Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Three thousand ICE maniacs invaded Minneapolis and rampaged through its streets, indiscriminately terrorizing immigrants and US citizens. Ordered by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to carry out Trump’s promise of “reckoning and retribution,” these masked, armed lunatics express a torrent of belligerence to everyone in sight, breaking windows, pointing guns, storming homes, punching neighborhood residents, dragging disabled people from their cars, and throwing bystanders to the pavement without any probable cause.
Recruited by white nationalist videos, deployed without proper training in conflict de-escalation, and prioritizing arrest quotas, these sadistic vigilantes throw flash-bangs and tear gas at peaceful protestors, grab kids off the street and exploit them as bait to lure targeted people to open their doors, and racially profile Black, Latino and Asian US citizens, including perp-walking an elderly man who was wrongly arrested and dragged half-naked from his home.
Noem’s ICE is a fascist occupation force that lies about its activities, operates outside the law and constitution, and has been told, by Vice-President Puppet Vance, that it enjoys “absolute immunity.” The government wants to normalize the sight of an all-powerful paramilitary: the threat of arbitrary state violence is made routine, knitting it into the fabric of daily life such that most Americans will go about their mundane preoccupations while they are occupied.
Kill and vilify is a standard DHS policy instituted by Noem as she demonstrated after the executions of Renee Good, a mother and poet, and Andy Pretti, an intensive care nurse. She falsely asserted that Good’s actions amounted to ”an act of domestic terrorism.” Noem claimed that Good used her car as a “deadly weapon” so the ICE officer was justified in shooting her though it was obvious from the witness videos that Good maneuvered her car away from him. An autopsy revealed the first two shots were not fatal, the third shot to the head — as her car pulled away — was the one that killed her.
A few hours after the execution of Pretti, who was shot in the back while being held face-down and immobilized on the street by several ICE thugs, Noem stated that Pretti’s actions — he was filming ICE — amounted to “domestic terrorism.” Though a border agent had removed Pretti’s licensed firearm before he was shot, Noem said Pretti “violently resisted,” was “brandishing” a gun, and intended to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” Noem denies reality. Nothing she says is credible.
Noem is “doing a very good job” said the gangster President, reminding me of President George W. Bush telling FEMA Director Michael Brown what he thinks of his handling of the catastrophic Katrina hurricane that ultimately killed over 1,000 people: “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” Ten days later Brown resigned. Noem, who is less competent and more malicious than “Brownie,” should follow his example.
In Noem’s fabrications, she is channeling the President of Lies, the hate-monger Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, and the now-demoted Border Patrol Commander Gregory “SS” Bovino among others. Trump falsely said that Renee Good was at fault for her own death because she “disrespected” and “ran over” the officer who murdered her. Her heart-breaking last words to her killer were “I’m not mad at you.”
Administration officials have all variously slandered Pretti as “an assassin” who intended to “massacre law enforcement.” The falsehoods were so similar that their responses were obviously agreed upon. Noem confirmed this, according to Axios, saying “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen.”
A fascist regime reverses reality, turns moral transgressions upside down, makes the victim the perpetrator, and the perpetrator the victim. This repressive government wants to desensitize people, not only to the kidnapping of children but to the killing of Americans. US citizens have ignored obscure migrant deaths: 32 people died in ICE detention last year. But they are not ignoring the public murder of white American citizens who are doing nothing but witnessing and documenting ICE crimes.
Resistance in Minnesota has taken numerous forms — mass demonstrations in frigid temperatures and smaller individual actions that involve protection, aid, and observation. Trump, Noem, Miller and online MAGA parasites have repeatedly called these activists “violent” and said they are involved in “riots.” But the resistance in Minnesota is characterized by a conscious, strategic absence of violence. When matters escalate, it is usually the choice of the federal agents. Of the three homicides in Minneapolis this year, two were committed by federal agents.
These falsehoods about the murders were the basis of the government’s legal response — investigating Good’s widow — prompting six federal prosecutors and the FBI agent in charge of the Minneapolis field office to resign. State and local authorities were blocked from conducting their own investigations into into the murders.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, via Department of Homeland Security. Public Domain.
Thousands of Minneapolis residents have not left their homes for days for fear of being picked up, or worse, by the masked cowards of ICE. Volunteers have taken to discreetly delivering bags of groceries to their doors. A handful of dissident Germans performed the same act of kindness for the hidden Jews of Berlin under the Third Reich, according to Jonathon Freedland’s book about German resistance, The Traitors Circle.
A wave of revulsion is engulfing a majority of non-MAGA American citizens. Some who have tolerated a year of corruption, imperialism, revenge prosecutions, state-sanctioned murder, threats to invade allies, and the unraveling of the president’s mind are speaking out and demonstrating.
A few athletes are finally voicing criticism, including WNBA star Breanna Stewart and NBA stars Victor Wembanyama and Tyrese Haliburton, who posted: “Alex Pretti was murdered.” 76-year-old Bruce Springsteen wrote, recorded and released an anti-ICE song “Streets of Minneapolis,” responding to “state terror.”
Volunteers risk their safety to defend their neighbors and their freedom: whistle-blowing pedestrians and drivers patrol for ICE thugs, alert neighbors, and try to film interactions. Pretti and Good were both murdered while doing ICE watches. They, like many others, are exposing the administration’s mendacity about its use of extreme violence. If not for their courage, we would not see incontrovertible evidence — proof of sanctioned executions and systemic lying.
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