Three people arrested during protests against Boston Pride Parade

Three people were arrested at a protest during Boston’s Pride for the People parade on Saturday, police said. One demonstrator allegedly threw a water bottle at police officers while blocking the parade’s path.

According to a police report on the incident, the group Liberate Boston Pride organized a stationary protest at the corner of Boylston and Berkeley Streets, where they stood in the path of the protesters with their arms crossed.

Owen Woodcock and Jorma McSwiggan-Hong were both arrested when they failed to move when officers asked protesters to leave the parade route, according to Boston police. Both face charges of disturbing the peace, police said.

Another demonstrator is physically attacked with a dangerous weapon – a water bottle. Jake Zawalich is said to have thrown a full water bottle and hit one police officer in the head and another in the chest.

“Zawalich nodded and acknowledged his actions with a smile,” police wrote. Boston police told Boston.com that the officer was not injured.

Police said none of the other demonstrators in the group of 30 to 50 people were arrested.

Pride for the People (P4TP) first organized the parade in 2023 after three years of no Pride parade in Boston due to the pandemic and inclusion concerns. Boston Pride, the previous organization that hosted the parade, disbanded in 2021 after criticism that it excluded racial minorities and transgender people.

Last year, P4TP changed its goals and reduced corporate participation in the parade and festival, organizers told the Associated Press.

Now, Liberate Boston Pride organized a protest on Saturday that targeted, among other things, P4TP’s corporate sponsors such as Delta Airlines, State Street and Fidelity, which it described on its website as “unethical companies.” The group also demanded that the group publicly support Palestine and remove police officers from the parade.

See more

“A Pride committee of any kind cannot be for the queer people if it is not for all queer people. As we know, corporations, police, and Israeli settler colonialism have never been for queer people. While P4TP has a noble mission, it has only succeeded in repeating the mistakes of Boston Pride,” said the letter from Liberate Boston Pride, signed by more than 70 advocacy groups. “This ‘Pride’ is not for the people. But it can be.”

Liberate Boston Pride also released images and videos of the protest, showing dozens of police officers setting up barricades and breaking up some groups. According to the police report, protesters linked arms and “forced officers to physically pull apart intertwined individuals.”

See more

Both P4TP and Liberate Boston Pride were contacted for comment Sunday evening.

Is loading…