In March of 1770, a group of British troops found themselves accosted by a mob of angry colonists in Boston. The soldiers were pelted with rocks, snowballs, and struck with clubs. Finally, one soldier fired his weapon in self-defense, and the other troops followed suit. When the smoke cleared, three colonists lay dead. Eight others were wounded, and two of those would later succumb to their injuries.
The event became known as the Boston Massacre, and was initially a public opinion coup for Patriot activists like Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, who held up the shooting as another bloody example of cruel British rule. At trial, the soldiers were successfully defended by future U.S. president John Adams, who highlighted the difference between the actual events and the propaganda that followed by saying, “Facts are stubborn things.”
Yesterday, 250 years and two months removed from that shooting on King Street, a second Boston Massacre may well have taken place on Beacon Street, in the shadow of the gold-domed Massachusetts State House. Nobody got shot, everyone walked away, but if COVID-19 was there, the massacre that may ensue will put the events on King Street so long ago in deep historical shade.
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William Rivers Pitt (November 9, 1971 – September 26, 2022). He was an author, educator, political activist and loving parent. Among his published works are Pitt's book War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know, with Scott Ritter, was published by Profile Books in 2002 outlining false WMD arguments set against testimony and data from a weapons inspector who oversaw the destruction of Iraq's stockpiles in the 1990s. The Mass Destruction of Iraq: The Disintegration of a Nation: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible, was published by Truthout in 2014. The book was co-authored by Truthout reporter Dahr Jamail.
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