Protesters in Boston threw bottles of urine at police officers who were patrolling a demonstration against a free speech rally, the Boston police commissioner told the media Saturday.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans held a press conference to address the media in the aftermath of a counter-protest against a conservative free speech rally.

“We basically wanted them separated. I’m sorry to report that we did have some bottles thrown at our officers that did have urine in it. A couple of our officers were hit with that. They were hit with a lot of stuff today,” Evans said at the press conference. “And I’m very proud of the job they did. And it goes to the professionalism of this department.”

Boston Police Commissioner says bottles filled with urine were thrown at officers during protest https://t.co/srYfo8OheR pic.twitter.com/a9B52iZ1sa

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 19, 2017

Thousands of left-wing counter-protesters and Black Lives Matter movement activists came out to protest a “Free Speech” rally hosted for conservatives, libertarians and Trump supporters to show support for free speech. The “Free Speech” rally was shut down early, so counter-protesters took to the streets to march and celebrate.

He described counter-protesters as being divided into three categories: Those who came out for the rally, those who came to protest it and those who wanted to start some trouble. Evans praised most of the counter-protesters for coming out to fight “bigotry and hate.”

“99.9% of the people were here for the right reason, and that was to fight bigotry and hate,” Evans said.

The counter-protests stayed mostly peaceful with only 27 people getting arrested, Evans said. Some counter-protesters shouted “shame” at those at the free speech rally and one elderly lady got knocked over by activists when some of them snatched an American flag out of her hands.

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