Heroes in Minneapolis

The people of the city of Minneapolis are performing a remarkable service that has, beyond any doubt, informed Americans and the world of the deeply authoritarian impulse of the second Trump administration. Through their persistence, courage, and non-violence during the coldest part of a Minnesota winter, they have used their cellphones to systematically expose the incompetence and cruelty of the thousands of federal agents sent to the Twin Cities to do Trump’s bidding.
They have exposed the Trump administration for what it is — a collection of dishonest posers seeking to use federal government power to break Americans in a major U.S. city and impose unconstitutional, authoritarian rule.
In just the past month, the people of the Twin Cities have shown us an administration that has repeatedly and willfully violated the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the Tenth Amendment through its words and actions.
The founders of this country were clear about the importance of free speech and a free press in the maintenance of democratic rule. Yet, just this past week, we saw the Trump administration arrest two professional Black journalists for covering a St. Paul protest, only the latest in a long list of administration attacks on the news media as well as individual protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.
As we saw with the murder of Alex Pretti last week, the Trump administration quickly circled the wagons around a suggestion that anyone who carries a firearm at a protest, even a licensed, properly holstered handgun that was never displayed, should expect to be shot by federal agents — the Second Amendment be damned. Had a Democratic president made such a claim, Republicans would have exploded in rage.
And as we learned two weeks ago, officials with Trump’s Department of Homeland Security have issued guidance to ICE and Border Patrol officers that claims they can forcibly enter any private residence — even yours — without a judicial warrant, an action that is clearly prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Yet, we have seen numerous cases where federal agents in the Twin Cities have smashed open doors without a warrant signed by a judge or magistrate. They have repeatedly demanded to see “papers” from U.S. citizens without probable cause, another violation of the Fourth Amendment that’s typically the hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
Meanwhile, the administration has plainly used its massive force of masked federal agents in an attempt to coerce the state of Minnesota to comply with Trump administration policies, by invading the Twin Cities, disrupting schools, hospitals, and businesses, while leaving tens of thousands of legal immigrants and people of color living in fear inside their own homes. Such coercion is a violation of the Tenth Amendment, which gives substantial sovereignty to the individual states to determine their own policies regarding law enforcement and other matters.
The administration has defended its unconstitutional actions through an open display of contempt for the truth. People like Alex Pretti and Renee Good were immediately labeled “domestic terrorists,” or even “assassins,” despite abundant video evidence that stood in stark contrast to the administration’s false claims. We have that video because Minneapolis residents have been willing to non-violently put themselves on the front lines. Imagine how this administration would have misrepresented these incidents without that documentation.
It isn’t just liberals in the Twin Cities who have been speaking out. Minnesota’s chief federal judge Patrick Schiltz, a staunchly conservative former protégé of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, has been unsparing in his criticism of the administration’s law-breaking. Just last week, in a ruling, he excoriated ICE for violating nearly 100 court orders stemming from its brutal assaults in Minnesota. Schiltz noted that ICE had violated more court orders in Minnesota in the month of January alone than many longstanding federal agencies have violated during their entire existence.
We’ve seen numerous conservative Trump-appointed prosecutors and other Justice Department officials in Minnesota resign in protest over the administration’s egregious actions surrounding the recent fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis. While the Trump administration likes to claim its Operation Metro Surge was designed to boost public safety, two of the three fatal shootings in Minneapolis so far this year were perpetrated by federal officers. How is that improving public safety in Minnesota?
As for investigation of fraud, another administration rationalization for its crackdown, the longstanding investigations have been totally upended by the resignations of the federal prosecutors in charge.
Across the country, the videos shot by everyday citizens of the Twin Cities have sparked outrage and exposed the intentional cruelty of an administration that is undeniably using the heavy boot of federal enforcement against entire populations that oppose the administration’s policies. The people of Minneapolis have, rightfully, gained an international reputation as a bulwark of opposition to an administration that is increasingly out of control. They are heroes in every way.