can close or restrict hours.

The City is actually is discouraging people from coming to the Common at the time of the rallies. This makes sense to me. As a resident, I will be heading completely in the opposite direction.

I am hopeful that the City of Boston can hold both rallies simultaneously without incident. We have successfully held demonstrations with opposing views in the past.

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Do you really expect the Hitler Youth and the counter-protesters standing in the same lines to ignore each other and play nice?

Avoiding potential confrontation is far more important than insuring that you can buy a hot dog or a T shirt. And it's only for ONE day.

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Instead of letting the day go on as usual.. Mahty is playing political theater to win re-election.

I'm a trump voter and still support our president.

This event has to do with freedom of speech and it happened in May as well.
This will be a big major dud unless some real nazis (alt left or whichever group they belong to) instigate fights.
Free Speech Rally supporters are just testing the censorship in cities where its being threatened.

In Charlottesville the police had stand down orders.
Our Boston police won't take crap from anyone. They are the best and i pray for their safety and all protesters on either side.

But closing things down like this is just martys way of showing he has control of the city so he can get re-elected.

Take a deep breath. Stop overhyping this.

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The event that happened in May? LOTS OF PICTURES. It had shit all to do with "freedom of speech".

Nice try, asshole. If there is anyone more chickenshit than a racist coward, it is a racist coward who can't even manage to own being a racist coward.

Go hide under your bed or get therapy or whatever - JUST STOP LYING ABOUT THIS.

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A favorite of bullies!

Anyone with the standard school "anti-bullying" training is trained to spot this cognitive distortion problem, which our Mr. Wow! has ably demonstrated for us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimisation_(psychology)

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Exactly. Hysteria and paranoia anyone? The right is making the left look like fools.

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Chief Al Thomas of the Charlottesville Police Department on Monday said it was "simply not true" that officers had been told to stand down. But he acknowledged that the police force was "spread thin once the crowds dispersed" and that he had "regrets" about the way the protests were handled.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia also acknowledged that the police were reluctant to engage — but only because they were largely outgunned by far-right militias."It's easy to criticize, but I can tell you this: Eighty percent of the people here had semiautomatic weapons," McAuliffe told The New York Times on Sunday.

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Out of curiosity, why did you mention you were a trump voter and support the president? I am trying to figure out how it advances the argument. I'm not judging, I am truly curious. It just struck me as such a random claim to throw in there, unless it's provided for credibility, like folks who say "I understand flight patterns because I used to work for the FAA" or something.

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some real nazis (alt left or whichever group they belong to)

Aren't you a clever little boy?

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Do the cameras get taken down afterwards or are they a new fixture on the Common? Might not be bad if they are permanent. Would catch a lot of goings on on the Common.

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and will be removed immediately after the "yah vohl" fest.

Permanent cameras, although they make perfect sense, would likely require approval of the Friends of the Common, the Boston Landmarks Commission, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, and perhaps even a Legislative Act.

and if you think I'm kidding, no I'm not

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Friends groups, neighborhood associations and the like are private entities with absolutely no power to regulate or restrict anything, other than via political influence same as any other private entity.

To the extent that they develop a reputation for being sane, for operating transparent processes, and for genuinely representing their constituency, they can have quite a bit of credibility and tend to get taken seriously, but anyone who tells you that a friends group or neighborhood association blocked X or restricted Y, is completely blowing smoke.

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If the Boston Landmarks Commission or the Massachusetts Historical Commission or one of the umpteen neighborhood associations in Boston are opposed to something, they'll get it stopped.

The fact you need "mother may I" review and permission to do something as basic as installing cameras is an example of how pathetic our laws and rules have become.

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"Temporary" power too often becomes permanent power, and we know that we'll have corrupt officials in the future who will be in a position to abuse that power.

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I'm more concerned about the cameras than I am about a handful of racists. How long are the cameras to remain? Who is monitoring them? Is a facial recognition system being used? How long will the images be stored? How will the images be used?

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There is NO expectation of absolute privacy in a public place. Period.

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I expect some privacy in a public space.

For example, you can't put a mirror on the ground under my skirt and aim a camera at it.

And maybe you could find a judge who says the government has the legal right to put a camera with face recognition on every iron rung of the fence around the Public Garden, but I'd certainly complain loudly if they did it.

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For example, you can't put a mirror on the ground under my skirt and aim a camera at it.

Actually, you could in Massachusetts, until very recently.

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While there is in general no expectation of privacy in a public place, and while any private individual is free to take any pictures they want there (modulo upskirting, commercial use, etc.), it does not follow that we automatically need to give the police permission to do so. They work for us, the decision as to whether we want them operating surveillance camera networks is completely up to us.

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