I know I haven’t posted regularly on this blog in years but I’m not seeing a whole lot of posts on this site about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now. And the posts I am seeing are not covering the scope of it. I’m genuinely surprised because tumblr is usually where I find out about things organically through my feed. So I’m making a post about it.
A brief summary of events, from someone who pays attention and also lives here, best taken with a grain of salt and some fact checking:
2020: George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police. There are weeks of protests about it. It makes national news. Protests happen in DC. The infamous Trump and his bible photo shoot happens.
2024: Gov. Tim Walz is Kamala Harris’ running mate in the presidential election. He starts the “they’re just weird” thing. Is folksy, Trump personally hates him.
November 2025: ICE starts showing up to “crack down” on “illegal immigrants” in our Somali community. I may remember the numbers wrong, but something like 90% of our Somali neighbors are either naturalized or were born here. People distribute ICE whistles and are on high alert. Localized to the twin cities.
December 2025: Nick Shirley is paid by a bunch of MN Republicans to do an exposé on daycare fraud. I didn’t hear much about this. All I really know is this was an ongoing investigation that MN officials were already taking care of and some of the guilty parties have already gone to court from a COVID era food assistance program. Mostly, if not all, legal US citizens. He did a really bad job at doing journalism and just showed up to day cares with a camera crew and went “YUP nobody’s here” as if they weren’t in lock-down procedure because some fuck ass white men showed up with camera equipment that could easily be mistaken for guns. I believe. I will fact check all of this and will correct myself in a reblog if necessary. (source but not all the details that I remember hearing about but they said there was no recorded evidence of fraud)
Conservative internet explodes. Kristi Noem sends a mess of agents. I know it’s more than a thousand more. They call it Operation Metro Surge. They are going everywhere. There are protests. People try to interrupt the arrests. It’s a lot.
1/7/2026: Renee Nicole Good is shot by an ICE agent in the middle of a protest. A few blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. Broad daylight. In front of a crowd. While she was following instructions to turn her vehicle around. Jonathan Ross, the piece of shit Nazi who did it, was recording on his phone the whole time, switched his phone to his non dominant hand so he could more effectively shoot her in the face from 2 feet away. Claims self defense, several angles immediately disprove him. He releases his video, he calls her a “fucking bitch” as her corpse drives away. Does not help him at all. (source) He has not been seen since. Some photos/reports exist of a bunch of agents showing up to his house and taking some tubs and art away. His wife is an immigrant. (source but it’s the daily mail so grain of salt.)
Not hours later they go raid a school and tear gas a bunch of kids. (source). Minneapolis has switched to distance learning. I’m not sure about St. Paul.
The last week: There are up to 3,000 ICE agents here. Keep in mind Minneapolis and St. Paul only have 600 or fewer police officers each. So these dudes are roaming in packs. It’s 2-4 dudes to a car and 2-5 cars per pack. People are “commuting with” ICE agents to honk and alert people that they’re there. People are going on patrols with their neighbors.
ICE is no longer asking “are you a citizen.” They are simply walking up to you and taking you into custody. They are going door to door. They have started just breaking the door down if you don’t comply. They are driving recklessly to just grab pedestrians and drivers alike (source). People are afraid to go get groceries. It’s all over the state. I am learning names of cities in places I thought were just factory farm land and I’ve lived here my whole life because they’re doing raids there. I had to text my family in the suburbs because I saw reports of my small little hometown an hour away getting door knocks today.
It’s insane and I am not doing it justice. There are thousands of masked federal agents roaming around all of Minnesota with no warrant or specific goal. They are just trolling around looking for people. They are detaining anyone and everyone. They are beating people. They are pepper spraying people. They are kidnapping people. They are acting unconstitutionally, aggressively, and unpredictably. They are creating situations that are dangerous so that they can try to justify beating or shooting their way out. I will run an errand and then get fed a tiktok that was shot from the Cub Foods that I just left and there’s 20+ ICE vehicles parked there now. They’re taking people from work, from day care, from schools, from shopping centers.
Iceout.org tracks ice sightings. This is a screen shot with the date set to 12/1/2025.
And from today.
They have cut off SNAP and WIC benefits. Just for us. Not any other state, just Minnesota. They’re saying it’s because of fraud but I think it’s because they hate that we use federal funds to give free breakfast and lunch to every public school student.
And this is breaking just now, 1/13/2026: the DOJ is trying to investigate Renee Good’s widow. 4 people have resigned about it. (source). I don’t even want to read the article to see what they’re saying.
So that’s a brief history.
Unicorn Riot is doing a lot of good reporting and they don’t seem to have the spin that a lot of local news stations will have where they downplay everything. This article specifically goes into a lot of the specific instances of brutality.
It’s also a rumor on TikTok that all of the videos of ICE and protests and the such and the like are being geo locked. So my feed is all footage of people being detained and talking about the “commuting” they’re doing and what they’re seeing but people outside of the state are not seeing it. So if you’re also on that infernal app, try searching for Minneapolis or Minnesota and see what you see. I’m kind of curious if this is true. Because I’ve been living and breathing ICE and doomsday prepping content for a week. I’m sure those two topics aren’t connected.
I don’t really know what my goal with this post is. I’m tired. I’m in the first ring of suburbs, so it’s been pretty quiet. But I have friends in south Minneapolis. And I’m worried for them. And I know it’s a matter of time before my quiet pocket is affected. Because they’re coming door to door.
Pay attention to Minnesota, I think an example is being made of us.
Update- Minnesota republicans are taking this opportunity to try to impeach Govt Waltz, who has already declared that he will not seek re-election in November because of Republican death threats against him and his family. Because of the “fraud”. But actually because Waltz is speaking very plainly about what is happening here.
St Paul has gone to partial virtual learning for anyone who doesn’t feel safe sending their kids to school.
Every school I know now has safety patrols.
The school districts are not mincing words about the clear and present threat. Everyone in the area is completely clear that we are under violent occupation.
Most of the white people ICE grab, are released within days, because ICE can’t even keep track of who was grabbed by who over what. However, they are still subjected to beatings, gassing, having their home and car windows smashes, etc.
Local police are advising compliance with the blatant human rights violations and total lack of due process, because they are cowards.
Even conservative Minnesotans are balking at the total lack of due process and open violence against unresisting people for doing things like taking videos. I know a guy who was in his house recording ICE, and they smashed his home window, dragged him out over the broken glass, beat him while screaming slurs, smashed his phone, and detained for three days.
We need your help to spread the truth about what is going on. Find the videos and share them on any platform you have. Make noise about what’s happening. Get your “don’t tread on me” relatives whipped up about it if you can.
We need republicans to be afraid, otherwise ICE plans to be here for half a year attacking us.
If human rights can be revoked because Trump doesn’t like your state, then they aren’t rights anymore, they are favors dispensed by your king.
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO along with regional bodies throughout the state, including the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, the West Area Labor Council, the North East Area Labor Council and the East Central Labor Council, have joined in solidarity to endorse a powerful unified statewide action on January 23: Day of Truth and Freedom. The Minnesota labor movement is united against the violent ICE occupation of our beloved cities that has directly impacted union members, our workplaces and our families.
Workers are essential for our communities to function. Since the ICE campaign of terror began, both immigrant and non-immigrant workers have feared for their safety when going to work, being at work, and coming home from work. Union members and our families are being illegally detained at alarming rates, with workplaces and schools facing increased challenges.
Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, President of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, shared why union federations are joining this call:
“Working people, our schools and our communities are under attack. Union members are being detained commuting to and from work, tearing apart families. Parents are being forced to stay home, students held out of school, fearing for their lives, all while the employer class remains silent. Our labor federations are encouraging everyone to participate on January 23rd. It’s time for every single Minnesotan who loves this state and the notion of truth and freedom to raise their voices and deepen their solidarity for our neighbors and coworkers living under this federal occupation.”
Unions join the demands for the day that call for: ● ICE must leave Minnesota now. ● The agent who killed Renee Good must be held legally accountable. ● No additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming Congressional budget and ICE be investigated for human and constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors. ● Minnesotan and national companies to become 4th Amendment Businesses — cease economic relations with ICE and refuse ICE entry or using their property for staging grounds.
anyway my take on the concept of “reconnecting” with your heritage is that it only makes sense if there is a community of real living human beings to connect with that is ready to welcome you. otherwise it’s just building a shrine to your DNA. are you trying to become part of a community and learn how to participate or are you trying to take ownership over something? they are different things.
people in the notes: you’re viewing this in bad faith. why are you assuming that this post was directed to anyone but white neopagans?
well why was this post worded as if the only people who could possibly see and interact with it are white neopagans…
I mean I really thought the phrase “a community of real living human beings” was a big clue here that this is not a post about reconnecting with communities of real living human beings. Members of a diaspora can in fact be connected with and living cultures can be learned from. Yes large amounts of cultural history can be lost through exile and oppression but that does not render diasporic culture worthless or too impure to engage with.
A couple years later it’s still amazing what a perfect distillation the original “anonymized people of the global south” tweet is of the absolute callousness of yankee liberals.
If I wrote a character saying this into a piece of media about how much americans suck it’d be too on the nose.
I am greatly entertained by the President Pro Tempore of Virginia’s state Senate, an elderly woman who constantly talks about her goal of countering GOP gerrymandering by rigging Virginia’s districts 10-1 in favor of the Democratic Party. She’s a rare breed for Democrats: completely ruthless, totally apathetic to criticism, only here to win. Here she is calling Sen. Tim Kaine a cuck for disagreeing
5 years ago today Willem Van Spronsen attacked the Tacoma ICE facility and was gunned down as he attempted to blow up the buses being used to transport prisoners. Hislast transmissionis a banger if yinz wanna read it. it’s not long.
Thinking a lot about the prescience and bravery of WVS today
i kinda don’t like those posts that are like “it feels so good to be a hater in private instead of bullying people” because i don’t think the only two options for negative opinions are Privacy or Bullying. being a hater in a public forum is perfectly fine, and even the most vitriolic negative opinions are not automatically bullying just because someone who might have their feelings hurt by them sees them. there’s a difference between being negatively impacted by something you see and being actually targeted by negativity.
seeing someone drop an absolute dogshit off the mark screed against something you love that is not actually harmful in any real way but nevertheless activates the enrage phase of your boss battle and then learning to either just block them or keep scrolling without it ruining your day is a valuable skill. and i think we’ve all seen what spaces that demand constant positivity end up like. developing an inconsequential bullshit tolerance is necessary to be a well balanced member of a social species.
