Back in August, a handful of Nazis, White Supremacists, and “free speech advocates” came to Boston, where they were met by tens of thousands of counter-protesters. While the crowd was huge, only 33 people were arrested. And according to recently released incident reports, at least one of those was a photojournalist who tripped up a cop who might have taken the training wheels off too soon.

After an exciting but relatively peaceful weekend of protesting, calm was restored to the city, and MuckRock awaits its latest requests for the official footage of the event.

News of the smoking ban, which made lighting anything in a public park punishable by a fine of $250, caused quite the uproar last December. Menino, a longtime champion of public health, enthusiastically supported the measure to ensure smoke-free greenery. But one year later, the legislation seems to have only succeeded in wasting Boston’s time, money, and anger.

A few weeks ago, we ran a piece about the BPD’s long overdue response to a request for internal communications and information regarding the city’s annual Freedom Rally, and how it might run up against the newly-enacted city parks-wide smoking ban. What we got back - or really, what we didn’t get back - was surprising.