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The crowd quickly grew Saturday morning as protestors gathered around the Parkman Bandstand in Boston Common for a “Hands Off!” rally and march. Organizers said they expected 25,000 people to attend.
The Boston event was one of more than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations planned nationwide in opposition to President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, and the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.
“We are here to protect our immigrant neighbors, to protect transgender family kin, and to really say we believe in true democracy,” said Claire Carl Miller, who helped organize Boston’s protest as part of the Unitarian Universalist Mass Action Network.
“It’s incredibly important to send a message to everyone across this nation that we can come together, united, and be inspired, hold joy for a vision of true democracy,” Miller added.
Phillip Martin
GBH News
Participants’ motivations to come out Saturday were wide-ranging.
Patricia Cooney drove down from Andover with a sign that read, “hands off our social security.” She told GBH News she is worried how the administration’s actions are going to impact her family.
“I have a disabled daughter who’s on Supplemental Security Income, and my husband and I are grandparents raising a grandson and he’s on MassHealth,” she shared. “My husband and I both still work, and we’ve created the structures necessary to support the situation in our family and this is very impactful for us.”
Protester Kate Merritt O’Toole said she was fortunate to retire after working for 40 years as an operating room nurse in Boston hospitals, including 12 years at a VA hospital. Now she is concerned about what her retirement will look like, and whether the people she used to care for will have enough support.
“Social Security is a concern,” she said, then adding to her list, “Medicare, reimbursement for research, care for our veterans, shutting back on programs for our veterans who are vulnerable and have mental health issues.”
Robert Goulston
GBH News
The protest began at 11 a.m. with Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Chrissy Lynch speaking to demonstrators at the Parkman Bandstand.
A sea of protest signs seemed endless as protesters then marched out of the Common, down Tremont Street and into Boston City Hall Plaza.
Outside City Hall, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and other political figures and activists in giving remarks to the crowd. The protest also included a performance from the Dropkick Murphys.
Robert Goulston
GBH News
Corey Sung, holding a Federal Unionists Network banner, marched alongside a coalition of federal workers. He works at Boston’s State Department passport office.
“For us, individual agencies are under attack all across the country,” he said. “Recently, we lost our collective bargaining rights. And this affected both our office here and over a million federal workers all across the country, so it’s time for us to start taking a stand against what’s happening against our services that we provide our communities.”
Maya Debettencourt, a college student studying in South Carolina, came with her mother.
“I’m really inspired by the amount of people who are out here today. Lots of really good signs. And I think it’s especially a good demonstration of what democracy really is,” Debettencourt said.
Janice Maloof, of Marshfield, said she is in a same-sex marriage, and they are teaching their two children to be accepting and inclusive.
“If everybody’s kind, I don’t think we would have a lot of these problems,” she said.
This time, the people marched in resistance to the harsh treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration.
“We descend from Immigrants and Revolutionaries,” read a battle cry beamed onto the side of the brick meeting house Tuesday.
“The society that stops seeing the people at the grocery line or the people that ride the bus with us, as human beings with beating hearts, then it’s not far off before our society devolves into no society at all,” Gilberto Calderin, director of advocacy at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said to the crowd of hundreds.
The protest was organized by activist groups Boston Indivisible and Mass 50501, and began at the Irish Famine Memorial Plaza, just steps from the meeting house.
The lively crowd held up signs, waved American flags, and chanted during the march along Milk Street and Congress Street to the harbor.
Janet England of Brighton held a sign that read, “Democracy Needs Courage.”
The protesters, she said are “true patriots because we want freedom and democracy.”
“Although protest is a long game, we can’t give up. If you think about women’s suffrage, gay rights, the civil rights movement, it took years, but we just can’t give up,” she said.
Gloria Krusemeyer, from Alrington, used a walker to join the march.
“I’m irritated that I haven’t done more, and I’m just lucky that I can walk fast enough to be doing this,” she said.
Rick Mueller, from Cambridge, was dressed as Uncle Sam and held a large sign that read, “Liberty and Justice For All.”
“We’re fighting for America, so I’m gonna be America,” he said of his costume.
He handed small American flags out to protesters who waved them enthusiastically.
Ice dumping duties was limited to volunteers and select people.
Among them was Sarah, a mother who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Fiona.
Sarah declined to share her last name for her daughter’s safety.
After throwing ice into the harbor, Fiona shyly said that she wanted to come to the protest to “help families stay together.”
Through tears, Sarah said her decision to bring along Fiona came from wanting to teach her daughter to care about people from all walks of life.
“Kindness and compassion are things we learn in kindergarten and she will be in kindergarten so it’s really important for her to be kind and compassionate,” Sarah said, kissing her daughter’s check.
Likewise, Sara Sievers, from Cambridge, brought her parents, sister, her nephews and niece to dump ice.
“I think this is one of the most brutal regimes we’ve had in this country, and I want my niece and nephew to remember that it’s important to protest, and that we in Boston are part of a proud tradition of dumping things into the harbor with which we disagree,” Sievers said.
The family wore costumes of historical figures including Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and King Charles.
As the protest came to a close, Martha Laposata, spokesperson for Boston Indivisible said she wanted protestors to walk away knowing their voices matter.
“We cannot stand down,” Laposata said. “When people rise up against an authoritarian government, if they stay consistent and they keep growing, ultimately an authoritarian government will stand down.”
Camille Bugayong can be reached at camille.bugayong@globe.com.
Crime
An MIT professor was shot and killed in Brookline on Monday night.
Brookline police responded a report of a man shot in his home on Gibbs Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning, the DA says.
Loureiro was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics. Originally from Portugal, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs announced his death in a regulatory hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities on Tuesday, according to CNN.
“Sadly, I can confirm that Professor Nuno Loureiro, who died early this morning, was a current MIT faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” an MIT spokesperson wrote in a statement.
In January, Loureiro was honored as one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from former president Joe Biden.
The investigation into the homicide remains ongoing. No further information was released.
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A man was hospitalized after being shot Monday night in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The shooting happened on Gibbs Street. There was a large police presence at the scene.
The victim was brought to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His condition was not known.
Police said the victim was shot three times and grazed by another round.
Authorities did not say if any arrests had been made.
No further information was immediately available.
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