BOSTON (AP) – The daughter of U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was arrested during a protest Friday night on the Boston Common and later charged with assault after a police officer was injured.
In a statement on its website, the Boston Police Department said the 23-year-old will be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court.
Clark, the Democratic House whip, said in a tweet whose daughter, Riley Dowell, has been jailed. “I’m Riley, and this is a very difficult time in the cycle of joy and pain in parenting,” Clark wrote. “It will be evaluated by the legal system, and I believe in that process.”
Clark has spoken publicly about her fear of her own non-binary children amid bigotry targeting transgender people.
Police said officers responded to a report at the Parkman Bandstand Monument located on the Boston Common. They found the man, identified as Dowell, a Melrose resident, defaced the monument with spray paint and anti-police phrases, according to police.
During the arrest, “a group of about 20 protesters began to surround the officer while shouting profanities even though a megaphone on the public road caused traffic to stop,” the police said, adding that “an officer was hit in the face and could be seen bleeding from the nose and mouth.”
Dowell is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, damage or injury to personal property, and damage to property by graffiti/tagging, police said.
A fatal police shooting earlier this month in Cambridge sparked protests over the use of force. A 20-year-old student at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Sayed Faisal, was shot and killed by Cambridge police. He had advanced on the officer with what the police described as a kukri, a type of sword, and less-than-causing “coral feathers” had failed to stop him, the police said.
Clark is in his sixth term in the House and represents the state’s 5th Congressional District.