what's happening in Minnesota
I've been trying to find time to write this post for the last three days because I want to use my platform, limited as it is, and have not had time. Even while typing this up, reports are emerging that someone else was shot by ice agents tonight (Wednesday, Jan. 14), so I am trying to keep this as detailed but brief as possible. I mean this with absolutely no exaggeration: the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, are currently under occupation by federal agents.
Deployment of mass military/paramilitary forces to "blue" cities is not new of course (DC, LA, Chicago), but the Twin Cities are a much smaller metro area and have a lot more agents deployed relative to our population size. Mutual aid groups are scrambling because so many people of color are very understandably terrified of leaving home and being snatched off the sidewalks or the bus stop or at school dropoffs. Minneapolis Public Schools is allowing distance learning until mid-February.
I can't stress enough how many other abductions and atrocities I am missing from the following list because it has been nonstop, but a few highlights of the regime's blatant human rights abuses and atrocities are as followed:
arresting people from hospital stabilization rooms and disappearing asylum seekers here for medical treatment
refusing to let congress members access their building being used as the central detention facility--we know from detainee testimony that conditions are awful, to say the least
breaking into the car of a disabled autistic woman who was trying to navigate driving on a street teeming with observers and ice agents while on her way to a doctor's appointment
leaving a live flash grenade in the middle of the street after brutalizing the woman above
refusing medical treatment to another man who was brutally dragged from his car. it took three days to get a status update on him, even though the video his disappearance received a lot of attention because he was visibly non responsive while being kidnapped, and a lot of people were speculating that he'd died at the speedway or shortly after
beating two Target workers, one of them a seventeen year old kid, abducting them both, and then dropping them off at a random walmart 10 minutes down the road after
pressuring prosecutors to investigate Renee Good's widow, to the point where six federal prosecutors, including a Trump appointee, have resigned
telling observers that their (completely legal) actions are "obstructing" operations and "that's why that lesbian bitch is dead" (additional MPR source)
ramming the car of a Latino man agents had profiled while he was already pulling over for them
pushing a man into the path of an oncoming bus
ramming more people's cars and leaving vehicles abandoned in the middle of the road - there was one case where the car was not left in park and rolled into traffic
arresting four unhoused Ogala Sioux men and refusing to release information unless the tribe "entered into an immigration agreement with ice" (Salon). one man was released, but three are still being held at Fort Snelling, which historically was used as a concentration camp for the state's crimes against the Dakota people
an important note about above is that there many more Native people who have been detained or arrested, but these three are of particular note because they've been held for days, and they were abducted from an area of the city that is known for its large population of unhoused Native people
again this is just the tip of the iceberg and some incidents that have been spread around more widely. ice agents are going door to door with weapons, they are following people who are organizing aid distribution, they are targeting businesses that have stepped up to help the community. protesters showing up at the whipple building where ice is detaining people know that it is extremely likely they'll be detained or have chemical munitions deployed against them just for gathering outside the building.
pay attention to what's happening in Minnesota, start organizing in your community, and please for the love of god do not give one more ounce of attention to that motherfucker jacob frey as he goes on his podcast tour while allowing MPD to arrest protesters and aid & abet ice operations. pay attention to news and reports from: Georgia Fort, On Site Public Media and Toussaint Morrison, Sahan Journal, social accounts of Minneapolis Council member Jason Chavez, Unicorn Riot, and MN ICE Watch.
Editing to add because I included this later in the reblog chain: if you're able to donate, you can find a list of vetted Minnesota mutual aid organizations as well as fundraisers for individuals/families at Stand With Minnesota.
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