The helicopters and vans full of men who cover their badges and faces have arrived in my city, as predicted. They emptied out of Portland and LA and New York and Chicago and piled in to a twinned pair of cities far smaller than any of those.

For the numbers, they are 2000 or so. To put that in scale, Minneapolis has 600 police officers, and St Paul 500, so this invading force has more than twice as many as the combined police force of both cities, all at once. (Not that the police are helping us.)

The invaders break into houses and shatter windows. They don’t have a warrant, or even the name of someone they’re looking for. Anyone who isn’t white or who resits will do.

They simply believe that they have the right to any space at any time, the right to take or beat anyone at any time, just because they decided to. They believe this because the head of DHS has told them so- that they have federal immunity to do anything they want, and that anyone who tries to stop them is automatically a felon, and a criminal to be punished. They have been told that they have no responsibility to any political body or any person but this one simple mission- round up every non white person and anyone who would protect them. They are actively encouraged to attack political entities who resist them. The head of DHS calls any and every resistance to this agenda “insurrection”.

I’m not being dramatic. You can find the Homeland Security edict online. They aren’t hiding it. They’re proud.

The videos of ICE activity are easy to find. Yesterday afternoon it was 6 men choking one woman and dragging her into a van while she screamed and begged for someone to help her. She was white, but her hair was blue, and some of the comments underneath said that she must have something to deserve it.

And this is why I have become allergic to the word “activist”. “Activist” is what the people who cheer or excuse what’s happening call people who see their neighbors being violently abducted without due process by thugs who obey no laws, and know that that’s wrong. That is the excuse they give why anyone who stands up must be beat down, without stopping for pesky things like legal rights. Someone even looking like they might think this is wrong is enough for some folks to want state violence brought to bear.

Are the people just trying to survive activists? Are the bus drivers who let kids stay on the bus when they see ICE on their block at the end of a school day activists? Are the pastors driving around delivering food to their parishioner who can only shelter in place and hope not to be found activists? Are the mothers handing out ICE alert whistles on the playground at after school pickup activists? Are the people refusing, when ICE comes pounding on their door, demanding that they point out which houses have people of color in them activists? Are the school superintendents moving to online learning because they fear that they can’t keep children safe activists? Are the thousands and thousands of people going to peaceful protests? Are the hardware store owners stocking up on gas masks? Is everyone who sees violence and films it to show the word what’s happening an activist?

ICE thinks so. I know a man who was filming the violent abduction of a neighbor when ICE smashed the window of his home, drug him out over the broken glass, smashed his phone, beat him while screaming homophobic slurs (he was white, so presumably they couldn’t use their usual repertoire of slurs) and arrested him. I say arrested but of course what he was was abducted. There was no Miranda rights, no booking process. After a few days they released him because they simply ran out of space to hold him, and they prioritized harming people of color.

Activist is the word they’re using to pretend that this is “political”- the purview of people with “agendas”. Not normal people. Not people like you. You should stay out of this. You’re not an “activist”.

Well I don’t want to be an activist.

But I can’t ignore the violent siege on my city. It is in my home and my community. My windows are as breakable as anyone else’s. My black and brown neighbors are my neighbors, whether they are immigrants or not. So, there are new blackout curtains in my windows, a whistle in my pocket, and a long list of backup to call. I will take care of my community because that’s what community is for.

I don’t think they’re likely to kill me. Even when I stand up, I’m an unappealing target. That doesn’t mean I’m completely safe, as recent murders have shown. If I have a car or my walking cane I could be called a threat with a deadly weapon. but there are thousands more at risk than me whether they step outside or try to shelter at home. No matter what they do. And ICE is going to kill more people here before this is over. They are absolutely giddy about the idea. I truly can not over-emphasize the degree to which their tactic is just to grab and beat anyone for being non-white, or witnessing ICE’s behavior. They are here to punish people for being the wrong kind of person in their cosmology. They are here to scare people and cause destruction and chaos and nothing else. And when they do so, they will call those people criminals and activists.

I’m not going to ask you to be an activist. But I am asking you to see what’s happening, and loudly proclaim that this is wrong. Resist the narrative that this is anything but what it is- a violent and lawless attempt to hurt and frighten people into compliance with violent authority. Call your representatives and demand action no matter where on the political spectrum they are. Yell at your racist uncle for defending this attack on human rights. Push back on narratives that the things we are reporting- the things we are living, aren’t real. Go to a protest. Call for your AG to support our AGs lawsuit against this. If you can donate to MN mutual aid funds, please do. If you’re outside the US, call for UN observers to be sent in.

Make noise.

If human rights go out the window the moment Trump wants to make an example, then they aren’t rights anymore- they’re a favor dispensed by a king, at his discretion.

Minnesota is intensely networked, and still had it’s collective boots on from 2020. We are incredibly good at spreading and replicating procedures that work. Our community spirit will not be broken, and we have never been more united.

But Republicans know they will never get Minnesota back after all of this. So they need to hear that they will face your fury as well.

If you’re scared that’s reasonable.

But we need you to get mad, and we need that feeling to be loud.

We need to show that the ordinary people are not going to stand for this.

This is the part of the email where I normally invite you to share it with others. But I do not want special attention of a positive or negative type right now. If you want to share my words, feel free to copy paste or screengrab, but I ask you not to share around my newsletter or name at this time.

Thank you,

Lee