What do we do when the National Guard comes to Massachusetts?

The [deployment of the National Guard to cities around the US]https://dismantl.org/post/defend-boston-s-criminals-and-pariahs) (completed or merely threatened) has rightfully made a lot of Bostonians nervous. Browsing the Massachusetts subreddit, I can easily find a few examples:

• MA National Guard… what are our options?
• Noem on National Guard in Boston (video)
• Feds eye South Station takeover over ‘crime.’ But crime there is actually low (Globe)

I’ve been thinking about ways to prepare and resist in peaceful, ethical, legal ways. Here are a few of the ideas I’ve come up with.

Tracking

Tracking where deployments are happening in the community is one measure that’s been effective for tracking ICE so far. Community advocates have reported anecdotally that recording and tracking federal agents tends to shorten the time of encounters, reduce aggression, and can sometimes dissuade them entirely. As citizens, it’s our right to record public spaces and exercise free speech to publicize these findings when possible.

Protests

Here are some resources for staying up-to-date on organized protests:

• MassPeaceAction
• 50501
• TurnPurple2Blue

Rhetoric

Here are a few thought pieces I’ve put together over the past month or so which I think relate to this topic:

• The Constitution warns us against federal overreach, but it’s important to remember the foundational reasons why federal overreach is bad for everyone
• Standing up for the dignity of immigrants and lawbreakers is paramount to upholding a fair society, even when it seems counterintuitive or unpopular
• The national right wing is currently eschewing Constitutional rights in favor of power grabs; recognize the true goal, don’t get tripped up in semantics and word games to your detriment
• Those in power (and their supporters) will come up with positive-sounding reasons to do this; don’t assume that opposing them means taking the opposite stance

Prepare

Ultimately, we should treat this as a matter of “when”, not “if”. Since taking office, this administration has only accelerated their attacks on civic freedoms, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t eventually come for Boston. Look for ways to identify and track movements of deployed troops, show up in numbers to make opposition loud, and understand the fundamental reasons why this is bad for all of us (including the people who support it).