Will violent street takeovers and protests make Boston Trump’s next target for troops?
Over four days, a series of street “takeovers” across Massachusetts — including in Boston — and a pro-Palestine protest in Boston all ended in violence, leading to concern about whether Boston will be the next target for the Trump administration to deploy federal troops.
“It checks all the boxes,” said Arie Perliger, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “We’re talking about a progressive, blue city with a progressive leader who challenged the [Trump] administration. So definitely Boston can be at some point next in line.”
The Trump administration has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Ore. and Memphis, Tenn., citing crime or public safety concerns as reasons for deployment.
California, Illinois and Oregon have sued the federal government over these deployments.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said leaders like California Governor Gavin Newsom — who she called “Newscum” — and JB Pritzker, the Illinois Governor, have refused to stop “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness.”
“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” Jackson said.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said on Wednesday that the violence of these events shouldn’t be an excuse to send National Guard soldiers to the Bay State, stating that there’s “no need for that here.”
“I can’t control what the president and the Department of Justice decide to do,” Healey said. “I will say that Massachusetts continues to be a place ... it’s among the safest states in the country. It’s also a place where we work really hard every single day at the local and state level, even with federal partners, to eradicate and address issues of public safety and crime. And we’re going to continue to do that. And do it in a responsible way.”
Nevertheless, Boston could be a particular target for the deployment, in part because the state has gone against the Trump administration before, Perliger said.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said last month that the city will “vigorously defend” its ordinance that limits Boston Police’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging its “sanctuary city” law.
In February, Trump’s border czar threatened that “ I’m coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me .” He was later recorded accepting $50,000 in cash during a September 2024 meeting with undercover FBI agents posing as business executives seeking government contracts.
While it is difficult to speculate why there has been an increase in violent takeovers or protests in Massachusetts over the past week, Perliger said people feel like the nation is under some kind of “existential threat.”
There is growing frustration from the public about the overreach of the Trump administration and about the continuation of the war in Gaza even as Israel and Hamas seem to have agreed to a deal that will put an end to it , Perliger said.
Two examples of the undermining of public trust include the deployment of federal troops to Democratic-led states across the country and ICE officials arresting people on the street in plain clothes and with masks , he said.
What has happened in Mass.?
From October 4 to 5, there was an explosion of four street takeovers — in Boston, Randolph, Middleborough and Fall River — which officials say are coordinated efforts that start online on various platforms and are intended to overwhelm law enforcement with large, unruly crowds.
Each led to violent confrontations, with a police cruiser catching on fire from fireworks in Boston and a Dodge Charger driving at an officer in Middleborough.
Days later, on Oct. 7, the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, a pro-Palestinian protest in downtown Boston turned violent . Four police officers were injured, some with broken bones, according to a police report.
Eleven pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested and charged with inciting a riot .
The protest was part of a series of events organized on social media as a “week of rage.”
Beyond the street takeovers and the Oct. 7 protest, continued gatherings or activism are only set to continue in Massachusetts.
There is an upcoming “No Kings” protest occurring in Boston on Oct. 18, where Wu will be speaking.
The organizers said it’s in response to President Donald Trump’s strict approach to immigration enforcement and other policies that have leaned into authoritarianism. Hundreds of similar protests occurred nationwide in June, though the Massachusetts events didn’t have any reported moments of violence.
Federal agents use chemical crowd control munitions at Portland ICE protest on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025.Allison Barr/The Oregonian
Is the deployment of troops inciting violence?
In states where the National Guard has been deployed, such as in Oregon, politicians and police officers are questioning whether the Trump administration is the one inciting the violence — not protesters.
The federal government dispatched 200 Oregon National Guard troops in what Trump described as “ War-ravaged Portland .” He said police have otherwise been unable to stop Portland protesters from burning down buildings — including federal ones.
“Have you seen Portland at all?” Trump said in September to reporters at the White House. “Have you taken a look what’s happening in Portland? This has been going on for years. People out of control and crazy. We’re going to stop that pretty soon.”
An assistant chief with the Portland police testified in a lawsuit that it wasn’t the protesters who were cause for concern — but federal law enforcement, who had been “instigating and causing some of the ruckus” at the protests, according to The Oregonian .
In a similar vein, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said on social media on Saturday that the Trump administration’s troops were “deliberately attacking peaceful protesters to incite violence.”
“The goal is to generate riots to justify the expansion of authoritarian measures and to strengthen the case for the troop deployments. Let me be emphatically clear: there is no ‘invasion’ or ‘rebellion’ that justifies the federalization of the national guard,” Merkley said.
People need to be careful about characterizing protesters as violent, according to Kevin Young, an associate professor of history at UMass Amherst.
“We have a very long history in this country of police and other law enforcement, as well as the military, not being honest about their relationship to civilian protests. We can’t take what the police or other law enforcement say about protesters at face value,” Young said.
He said the justification from the Trump administration — declaring an increase in crime or public safety concerns at Democratic-led cities — to deploy federal troops is inaccurate. Young said it is the federal government “fabricating justifications for cracking down on dissent and opposition.”
“It certainly seems to be that the feds are seizing upon very selective data and maybe an incident or two here and there to justify a ruthless crackdown on protest and also a takeover of urban spaces,” Young said.
There is a certain threat of escalation when the National Guard or other federal troops are sent to cities, according to Perliger.
Extremists on the left could use the opportunity to escalate their own actions, whether that is by being violent against police or destroying private property, he said. And, at the same time, the escalation only plays into the political aim of the Trump administration to make Democratic-led cities look unsafe, he said.
“They want to enhance this public perception that in blue cities, leaders are not capable in providing safety and security. I think there’s already this kind of perception in large parts of the public,” Perliger said.
“I think by sending those troops, they are enhancing this kind of public perception and they hope that there will be political benefits to that,” he said.
He also said the deployment could aid in increasing ICE’s presence in Boston.
In a recent court case, a judge ruled that the Trump administration had violated the free speech of pro-Palestine academics whom the federal government had attempted to arrest, detain and deport.
‘The classic playbook of authoritarian regimes’
The deployment of federal troops to Democratic-led cities across the country is reminiscent of authoritarian regimes, according to Perliger and Young.
“I think the Trump administration is following the classic playbook of authoritarian regimes. It is looking for any excuse it can to justify a crackdown on free speech and protest and opposition of any kind,” Young said.
The Nazi regime in Germany is one example of authoritarian regimes creating pretexts to justify crackdowns on society, he said.
The Nazis used the Reichstag Fire in 1933 to help establish their dictatorship and build power — by stating that the fire was part of a communist plot, Young said.
“We know that Trump wants to consolidate as much power as he can in himself and in the executive branch,” Young said.
He pointed to the creation of Project 2025 , a 900-plus-page master plan of sorts that re-envisions a federal government with expanded presidential power, which the Trump administration has distanced itself from but, in its actions, followed relatively closely.
“They really have telegraphed for us what their intentions are going back years now. And it would be naive of us to believe that they weren’t being honest when they told us what their intentions are,” Young said.
Perlinger agreed, pointing to two different moments in history: the Canadian government’s deployment of military forces in Québec in the 1970s and the escalation of the war in Northern Ireland, due to the deployment of troops.
“In liberal democracies, the military should not be involved in law and order missions. The military is supposed to protect the borders, the military is supposed to protect from foreign threats,” Perliger said.
“Usually this is happening in authoritarian regimes where the government is using the military to undermine opposition, to erode people’s civil liberties,” he said.
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