Never trust Facebook, but this account of what’s happening in Minneapolis aligns with what I’m seeing on the news and hearing from friends. We are being occupied; DHS has flooded the city with thousands of poorly trained masked thugs who outnumber the local police, and unfortunately the police union has declared their alliance with them. I’m not visiting Minneapolis/St Paul anytime in the near future, but let me emphasize: it’s not the citizens of my state that I’m afraid of, it’s Trump’s Gestapo that worry me.
Friends outside of MN please read. Im sharing a post written by a personal friend and medical doctor:
Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on:
- ICE agents are cruising areas with immigrant-owned businesses, and kidnapping patrons and employees alike. Yesterday they abducted two US citizen employees at a suburban Target, one who was begging them to allow him to go get his passport to show them.
- ICE is going door to door in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, asking residents where their immigrant neighbors live. Read that again. If it sounds like something out of your high school history textbook, that’s because it is.
- ICE is targeting schools and school buses. They pepper sprayed teenagers and abducted two school staff members at the high school up the street from me on Weds. Police are literally escorting school buses to ensure children can get to school and home safely. The Minneapolis Public Schools have moved to virtual learning for the next 4 weeks because it’s unsafe for children or teachers to physically come to school.
They are targeting hospitals and clinics.
Patients are scared and are canceling their appointments or just not showing up. Kids are missing their checkups and vaccines, folks aren’t getting their cancer care, etc.
- They are smashing windows in cars and homes.
- ICE is increasingly picking up Native Americans-again, targeting folks based on skin color alone.
- They are arresting and beating legal observers.
A friend of a friend had her arm broken yesterday. Folks are showing up at local hospitals, brought in in ICE custody, with severe injuries that are absolutely inconsistent with mechanism of injury reported by ICE. (Think: patient appears to have been beaten unconscious, while ICE agent says he slipped and fell.)
I can’t emphasize enough that these ICE agents do not have warrants. There are 2,000+ agents here and they are simply hunting for anyone that’s not white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or a green card holder, they will kidnap you first and ask questions later.
But the community is fighting back.
- Protests are happening every day.
- Community groups have been leading know-your-rights sessions for months, often to packed venues.
- Whistles are being distributed by the thousands, carried on keychains and worn on coat zippers, always at the ready to be blown in warning if ICE is spotted.
- Drivers are following ICE vehicles, blaring their horns in warning.
- Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait formy takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business.
- Anti-ICE signs are posted everywhere. The community is making it crystal clear that ICE is not welcome here.
- Parents and neighbors are standing guard outside schools, organizing carpools, and escorting kids to and from school on foot.
- Parents of kids in Spanish-immersion daycare (there are a LOT of these daycares here!) are keeping their kids home so the teachers don’t have to take the risk of coming to work.
- Churches and community groups are holding fundraisers to buy and deliver groceries to families who don’t feel safe leaving home.
- Mutual aid money is going out to folks who can’t make rent because they can’t work or because a breadwinner was abducted, or who need a warm place to stay after their home’s windows were smashed.
THAT is what is happening here. This fight is ongoing and it’s horrifying to watch. But we are not backing down. To my friends in other cities and states, don’t think for a minute that this won’t happen in your town. It will. Be ready.
Learn from us, as we have learned from Portland and Chicago and New York. Fight back. Don’t let us get to the last line of Martin Niemoller’s poem.
Personally, I live three hours away from Minneapolis, so the turmoil isn’t affecting me directly yet. While I was standing in a protest line on Saturday, though, I heard that ICE agents have been spotted sniffing around the poultry farms and the immigrant workers employed there, so they’re creeping up on us.
One final note of irony: the man who murdered Renee Good, Jonathan Ross, has a legal defense fund on GoFundMe, and certain people are making a novel argument for supporting him.
I am big believer in our legal principal [sic] that one is innocent until proven guilty,wrote hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman on X after donating a reported $10,000 to Ross’s cause.
I can’t even…
Where’s the GoFundMe for Luigi Mangione?
Asking for a fiend.
He is proven guilty. It’s on tape.
PZ, do you have a shareable link for the email from the doctor?
If people take this to Federal Court, they could probably get a court order to stop ICE from using excessive force.
Or, at least it has worked a few times.
It was done recently during the occupation of Chicago.
All of what is described above in the OP is blatantly illegal.
It is not OK to violate my and everyone else’s constitutionally protected civil rights.
This is just more Cruelty Theater from Trump, the GOP, and the fundie xians.
We’ve been enforcing our laws and immigration laws for over a century without anonymous, masked thugs having fun assaulting people.
They don’t need to do this.
The point isn’t to enforce immigration laws, it is to terrorize the American people.
They also are trying to provoke a violent counter-reaction so they can declare marshal law and get even uglier.
The GOP must thing their right wing terrorists will help get them more votes.
I don’t see how but then again, I’m never going to be MAGA.
If we survive this, there needs to be a Nuremberg type trial. Starting with the leaders of this regime and working our way down.
Do what you can in courts, but I’ll put my trust in the people on the ground. I’ll be attending protests when I can and if I ever encounter ICE, I will do whatever I can to film, inconvenience, and demoralize them.
PZ, where can I find reporting about the Police Union, as a Minneapolis resident I would like more documentation when I bring up my concerns about what police should be doing to my council member. And in no way am I doubting the statement I just want the evidence for the message to my council person.
this is very easily googeable mate, don’t give us the hyperskeptic routine
If you haven’t already, report that GoFundMe for violating the cite’s TOS involving violent and criminal behavior.
Is your Google search engine broken?
It took me literally 4 seconds to find this.
Foolishleader, who ties your shoes for you?
I do hope your minder helps you cross the streets safely.
Yeah, this is shocking, especially coming from the Minnesota police association.
Not one word about an ICE agent killing an unarmed 37 year old mom for no reason except he had a gun and he could. Murder.
Not one word about all the many crimes of ICE agents.
A partial list of their law violations.
.1. Racial profiling.
ICE has been arresting American Indians in Minneapolis.
According to the Native Americans, all the Europeans are…immigrants.
.2. Unlawful search and seizure. No probable cause for stops except people don’t look white enough.
.3. Arbitrary arrests for people not committing crimes i.e. no habeas corpus.
.4. Excessive force.
.5. Disappearing people into prison without providing access to lawyers or charging people before a judge.
.6. Illegal search and seizure.
.7. Perjury in court. They always lie about everything and that is a crime under oath.
8. Murder and attempted murder.
ICE has shot people 16 times so far this year. None of their victims had a gun in sight.
raven @10, chill. Search engines are shit these days, the news outlets that covered this aren’t our local ones (those are a bit busy), and the MPPO doesn’t have their own statement in the media section on their website. Finding something suitable to take to electeds isn’t as easy as all that in this case.
foolishleader @7, MPPO posted this to their X account, where it will be most inflammatory, of course: https://x.com/MNPoliceAssn/status/2009053991209193826
PZ’s title: Chaos continues
I would make that more accurate by changing it to: Chaos Increases
It is always worse, and dumber.
Jacqueline Sweet (Journalist):
Commentary
Jacqueline Sweet: “I have reached out to GoFundMe to ask for comment and if this fundraiser is within their rules and TOS.”
Jacqueline Sweet:
Clyde Emmons (Screenshots of GFM updates):
Rando: “Lmfao the givesendgo guy is definitely like ‘Oh yeah sure, I toootally have contact with the family. Just send me those hundreds of thousands of dollars I’ll make sure they get to the right place'”
Those who live in Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, etc. who are black, brown, Asian, Latino, and Native American and voted for that Stupid Idiot only because they didn’t want a woman in the WH now wished they’d elected her so they won’t have the likes of ICE knocking at their doorstep at especially 2am in the morning.
Follow-up to 14. Anti-semitic conspiracy mongering at the other fund.
Chris Ingraham (Journalist):
Wikipedia – GiveSendGo
[OT]
Stephanie: “Search engines are shit these days”
Actually, they are better now than ever they were before; the output however is shit because $$$ is the point, not being helpful. So, unless one is halfway competent at search queries, one may perceive them as shit. But that’s on the user.
I put the query “Minnesota police association about ICE shooting” into boring old Google and I got news sites and blah. I went to the AI tab, and it immediately gave me the link you found.
It also gave the news/media page: https://www.mppoa.com/index.php/media-news
Follow-up to 14, 16.
Jacqueline Sweet:
Yes, John @17, a shitty UIX is one way to make a shitty product, it’s much easier to find something once you’ve seen it and can reverse-engineer the search prompt, and I have already pointed out that what foolishleader wanted isn’t at the link you found. But it really is good to see you’re exactly as reliable as you ever were.
“it’s much easier to find something once you’ve seen it and can reverse-engineer the search prompt”
WTF?
You reckon that was me reverse-engineering? Really?
(Also, it took raven 4 seconds, so it ain’t just me)
“[…] and I have already pointed out that what foolishleader wanted isn’t at the link you found.”
Ahem: the news/media page: https://www.mppoa.com/index.php/media-news
The literal query was (and I quote): “where can I find reporting about the Police Union, as a Minneapolis resident I would like more documentation when I bring up my concerns about what police should be doing to my council member”
The claim that the official MPPOA media/news page does not have reporting about the Police Union is not credible.
“But it really is good to see you’re exactly as reliable as you ever were.”
And still not wrong.
Knock it off John. Yes, I am going to threadcop you personally every time you derail yet another thread with your fucked up superiority complex. Stop attacking the commenters. You aren’t smarter than everyone else.
If a search engine does not provide the information you seek without wading through pages of monetized content, it is indeed best characterized as shit.
[meta]
Tethys: “Knock it off John. Yes, I am going to threadcop you personally every time you derail yet another thread with your fucked up superiority complex.”
The guilty fleeth where no one pursueth.
People such as you who claim they see me as having a “superiority complex” unwittiingly evince their own neurotic “inferiority complex”. See, I’m only a bit above average.
(Diff is that I don’t get my ego bruised when someone else is correct)
Did you notice my alleged superiority at least was topical and provided useful info.
Anyway. Your aspie-type wrangling skills are on display, but alas for you, I ain’t one of them.
—
Yah, well. That’s why I went to the AI tab, to get good results. As you saw.
(I literally told you that!)
Also, lots of those kidnapped by ICE are leaving behind pets that the local animal charities are trying to take care of. So if you care to, please donate to one.
The reason I wasn’t all that polite to the nym foolishleader is simple.
.1. I don’t recognize that nym.
It isn’t someone that has ever commented on Freethoughtblogs, AFAIK.
.2. I am not exaggerating when I said it took 4 seconds to find that story.
First entry, when I hit search.
.3. This could be a right wing troll that is Just Asking Questions, JAQ.
The right wing extremists are out in force, celebrating Renee Good’s murder and posting fake images of her shot to death or attacking ICE with her car.
They vaguely realize that to normal people shooting unarmed 37 year moms for no reason doesn’t make their movement look all that great.
.4. I note that foolishleader never bothered to come back. It’s like they didn’t really much care.
So, who knows.
Inept 10 year old or vicious right wing troll?
We are all on edge here. Including me.
What happened to Renee Good could happen to many of us. I’m part of the local resistance and I’ve been to 6 protests in 2025. and I’m going to the one on January 20th.
I saw on video an ICE thug grab a young 20s woman who might have weighed 100 lbs and throw her on the ground. She was bruised but otherwise unhurt.
If that happened to me, my old Boomer bones would probably just break. We wouldn’t get up until we saw what was broken.
ICE is currently right here in my neighborhood with enormous armored humvees and fucking storm-troopers. Many of my neighbors are legal immigrants or first generation citizens. I am furious that we have to worry about randomly being attacked or shot by these poorly trained but highly armed terrorists if we ‘interfere’ by existing when they get angry.
Gravel-Pit Barbie flew in on her jet so they could film an arrest of a single man from Ecuador who they claimed has outstanding warrants for crimes. They had an entire assault team and a professional film crew to run up some stairs and create video footage of her dramatically asking stupid questions like it’s a tv cop show.
Minnesota is suing the orange administration for invading our state and quite literally terrorizing the citizens.
https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/minnesota-files-lawsuit-to-halt-federal-immigration-enforcement-surge
The reddit post has been removed by a moderator
Re: Tethys @26:
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):
Thank you all for your comments re: my request. I specifically was looking for where PZ got his information because I trust that he is informed about the subject if he brought it up and I wanted to make sure I had good info for my council person. I am sorry that I did not make myself clear.
@skycaptain
We shall see. Perhaps white lady citizens being shot three times in the face will sway some decisions.
From the 1st Minnesota to Pierce Butler and the civil rights movement, Minnesota has a pretty solid progressive record of eventual success when it comes to fighting fascists. I guess the 250th anniversary is going to be a reiteration of that.
Since the Reddit post disappeared, here’s some corroboration.
Minnesota Star Tribune
^ That article was Christmas Eve.
Here is a bit of video documenting the draconian Ice-stapo agents assaulting and arresting an American citizen for filming them harassing a young black man who was just pumping gas.
courtesy of local MN Fox News.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/n3bI3d4HsSI
Video captures Minneapolis immigration arrest in a city on edge
Minnesota Star Tribune – Parents stand watch for ICE outside Minnesota schools
Meanwhile, in South Minneapolis, the residents are absolutely exercising their rights to civil dissent in ICE officers faces. Very loud and unedited footage of ICE getting the public’s opinion on their life choices, plus whistles.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0dNdTOQulBM
Video & Photo: ICE on ice did a pratfall, at a photographer’s feet.
Rando: “Recruitment removed sit-ups from their physical requirements, so he just lives down there now.”
* Some reqs were dropped, but 32 sit-ups are still expected.
In different encounter, a woman stood her ground, saying she was a citizen refusing to show ID, until agents gave up and left.
Via Alt National Park Service on fb :
Source : https://www.facebook.com/AltUSNationalParkService/posts/pfbid0dYvQ9svmbsYMhAZTiXXDPughVoMqUNKnHw9juYYgUYEgLqrQp1zjScNTLEr8iJMWl
Brandon was apparently interviewed by alocal news station (KARE 11) and footage was online and on yt though some (?) of it seems to have gone missing since. This seems legitimate and I find it all too blievable and credible.
@ ^ Interview with Brandon Siguenza by KARE 11 Breaking the News Plus on youtube here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2289643
Under twenty minuets long but haven’t yet watched myself.