Boston Police Movement Causes

After the event of World War I, Americans began to express anti-immigrant views against Eastern and Central Europeans. Americans had feared communism after the overthrowing of the Russian royal family during 1917 and only increased when the Boston Police strike occurred in 1919. This brought up a concern for a potential revolution caused by radicals and communists. Throughout the United States, Anarchists mailed bombs to distinguished Americans, which gave more substance to the Red Scare. Through the people and the government, their actions show how fearful America was towards communism.

The Boston Police went on strike on September 9, which caused a panic among the people that anarchists were behind the strike. Papers had provoking headlines

Mitchell Palmer enforced raids to arrest supposed anarchist and communists. This was in response to the bombings across America against important government officials and industrialists. On November 7, 1919, local authorities raided the Union of Russian Workers’ headquarters, arresting 200 people. He thought that it was best to deal with these anarchists by deporting them, so he deported 249 supposed radicals. Furthermore, Palmer claimed that these raids were a success, but the American public saw the brutality of these raids and questioned it. The largest Palmer Raid took place on January 2 1920, where 3,000 to 10,000 people were arrested in 30 or more cities, and some of those were only guilty of having a foreign accent. The irrational fear of communism is shown through these raids, for authorities arrested anyone that seemed like a threat such as having a foreign

Sacco and Vanzetti were both arrested in May 1920, and both were charged with shooting and killing two guards in a robbery. 107 people saw Sacco and Vanzetti elsewhere when the crime was committed, but 61 people claimed that they saw them at the robbery. However, Judge Thayer was very biased against anarchists and radicals, so regardless of what eyewitnesses say he found them both guilty. People then claimed that these convictions were only based their political views and ethnicity, and there was little evidence that was against these individuals. Despite these claims, the men were executed by electric chair on August 23, 1927. In this case, the fear of radicals preceded over rational thought, and like the Palmer raids, his conviction was based on their foreign