Karen Read likes supporters to Vietnam War protesters

Crime

“You would have protested the Vietnam War and ended it. This is the modern equivalent to that. So thank you all,” Read told a crowd of her supporters Monday.

Now gearing up for her second murder trial, Karen Read took a moment to thank her supporters Monday, likening the “Free Karen Read” movement to protests against the Vietnam War.

Read, 44, expressed her gratitude during a protest in Dedham, one of several demonstrations Read’s supporters held Monday to proclaim her innocence in the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Videos and photos from the demonstration show Read and her family embracing protesters, blowing kisses, snapping pictures, and shaking hands.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope I meet all of you one day, and I don’t know you, but I love you, and you’re brave,” Read told the crowd, according to a clip from the YouTube account LTL Media. “You would have protested the Vietnam War and ended it. This is the modern equivalent to that. So thank you all.”

Read is accused of drunkenly and intentionally backing her SUV into O’Keefe — her then-boyfriend — on a snowy night in Canton in January 2022. Prosecutors say Read left O’Keefe to die in a blizzard outside a fellow Boston police officer’s home, but her lawyers allege O’Keefe was severely beaten after he entered the house for a party.

Read and her supporters say she was framed in a purported cover-up orchestrated by witnesses and law enforcement officials. Throngs of her followers gather outside the courthouse in Dedham for each of Read’s court dates, and the defendant herself can often be seen interacting with the crowds.

Still, Read’s Vietnam comment drew some ire online from social media users who argued that the Mansfield woman’s case has little in common with the war.

A controversial conflict with a death toll in the millions, the Vietnam War generated a massive countercultural and anti-war movement that swept the US in the 1960s and 1970s. By comparison, Read’s case has generated an anti-establishment movement on a much smaller scale. The “Free Karen Read” crowd’s frequent targets include the Massachusetts State Police, which investigated O’Keefe’s death, and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Read’s case.

Read’s first trial ended with a deadlocked jury back in July, the culmination of several months of controversy and speculation over hotly debated evidence in the case. Prosecutors intend to retry Read in January. Separately, O’Keefe’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit last week against Read and two local bars where the couple drank before O’Keefe died.