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they re watching too and it s not the first time it was in this same neighborhood at 38th and chicago that minneapolis stood at the center of the world five years ago when george floyd was murdered three sites now 38th and chicago 33rd and portland 26th and nicollet a diagonal scar carved into our collective consciousness a line of misery stretching across south minneapolis living here is exhausting last night we went to our favorite thai restaurant in st paul the sign said open but the place was empty and the door was locked the owners were inside they let us in the door stays locked now customers only ice not welcome without a judicial warrant i heard children s voices from the kitchen never heard that before not safe to leave them at home the owner told me since operation metro surge began eight children some as young as two have been taken from minnesota and sent to the south texas family residential center in dilley texas the facility is managed by corecivic a for profit private contractor reading the accounts of life at dilley from congressional visitors family and inmate accounts the picture is bleak families are housed in eight person units in neighborhoods with names from a suburban subdivision the facility calls them cottages a modern theresienstadt the real word is cells if there are fewer than eight people families are forced to share with strangers on intake all possessions are removed clothing toys backpacks books families are stripped and given one set of sweats each wash them in the sink adults are strip searched children receive private medical exams without parents present a violation of ice s own rules the lights stay on 24 7 according to the united nations committee against torture forced sleep deprivation is psychological torture that brings on cognitive loss memory collapse and hallucinations kids lose their teddy bears their blankets they play with rocks depression untreated illnesses self harm the food is substandard the water is putrid inmates are addressed by bunk numbers standard dehumanization families are denied adequate medical care and given insufficient food and water forcing them to use the commissary the government gets billed for services inmates get shortchanged if this sounds familiar look up manzanar tule lake poston concentration camps where japanese americans were imprisoned by their own government those camps were unquestionably concentration camps but they were still far more benign than dilley we never learn history repeats only this time we ve taken the shame of manzanar and made it worse handing it to a private corporation with a financial incentive to fill it even with children this is where the children from minnesota are this is what the restaurant owners know could happen when they leave their kids at home this is the threat that keeps the door locked at mango thai living here right now is tough really tough ice is still in the streets snatcher teams still operate in north minneapolis and along lake and chicago the president changes his mind on de escalation versus more agents twice an hour but there are signals of hope neighbors helping neighbors food donations off the charts people delivering to those afraid to leave their houses doctors making house calls minnesota has become a non violent example of passive resistance and there are signs it s working there s also every expectation we have violence yet to face and suppression yet to be unleashed but slowly in small steps we re making progress against this regime minnesota has been here before from labor unrest in the 1930s to today there s a steel thread running through the twin cities we live the values inherited from the scandinavians germans and native americans who built this society communal values collective wellbeing that heritage makes me proud to live here but this atmosphere is exhausting and frightening finding joy in the middle of this ugliness is a daily struggle so when people ask me how are you doing my answer today we are here 3 comments filed under life tagged as ice immigration minneapolis minnesota politics unrest january 23 2026 12 20 pm finding stasis in chaos events in minnesota continue to spiral confrontations between federal law enforcement and state and local officials continue to escalate we everyday folk find ourselves caught in the crossfire i feel like we re all struggling to find the safe harbor between diametrically opposed forces that are hellbent on imposing their will on the other regardless of the moral or ethical cost it s a shitty situation to say the least today friday january 23 will be an interesting one in minnesota one that we may look back on one day as a nexus moment for how the country moves forward under trump then again it s 40 with the windchill so it also might be a rebellion of social media bluesky and truthsocial and maybe the former twitter for whoever is left in that hellscape a friend of mine recently posted an article from substack on her social feed that i believe was the first written piece to capture the tragedy that s happening in the middle the article was written by van jones for those of you not familiar with jones he is a cnn political commentator lawyer and social justice advocate who gained prominence for his work on criminal justice reform and environmental issues he s well known for his ability to bridge political divides and for founding several social enterprises including the dream corps which works on criminal justice reform green jobs and tech inclusion the article points out that the battle in minnesota and by extrapolation the rest of the country dare i say planet isn t about ice or immigration or civil rights it s about colliding world views that have reached an impasse you can read it here america isn t divided on ice i think jones does a good job pointing out the blind spots on each side of the rhetorical divide but as my dad used to say talk is cheap and people are cheaper i agree with jones s assessment that we re all navigating blind spots and i find myself questioning where the right center point is and worse will we as americans ever get back to that center sadly our politicians have learned that bloody red meat sells it energizes their base and it gets them elected and i point the finger at both sides one of the flashpoint events this week in minnesota was the protest that disrupted a church service in st paul last sunday and the administration s arrests and attempted arrests after the fact on the surface and as a leftie my first reaction was to lean into the free speech narrative i considered the idea that any church that allows a person who delivers sermons on spiritual growth and ministers to people in their time of need while at the same time manages the operations of ice in the twin cities well that church should be protested on reflection however i was a bit disgusted with myself in that i ve allowed myself to get caught up in the rhetoric and in my anger i lost sight of the mission and by condoning this action i would also have to condone the action of any radical pro choice activist group barging into the cathedral of st paul on selby and summit during a mass and screaming at parishioners for me that s a hard no a massive line crossed and the protesters should be arrested i also reminded myself just how upset i d be if a group of activists with keffiyehs wrapped in palestinian flags barged into my synagogue on a saturday morning screaming river to the sea i would want these people arrested and tried for their actions just as i ve come to believe that the protestors on sunday morning also need to be arrested and tried for their actions i was on a social media thread recently where ice operations in the twin cities was discussed on this particular thread tempers were running hot and the language was getting personal and most unkind i asked people to step back and think about the situation in our town from the other side i m not asking people to agree with the sentiments position or actions of others no i just want them to consider the situation from the perspective of the other side just as jones does in his article these agents joined a federal law enforcement organization they were made offers that honestly they couldn t refuse great pay a big signing bonus and for many an opportunity to do something about what they believe to be a very real threat to their way of life the belief that massive illegal immigration and the specter of dangerous people on our streets is a cause worth fighting and they re not wrong about the sentiment these are real fears and they are real issues i don t agree and we can debate about the scope and impact but there are bad people here there are people dying from drug overdoses that were the result of bad actors in our community now these guys were sent to minnesota the nations icebox i also happen to believe in the rush to fill the ranks of an organization that was expected to grow exponentially screening and training were accelerated possibly too much so once here these people are put on the street to do enforcement they re given directives that a radical fringe is waiting for them and that the goal of this fringe is to attack them and to impede their ability to do the job they were hired to do and for those who would argue about illegal orders and conscience that characterization simply fuels the problem and doesn t address the issues debate these issues after we re all back to reasonable discord again now they re facing a mob whistles snowballs and chunks of ice being thrown at them honking and streets blocked in that environment people become reactive and operate in defense mode top it off when they go to a coffee shop or use a bathroom they re accosted and attacked giving further credence to the idea that they re facing a radical fringe and when courts uphold the idea that they have impunity confirmation achieved i would suggest that we stop the discussion for a minute many readers are going to suggest that i m giving a pass to bad behavior and thuggery to the contrary what i m suggesting is if we my side as well as their focus entirely on all the ways we see these agents as evil fascist jackbooted stormtroopers we have no hope of ever deescalating this situation deescalation can only happen when both sides are able to seek some common ground no matter how small that ground is unless we recognize the humanity of the people we re protesting even if that feeling isn t reciprocated we become locked in a cycle of violence that only serves the worst of us on both sides of this riots and street fighting make great social media fodder but we have to believe that chaos isn t warranted the only thing this chaos does is provide more impetus for the raw meat that the other side the activists and neighborhood organizers crave as a tool to motivate and activate their side think about it what does it take for a 60 year old grandmother to pick up a projectile and launch it at another person short answer anger and not every day anger that most of us feel this has escalated into rage rage that is powered by what they see and by how their confirmation biases are stoked in their everyday interactions with the communities they associate the social media they engage with and the media they consume and that my friends is at the heart of the issue in my opinion we simply have to move from tribal alignment and rage to deescalation and non confrontational engagement much like how two warring countries come to détente make initial contact recognize a common goal in this case deescalate even if it s just a tish agree on rules of engagement for both sides no pepper spray no throwing rocks and ice build minimal trust by observing the agreed upon rules recognizing common ground no one wants rapists drug dealers or any violent criminals in our communities no one agree to transparency on both sides arrests are going to happen people documenting activity are not radical terrorists acknowledging mistakes on both sides renee gold was a tragedy for both sides agreement that every interaction between ice the people they re arresting and the protestors is a unique incident and needs to be treated as such not every ice agent breaks the law and not every protestor comes only in peace and love i m dreaming i get it but honestly i get to do that because dreaming is way better than raging i ve learned i strongly believe there is a path that we can take as a nation we ve done it before and it s been successful i m reminded of an iconic photo from 1968 where a young people putting flowers in the barrels of national guard soldiers rifles as they stand in a line facing civilians in combat formation the ultimate expression of non violence i strongly believe that minnesotans protests will be far more effective and far more devastating to their opponents rhetoric if we can find a way to take that approach instead of a riot instead of smashing windows or throwing rocks imagine a massive crowd of people standing silently watching and today documenting with their phones the activities nothing would end this crisis faster in my opinion my argument is this would deprive the media and the administration of content content is precisely what they crave to make their argument it would break the cycle of violence and i believe would allow ice to stand down in a face saving way which on my list above would be item 8 implementing face saving mechanisms the problem for the left here is it takes time for this to have impact the reaction on the other side would be to declare victory and push on but really enough content of quiet minnesotans standing bravely will create a much bigger issue for the administration than the shots of crazed protestors hurling slurs and throwing projectiles the flower power photograph by bernie boston taken during the march on the pentagon october 21 1967 1 comment filed under deescelation ice minnesota nonviolence tagged as ice minneapolis minnesota politics writing january 19 2026 8 15 am may you live in interesting times once again i m reminded of just how sublime this little curse can be it s exhausting to live under federal occupation my beloved twin cities has spent enough time in the headlines while the rest of my life would be fine with me but i have to say watching how minnesotans have shown up this weekend i m proud of us for the most part the protests have been peaceful we are bearing witness documenting what s happening trying to protect neighbors when there have been clashes by and large it s been federal agents provoking it they re out there spraying chemicals surrounding and beating protesters detaining people in ways that raise real civil liberties concerns they re ignoring court orders about free speech abusing their power trampling constitutional rights and to the credit of people out on the streets with their phones and whistles minnesotans are saying this is not okay let s be honest i m privileged to live...
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