Whether we always like it or not, both protests and counter protests are  expressions of democracy and free speech rights. A case could be made that political theater involving chants and cheers that might drown out the spoken message of event planners is part of that process. I suspect that might be one reason such protests began using placards and voice amplification years ago. Regardless, much as voting is another expression of a functioning democracy, the people in Boston "voted" by choosing to have 40,000 counter protesters to the protesters' few score. One might say the people of Boston have spoken and abundantly rejected the alt-right and its platform of white nationalism.