The war is going on in the streets of Minneapolis. Image ia AI generated. The story is 100% human.
In my post of two weeks ago entitled Can ICE be melted?, I thought it was important to remind folks in the midst of all this madness surrounding what this lawless, dangerous agency is up to in Minnesota and elsewhere that 75 Democrats last June voted in favor of a resolution praising ICE. Since that time, another innocent and defenseless Minnesotan has been murdered by ICE in broad daylight in front of a crowd where their actions were dutifully recorded by fellow Minnesotan protesters, providing irrefutable evidence of what happened. After Renee Good was murdered on January 7, shot in the face by an ICE agent as she was driving away, New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker’s idea of condemnation was to call for tougher regulations on ICE. Don’t abolish them, just tighten the leash a bit. According to Newsweek:
“Booker, who represents New Jersey, posted a video to X January 15, in which he said, “we must do more” to regulate ICE agent activity, following the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis.”
Last Saturday, Alex Pretti, another Minnesota citizen who was protesting against the murderous injustice of ICE, was murdered by ICE. That’s two murders in a little over two weeks committed by agents employed by a government agency.
So far, I haven’t seen anything indicating that Sen. Booker has re-examined his relatively passive response to the government-sanctioned murder of an American citizen. However, there does appear to be some reconsidering going on among other elected Democrats in Congress, specifically among some Democratic Senators who, up until Saturday’s murder, were still in support of the legislation providing funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. Two murders in the street are apparently one too many for them, and they are now beginning to understand the need for outrage – and maybe not to provide funding to an agency that murders American citizens.
But despite the persistent hesitancy among too many of our elected leaders to do what is necessary at a time when doing what is necessary can save lives, not to mention our country, it is the unelected people of Minnesota who are holding the line for all of us in the streets of their city, refusing to bow down or give in. Because they know, just like Trump knows, that if Minneapolis folds, then the dam breaks and the unthinkable gets much closer to the front door.
Thankfully, President Joe Biden understands this. From Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American:
“The people of Minnesota have stood strong—helping community members in unimaginable circumstances, speaking out against injustice when they see it, and holding our government accountable to the people. Minnesotans have reminded us all what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this Administration. Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it’s our own government targeting American citizens.
“No single person can destroy what America stands for and believes in, not even a President, if we—all of America—stand up and speak out.”
