I think this is true. I would say "hope" it's true, but don't mean to imply that I hope that ICE and federalized national guard start will employ greater violence against nonviolent protestors.
I'm reminded of a book I just read, King: A Life, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography on MLK. It's fascinating in so many ways, even after I've watched numerous documentaries about King and the Civil Rights movement over my life. You talk about a guy with an unwavering commitment to nonviolence, even when violence against the Black community had escalated, and when others in the movement had pleaded for King to start physically fighting back.
But one thing Brisket's comment reminded me of was how the growing video footage of Southern law enforcement, unprovoked and without mercy, physically beating protestors -- men and women, and eventually children when they started joining the protests -- that started changing the attitudes of those viewing audiences outside of the South, including JFK himself and his administration. It was the proliferation of TV sets in most American households by the 1960s, which showed more and more of the senseless beatings, fire hosings, and dog attacks against peaceful protestors, that really gave the Civil Rights movement significant momentum.
Maybe Trump's invasion of the blue cities will lead to something similar. Though I'm sure plenty on the right won't see a comparison, and will chalk it up to a bunch of loser instigators in Chicago and Portland with nothing better to do, as opposed to Black's pushing for an end to segregation and the right to vote. Those folks will cheer on the pepper balls, or worse.
But maybe it will start to change the minds of some folks. Not entirely on Trump, because that toothpaste has left the station. But maybe some of the more "reasonable" Republicans and right-leaning voters will push back on his overreach of executive force and power that they have let go unchecked so far. Maybe.