Black Lives Matter counterprotesters turn out big in Boise; few arrests, skirmishes
Aside from a handful of people detained or arrested in downtown Boise, a day of rallies and counterprotests surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement went off fairly smoothly Tuesday, after hundreds in anti-BLM groups gathered near City Hall for hours following an event at Boise State.
The activity began at BSU at about 4 p.m. Tuesday with a peaceful Anti-Racist rally that included a message of defunding the police. A little bit later downtown, counterprotesters marched from Cecil D. Andrus Park by the Idaho Capitol to City Hall, where they filled an area that had been barricaded by police in anticipation of large crowds on opposite sides being in the same place.
That didn’t really materialize, however. As the BLM rally at Boise State University broke up, it first left the counterprotesters downtown chanting “USA” at passing cars and cheering police who were on motorcycles. By 7 p.m., about two dozen Black Lives Matter supporters had gathered at the corner of Capitol and Main Street, opposite of counterprotesters on the other side of the street. They traded some voicing of their positions, and Statesman reporters witnessed conversations between people that sometimes got heated.
All the while, a robust police presence, as new Boise PD Chief Ryan Lee had promised, monitored the situation. Officers were on foot, on motorcycles and even nearby in vehicles, and many of them walked in and out of the crowds, which had grown and were still on hand after 9 p.m. Tempers had flared in a handful of situations, with expletives shouted and people coming close to physical altercations, but each time violence seemed to be avoided.
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