People gather at the corner of Mass Ave and Melnea Cass Blvd., Boston, Mass., July 24, 2025. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
(Tribune News Service) — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu dismissed calls from South End residents to bring in the National Guard to prevent the violence and drug use in Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard from spreading to nearby neighborhoods.
Wu said this week that while it’s “not acceptable” for residents to have to side-step needles and fear for their safety at and around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, the open-air drug use, filth and violence that has spilled over into surrounding neighborhoods like the South End does not warrant a response from the U.S. military.
“I don’t believe we need or should have a military deployment in our city,” Wu told reporters Monday. “I do know that as we are looking to keep tackling the specific challenges with the opioid crisis at the national level and how that’s felt in local communities every single day, we’re doing more and trying something that brings more resources into the conversation.”
Wu mentioned an additional $200,000 in grant funding that will allow the city to expand its partnership with the Gavin Foundation with the aim of helping addicts immediately access recovery beds and providing them with the transportation to get there.
The mayor’s office said last week that the city has increased public safety enforcement and resources in the area “to meet the scale” of the challenge at and around the intersection that’s become known as Mass and Cass.
South End residents who took part in a virtual community meeting last week said, however, that there are not enough police available to deal with the violence and drug use that’s spilled over into their neighborhood, and called for more resources from State Police, and even the National Guard.
One resident, Brian McCarter, described the South End as a “war zone.”
“We would love to see the National Guard called in,” Andrew Brand, co-president of the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association, said at the meeting. “Everyone is saying we don’t have enough people. Maybe we should ask the mayor.”
Brand said Boston Police had indicated in the meeting that they didn’t have enough resources to “respond to our needs in a timely fashion,” and “what I said was, do we need to call in the State Police or National Guard to help you?”
“I think the State Police would be a better resource, and I would call on Mayor Wu to work with (Gov.) Maura Healey to get those resources,” Brand said, “whether it’s the State Police or the National Guard acting in a civilian capacity, or getting other towns to chip in.”
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