One of the things that distinguishes somebody from around here from somebody who isn't is the ability to pronounce "Faneuil." (If you don't know how, I'm not going to explain it to you.)
That's one of the reasons Boston Mayor Marty Walsh responded the way he did when asked on a left-leaning radio show earlier this year if Faneuil Hall should be renamed because the guy it's named after was a slave trader.
Shortly before noon, the counter-protest Saturday against the so-called Free Speech Rally on Boston Common had a festive feel to it, with music, smiling faces, and colorful displays and signs.
The atmosphere changed after a Free Speech rally goer apparently tried to engage in dialogue with counterprotesters, and ended up getting escorted off the Common by about a half-dozen Boston police officers surrounded by a crowd of angry men screaming at them and trying to get at them. As the slow-moving circle neared Charles Street between the Common and the Public Garden, one of the counterprotesters lobbed a bottle of blue Gatorade into the scrum. Police officers got the rally goer onto Charles Street and then eventually into a paddy wagon, which took him away.
