SWAMPSCOTT — Opposing weekly demonstrations in support of President Trump and Black Lives Matter in Monument Square have become so tense that police have asked both groups to move to another location further down Humphrey Street, closer to the Lynn-Swampscott line, where officials say they can be more easily managed.
“We had people spilling into the streets and we almost had a few accidents,” Swampscott Police Captain Joe Kable said Thursday, in reference to last week’s chaotic scene. “People were stepping in front of cars and drivers were looking at the crowd and almost rear ending other cars.”
Every Thursday morning since April, conservative radio personality Dianna Ploss and dozens of her supporters have gathered outside Gov. Charlie Baker’s home for what initially began as a protest against Baker’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Since then, however, the weekly meet-up has evolved into demonstrations in support for President Trump and law enforcement that, following a national outcry after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer in June, were eventually countered by protesters showing their support for Black Lives Matter.
Now, as the demonstrations stretch into their fourth month, supporters of both Black Lives Matter and Ploss say the environment alongside Humphrey Street has devolved into something much more sinister.
“It’s a circus,” Black Lives Matter protester and Salem resident Diane Pixley said bluntly. “Last week was very tough.”
According to demonstrators, tensions hit a new high after the opposing sides began to antagonize one another through the use of taunting chants, vulgar language, and physical intimidation.
Only adding to the pressure cooker-like atmosphere was the presence of Stephen Schafer of New Britain, Conn. — a man whose political-protest antics have landed him in local news headlines for years.
Thursday, Schafer attended the demonstration while donning blackface and holding a sign that prominently displayed a racial slur. Last week, protesters said he arrived wearing a KKK robe.
Although he insisted he’s a staunch supporter of Ploss, demonstrators on both sides of the street say Schafer repeatedly attempted to provoke Ploss and her supporters by jumping in front of them and weaving throughout the crowd while shouting profanity and using sexually explicit language primarily directed towards Ploss.
Schafer told The Item he first took an interest in the Cambridge-based radio host after a video of her telling landscape workers to “speak English” went viral in July, adding that he has since attended multiple rallies that have resulted in run-ins between the two, including a previous instance where he accused Ploss of stealing the memory card from his camera after he attempted to film her — an accusation she has not commented on.
“It’s Joe Exotic versus Carol Baskin,” Schafer said, referring to the main characters featured in Tiger King, a popular Netflix docuseries released earlier this year. “This is the best 2020 internet feud.”
In an attempt to diffuse the situation before it escalated further, Kable said Swampscott Police decided to ask protesters to move several hundred yards down the street where traffic is less congested.
“(Monument Square) is a three-way intersection — four if you count Redington Street — so we came up with a plan to move them down here (near the foot of Eastern Avenue),” Kable said. “It’s not an intersection and the logistics made it safer.”
However, “it was only a request,” he said, adding: “A lot of people (with Black Lives Matter) chose to honor that request. A lot of people on the other side chose not to.”
As she stood with other Ploss supporters in Monument Square, Salem resident Toby Channen said she was upset about the request because she felt her group’s demonstrations had remained peaceful.
“We’ve been here for 27 weeks,” she said. “(Until) Black Lives Matter showed up, we were fine. There was no issue.”
Channen added that she supported the Black Lives Matter demonstrators’ right to protest, but felt the two sides have received unequal treatment from Swampscott law enforcement.
“I’ll fight to the death for their right to speak, but the problem is, nobody is fighting to the death for our right,” she said. “They have tried so hard to get rid of us, whether it’s the mask mandate or the barricades, and now they’re trying to move where we peacefully protest.”
Nahant Democratic Committee member and Black Lives Matter supporter Jim Walsh was also unhappy with the request.
“Right now I’m having second thoughts about (agreeing to move) because (Ploss supporters) have taken over the space that we had for more than two months,” Walsh said. “We feel like they’re driving us away from a space that we’ve had to communicate our message.”
