Boston cleans up night of looting, mayhem after George Floyd march takes turn

Matthew and Holly Salgado scrubbed the words “Die Pigs” off a stranger’s brick wall Monday morning, just one block away from the State House.

“It’s just sad that this happened in our own city. I’m just doing what I can,” said Salgado, who drove up from Brockton with his wife to help clean up debris and graffiti.

“It’s not right,” he said, gesturing to the building he cleaned. “These people didn’t do anything to anybody.”

Violence and chaos broke out after the sun set on a day of peaceful protest that drew thousands of marchers from Nubian Square to the State House Sunday to demand justice for George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of Minneapolis Police last week. After hours of solemn assembly, groups of people streamed into Downtown Crossing and smashed windows, tagged buildings and set fires, including one to a police cruiser.

On Monday morning, masked against the coronavirus pandemic, workers, business owners and volunteers spread out across the city to assess the damage from the night’s unrest. Several noticed the Salgados cleaning, and asked if they could lend a hand.

One block over, Nick Lanza held a can of spray-paint remover he borrowed from the Salgados to help.

“At this point, anything is better than nothing,” he said as the cleanup effort got started .

Despite the damage to the city and alarming outburst of violence, he said the arrival of volunteers shows there are, “other people who are going to do better.”

Political slogans and profanities were scrawled across the sides of homes, businesses, and even the large columns in front of Suffolk University’s Law School. The Freedom Trail — usually packed with tourists clutching maps in early June — was lined with boarded-up businesses and smashed-out window fronts.

“There’s just a lot of sadness, and I wanted to help,” said Marianne Vadala, who also stopped and joined in.

The historic significance of the location wasn’t lost on her.

“I think we’re in the middle of history right now,” she said. “Unfortunately it’s just repeating itself. I’d like for people to see more change.”

Several business owners were out in Downtown Crossing, sweeping up shards of glass from their blown-out storefronts and meeting with insurance agents to appraise damage to their shops.

“I would never think that they would do this to us. We have a small business, I don’t know why they did this to us,” said Lynn Tran, owner of Bromfield Nails.

Tran’s family-owned nail salon suffered extreme damage from vandals. Looters stole nail polish and other supplies purchased to prepare for the salon’s reopening after the coronavirus lockdown. Now, she said, they’re likely to remain shut down for weeks, if not months longer.

“We have already been closed for months,” she said. “And they stole a lot from us.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3gJmxOb