recall that the Boston Massacre contributed to the Boston Tea Party

Part of the indignation was that the guilty soldiers basically got off with a light punishment.

The jury agreed with Adams and acquitted six of the soldiers after two and one-half hours deliberation. Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they had fired directly into the crowd. The jury's decisions suggest that they believed the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd, but should have delayed firing.[67] Patrick Carr, the fifth victim, corroborated this with deathbed testimony delivered to his doctor. The convicted soldiers were granted reduced sentences by invoking Benefit of clergy, which reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court.[68]

Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it.