Many of the counterprotesters charged for disrupting Saturday’s antiabortion march through Boston could have their charges dropped if they complete 40 hours of community service.
Suffolk prosecutors discussed the tentative agreement during arraignments Monday in Roxbury municipal court, where 18 activists are facing charges of disorderly conduct. One was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer and was not offered the community service deal.
They were among hundreds of demonstrators who confronted the “Men’s Rights and Rally for Personhood,” one of the first large-scale local demonstrations since Donald J. Trump again won the presidential election. The theme centered on reproductive health; Trump installed three Supreme Court justices during his first term who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark court ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to an abortion, and the rally organizers were in support of that decision.
One of the counterprotesters who was charged with disorderly conduct and offered community service is Riley Dowell, the daughter of US Representative Katherine Clark. Dowell was separately charged in January 2023 with assaulting a police officer and vandalizing a historic monument in connection with another protest on the Boston Common. Those charges were set to be dismissed after a year of pre-trial probation.
According to a police report, most or all of those arrested were counterprotesters.
Many of them filled two rows in the middle of a second-floor courtroom, watching quietly as their cases were called. They ranged in age from 18 to 40 and hailed from Maine, Natick, Amherst, East Providence, R.I., Allston, Dorchester, Weymouth, Jamaica Plain, and Needham, according to a police report.
Josh Raisler Cohn, an attorney representing the counterprotesters, declined to comment at the courthouse. The demonstrators offered community service will have a status hearing on March 17, while Kelly Ingersoll, the protester charged with assaulting a police officer, is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing in December. Six have not yet had their cases heard.
Hundreds of antiabortion protesters, primarily men and boys, planned to march from Brighton to the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common Saturday morning when the counterprotesters arrived.
Officers at the scene were monitoring a group of several hundred counterprotesters at Commonwealth Avenue and Charlesgate East, a police report said. That group “apparently had opposing views to the ones of the individuals taking part in the ‘Men’s Rights and Rally for Personhood,’” the report said.
A short time later, counterprotesters began marching toward Brookline and Commonwealth avenues, where they came to a stop and allegedly blocked the path of the men’s rights group, the report said.
The counterprotesters were “obstructing the Men’s Rights Group from continuing to their destination (Boston Common) which again had been permitted by the City of Boston,” the report said.
Police ordered the counterprotesters to let the march proceed and physically tried to move them but were met with resistance, the report said. Tensions flared between officers and counterprotesters; the police report describes their behavior as “tumultuous,” “disorderly,” and “assaultive,” causing ”extremely hazardous” and “offensive” conditions.
“Upon the convergence, each group was screaming/shouting at each other and the opposing (blocking group) at times turning their rage at officers by threatening them, screaming fighting words, and attempting to agitate them,” the report said. “The crowd refused all orders and continued their tumultuous behavior.”
Officers eventually managed to “gain enough control to allow the march to proceed through Kenmore Square and towards their destination,” police said.
The march then continued toward the Boston Common, where police used barricades to keep the groups apart. Some counterprotesters tried to remove a barrier, prompting a police officer to leap over a fence and confront them. Several counterprotesters yelled “Our bodies, our choice” as they shook the metal barricades.
“Women are human beings, and we have the right to health care. That’s what it is. Abortion is health care,” said Ciara Pape, 25, of Grafton, one of the counterprotesters. “And women are dying in this country because they’re not getting the health care that they need.”
About an hour earlier, Mark Gioia, 59, held a large stock photo of a baby under the word “LIFE” as he participated in the march to the park. The Boston native said it’s important for him to demonstrate because he’s “looking to make people think.”
“These are babies. They can’t stand up for themselves,” he said.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.