Turning Down the Temperature

I wrote recently to try to capture some of what it feels like to be in Minnesota right now. It continues to be exhausting and infuriating.

Yesterday, one mile from my house, I watched as two ICE vehicles whipped to the side of the road, four or five agents jumping out before it stopped, and simply tackled a guy. This wasn’t a guy they were tracking. They weren’t looking for a specific “known dangerous criminal.” I know, because they only happened upon him after coming from a different neighborhood.

No, they just jumped on a guy (I believe he got away).

I don’t understand how you can be calm when this is a daily occurrence in the cute neighborhood you live in. What possible, reasonable response should we have to hearing that if you have dark skin, you will get pulled over and questioned or tackled and possibly bundled into a car?

How is it possible to be anything other than a white-hot ball of rage?

Our Leaders

I wrote in my piece that we’ve been abandoned and it’s almost completely true. Our city counselors and many state reps (for not just Minneapolis and Saint Paul, but the other communities that are also being terrorized) are out on the streets. They are doing patrols with their local schools.

But Walz? Frey? McCollum? Klobuchar?¹ Where are they?

Every time we talk about some indiscriminate violence upon innocent families, they feel they need to also call for peaceful demonstrations. As if the two were different sides of the coin: sure, the overpaid, under-trained high school dropout just slammed a woman to the ground but you also have 19 year-olds throwing icey snowballs, so what are you gonna do?

I do think it’s very important to set our expectations and to think about what tactics leaders like Walz are using. One of their top priorities is to not let Trump invoke the Insurrection Act and I think that’s not only fair, but should definitely be a priority. Nothing will get better if things escalate and the families sheltering at home won’t be safer. So, it’s completely fair and good that they want to keep protests peaceful.

I always think of government as a set of levers. You have certain options to pull them and they have good or bad consequences, often at the same time.

One lever is local law enforcement. ICE have three times as many agents as police on hand, so even if they went toe to toe, there’s not much they could do. I also see the MPD (who I have no love for) criticized for over-policing protests, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the Mayor or Chief to tell them to not police protests. Should they show up looking like GI Joe? No. But if there’s a crime scene, they need to protect it and if there’s a noise demonstration, yeah, they’re going to show up.²

Another lever is the National Guard. Obviously, Walz doesn’t want to spark a civil war and going barrel to barrel with two sets of soldiers is a bad idea. Even if nothing kicks off, this does nothing to bring down the temperature.

I go briefly through these options because—for me—I prefer to make my anger and criticism very targeted. I understand the limitations on Walz, Frey, etc… This is not an easy time and there are no simple solutions.

That Said…

That said… we come back to the initial problem. Regular people—high school students, retirees, moms, dads—they are standing on street corners in 15 degree weather, protecting our families and our children from ICE. I want to linger on this:

It is absolutely insane that there are daily chats for parents of toddlers who are taking turns monitoring the safety of their day cares.

And this is just talking about the responders. We’re not even talking about the families who can’t leave the house, who can’t send their kids to school, who can’t send their kids to soccer practice.

You’re asking us to keep calm? I want to say to every person with a modicum of power: What. The. Fuck.

You’re asking 17 year old kids who got pepper sprayed while going to their bus to remain peaceful? The only people with power in these situations are the goons with weapons of war and the pedophile and puppy killer who sent them here. Not only is the federal government not asking them to remain calm. After they murdered Renee Good, they encouraged more violence by telling them they had absolute immunity. No one seems to be imploring Cletus with the assault rifle to calm down.

So when I hear Walz or Frey implore us to remain peaceful, yes of course I agree. Yes, of course I understand. But at the same time it is an absolute miracle that we have relative peace right now.

What Can You Do?

I wanted to do the work of being reasonable and understanding of Walz’s and Frey’s positions because I think it’s important to try to direct my own rage to achievable ends. I would love to see SPPD out there arresting ICE agents left and right, but I don’t think that’s an achievable end.

But if you’re asking us to remain peaceful, you need to change the status quo. You need to do something and so far beyond a lawsuit.³

What can they do (what levers can they pull)? One way to start is for the governor to declare a state of emergency that would allow Minneapolis and Saint Paul to put in place an eviction moratorium.⁴ A large number of families have had to stay home from work and are in danger of being put out on the street.

Mayor Frey could also spend less time doing NY Times photo shoots and more time standing shoulder to shoulder with his constituents.⁵ Frey could also stop thinking about the next election and the next office he wants to hold and say it clearly: “Prosecute and Abolish Ice.”⁶

Walz could deploy the National Guard. You don’t have to use the National Guard to draw their guns on ICE agents. Call them up the same way you would if there was a flood and we need to fill sandbags. Put unarmed soldiers on every corner in a two block radius around every school in the Twin Cities. Let them greet kids and families. Let everyone know that we have more eyes out there. Let ICE know that there is an organized network that are additionally there to document their abuses.

What else can you do? The hell if I know. I’m just an unfrozen caveman lawyer. But every time one of these elected officials gives an address without a concrete measure of either solidarity or attempt to mitigate the situation, I will heckle the shit out of them. I don’t have time for it. America’s Dad and Minneapolis’ Annoying Brother telling me to calm down means nothing to me. Be my copilot one day this week. Go stand with my friends around [REDACTED] day care. Go watch and document the thousands of detainees being flown out of MSP.

Walz and Frey and the like are not our enemies. We know who our enemies are. But if you want to be on our side, save us your cuss words and your weak calls for peace. We’re the ones out here keeping the peace.

1. St Paul’s Mayor Her was sworn into office weeks ago and had all this dropped on her lap before she could even set up a full government, so I’m giving her a pass. Would still love to see her on the streets.

2. I’m not in the habit of offering protesting advice because lecturing people putting their bodies on the line is stupid. That said, if MPD show up, disband, and go find the next hotel where ICE are sleeping. Energy directed toward MPD is energy that could be spent making ICE miserable.

3. A great example of a lever. This lawsuit is not nothing and could really affect the level of ICE activity, but it’s just a lever, not the answer.

4. This is something both city councils are working on and something my own amazing rep Molly Coleman told me about.

5. You can keep doing the tv spots, because we need the eyes of the world on us, but you better be focusing on the needs of immigrants and not talking yourself up.

6. I am now a single issue candidate. If you want to be our next governor, senator, congressional rep, you better say that day one you will be pursuing justice and the absolute demolition of an evil and needless agency. Looking at you, Klobuchar.