
Mayor Michelle Wu is standing firm on her signature “safest major city” line, while admitting that violence against police officers won’t be tolerated, after this week’s destructive pro-Palestine rally at the Boston Common.
The mayor is brushing away any concerns that the melee, which prompted four Boston Police officers to be taken to the hospital, could play into the hands of President Donald Trump, who has attempted to deploy the National Guard to cities he finds dangerous.
“I think all of our residents know what is happening here in the city, that the reality of our day-to-day lives is that Boston is an incredibly safe community,” Wu said. “We are the safest major city by the numbers, and we work hard to maintain that and to keep pushing the standards higher every day.”
The mayor also pointed to how federal judges across the country have recently blocked Trump from deploying the National Guard to various cities, including one who ruled Thursday that there was no substantial evidence depicting a “danger of rebellion” in Chicago.
“The president does not have the power to declare war on American cities,” Wu said.
She made her comments after Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden upgraded charges against the 13 protesters arrested during Tuesday’s riot to include violation of a state law that prohibits “promotion of anarchy.”
The eruption of chaos and assault on police followed a police cruiser being torched just two days beforehand, when a street-racing takeover with over 100 participants turned violent at the intersection of Tremont Street and Massachusetts Avenue.
Prosecutors have accused the group behind the pro-Palestine rally of intending to cause “destruction and disruption,” as the activists advertised the event with an image of a burning police cruiser and a quote from a Hamas spokesman.
That proved to be enough evidence for police to develop probable cause that the group “intended to conduct their rally and march in such a way that it induced fear, caused destruction and disruption, caused injury and promoted anarchy.”
Speaking to reporters in Brighton on Friday, Wu said she’s “very grateful to our officers for what they do every day to keep our community safe.”
“In Boston, we have a long and celebrated history of peaceful protest, of people coming together to make their strong opinions known,” the mayor said. “We never tolerate violence, and there’s never any justification for attacks on police officers.”
When the Herald asked Wu how the riot influences how the police prepare for future events, including next weekend’s “No Kings” protest against the Trump administration, which she is set to headline, the mayor said, “Officers in our city are very used to hosting large-scale events.”
“The Boston Marathon is one of the biggest events around the entire country,” Wu said. “We have daily events that … require preparation and planning, and there are many, many public demonstrations that happen throughout the year on any number of topics.”
“We’re very used to how to support and make sure that people are safe as these events take place,” she added. “But it’s also important to be clear that violence will not be tolerated.”
Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, agreed that the department knows how to respond to big events but admitted that it “dropped the ball” in preparing for Tuesday’s protest.
Calderone told the Herald on Friday that he didn’t know what went into the ball being dropped. He highlighted how the department typically always has “enough bodies to make sure we keep the general public safe and our officers safe.”
“This is one of those times I can’t second-guess the department or pretend to know what they did or didn’t know, what information they had or not,” Calderone said, “but I just know that when you’re out there and are assessing the situation, somebody should have called more bodies in.”
Chaos flared Tuesday evening when emergency vehicles attempted to respond to another call in the area of Boston Common. They were blocked from getting through, though, as protesters took over Tremont Street.
Protesters refused to clear the streets, instead directing “vulgar chants” at police, including screams of “(Expletive) you Nazis” and “BPD is KKK,” in full earshot of hundreds of pedestrians commuting home from work and people trying to enjoy the Common, many of whom included elderly people and children, according to an incident report.
Four BPD officers suffered injuries while trying to break up the agitated, combative group that grew to around 200-300 supporters around 6:45 p.m. One officer needs surgery to reconstruct and repair a broken nose.
Wu directed prosecutors to hold the protesters accountable to the “fullest extent of the law,” in a statement Wednesday morning. Calderone, whose union has endorsed the mayor in her reelection campaign, said he and his members have wholly appreciated Wu’s response to the chaos.
Boston Municipal Court Judge Paul M. Treseler ordered all seven protesters arraigned on Thursday to be held on cash bail that ranged from $5,000 to $10,000. That came after Judge James M. Stanton, who presided over the arraignments on Wednesday, issued lesser bail for five of the protesters he took up, ranging from $500 to $1,000.
Stanton ordered $10,000 bail for Roder Atwood, 21, of Somerville, who is accused of assaulting the officer who suffered the broken nose.
All 13 activists, ranging in age from 19 to 28, were initially charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. Some face stiffer charges that include assault and battery on a police officer and helping a prisoner escape from police custody.
If convicted on the anarchy charge, protesters could be sentenced to prison for up to three years while being banned from working as an administrator or teacher in schools.
Calderone said his union is “very happy” with the repercussions that the protesters are facing.
“They came in here, they were uncivilized, they were assaulting police officers, doing things that they know as a young adult are unacceptable,” the union head said of the protesters. “This wasn’t some young 13-year-old kid who had a spare-of-the-moment fit of anger. These are young adults … they know right from wrong, and they chose the wrong.”
