Counterprotesters showed up with guns at City Hall. There was no protest to counter
A group of counterprotesters who stood outside City Hall for three hours were left with no protest to counter.
They had shown up anticipating a Black Lives Matters rally. The Boise chapter had planned to march Tuesday night to City Hall from Ann Morrison Park to deliver a petition with over 4,000 signatures demanding that the City Council defund the Boise Police Department.
The marchers never got there. After some speeches at Ann Morrison, a group of about 50 demonstrators headed toward City Hall. But when the activists reached Front Street, they saw a long line of gun-toting, flag-waving counterprotesters.
Several police officers stood in front of a City Hall, which had been surrounded by gates.
Rather than spark a confrontation, the Black Lives Matter group decided to retreat. With their enthusiasm only slightly dented, they walked back toward Ann Morrison.
The demonstration was a response to Mayor Lauren McLean’s 2021 budget, which the City Council advanced on July 21. It includes $71.2 million for the Boise Police Department. While the city’s overall budget shrank from last year, the Police Department’s budget grew by $1.2 million, the Statesman previously reported, to allow the department to hire five new officers.
The council was split over the budget, with Elaine Clegg, Patrick Bageant, T.J. Thomson and Holli Woodings voting in favor and Lisa Sánchez and Jimmy Hallyburton voting against.
Hallyburton, who was sworn in in January, proposed that Boise keep the department’s budget at $70 million. Sánchez seconded his motion, but it failed, 4-2.
Council completes budget amid protests
On Tuesday, just as BLM organizers began the rally, the Boise City Council voted to complete the 2021 budget. The council split along the same lines it had in July.
“While one set of constituents would like that we do not increase the Police Department budget at all, other constituents asked that we add 22 positions to the Police Department,” said Clegg, the council president.
On Sunday, Black Lives Matter demonstrators drew chalk outlines on the sidewalk outside of Clegg’s North End home to protest her July 21 vote.
Clegg said that the five new officers will expand the police department’s team that responds to mental health and behavioral problems.
“It’s a first step,” she said. “I am very much in favor of moving this budget forward so that we can begin the really hard work that is before us: figuring out ways to move forward together in a way that represents the city of Boise and our spirit and keeps all of our citizens safe.”
In voting against the budget, Sánchez said she hoped to honor the “people of color who are voicing their pain, their fear, and not stopping.”
Demonstrations to come
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, activists across the country have urged their cities to make sweeping criminal justice reforms, including defunding the police.
Some city leaders are responding. Last week, Seattle’s City Council reduced the police department’s budget by $3 million, prompting its police chief to resign. In New York City, the City Council agreed to shift $1 billion away from the police department’s $6 billion budget, canceling plans to hire 1,160 officers.
In Boise, McLean, as well as Ryan Lee, the city’s new police chief, have said they do not support efforts to defund the police.
During Tuesday’s protest, the spokesperson for Boise’s BLM chapter, Terry Wilson II, said barricades erected around City Hall prevented the group from dropping off the petition. In an Instagram post, the chapter wrote, “Barricading our City Hall only stirs the pot further stoking fear.”
Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams said officers had reached out to the Black Lives Matter group and offered to escort them to City Hall. The gates around City Hall were there to keep protesters and counter-protesters separate, if need be. City Hall remained open on Tuesday.
“They absolutely were not prevented,” Williams said. “We offered to assist them.”
Wilson also demanded that McLean sit down with the group in a town hall meeting.
“We’re here because our mayor is not listening to us and not acknowledging our presence,” Wilson said.
The mayor has in tweets affirmed the role of protesters “to speak their truths and call on our leaders to take action.” She also has condemned the counterprotesters for their “efforts to intimidate and potentially incite additional violence.”
Counterprotesters mobilize
Boise’s BLM chapter has grown weary of fighting the counterprotesters, who the chapter says should be referred to as “hate groups.” Since a protest in July turned violent, the BLM activists have become more secretive. Organizers release the location of upcoming demonstrations at the last minute and don’t hesitate to make changes if their plans are leaked.
That strategy worked to ward off Tuesday’s counterprotesters — at least temporarily. After the counterprotesters saw the BLM group turning around at Front Street, some counterprotesters opted to stay near City Hall. Some joked with each other about how they thought the group would be bigger. A few wore masks emblazoned with a “Recall McLean” logo.
A few, though, hopped into trucks and followed the BLM activists back to Ann Morrison Park. There, at the urging of organizers, BLM activists quickly scattered to their cars. Just as most of the group had disbanded into the humid night, the counterprotesters showed up.
Then, so did the police. The park, one officer said, closed at sundown. They all needed to leave soon anyway.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 11:21 PM.
