inthehands

inthehands OP , 3 hours ago

I •do• actually expect to see some kind of shift over the next week. I don’t think their “Victory! Now we’re leaving(ish)!” press conference last week was something we can take at face value, but I also don’t think it was just a ruse.

After they murdered Alex Pretti, the writing was on the wall. One killing of a white observer they could try to write off; two is a pattern. They’re losing support they desperately need — from politicians, from the press, from judges, from less-extreme right-wingers — and the longer they continue doing what they’ve been doing, the further they dig themselves in a hole. I’ve been expecting for a while that they would declare MISSION ACCOMPLISHED and change strategy.

inthehands OP , 3 hours ago

Note I say “change strategy,” not “leave” or “stop.”

Who knows what’s next, but my expectation is for them to switch to things that are less visible, things that don’t look so bad on video. Maybe that means night raids? More like, I’m guessing it means more rural action, targeting of remote job sites (e.g. farms), nabbing people from prisons, more activity in detention camps that disallow observers, that kind of thing.

inthehands OP , 5 days ago

Even if they do leave, they’ll still exist, they’ll still be funded like a national military, they’ll still be an authoritarian secret police in the making.

And the damage they did to my city, to the lives of my neighbors, will echo through generations.

2/

inthehands OP , 5 days ago

Hold on to this:

Operation Metro Surge was a catastrophic failure for the Trump regime. Yes, as a terrorist operation, it succeeded: they meant to hurt and terrorize black and Brown people and the whole opposition, and they succeeded at that. But in doing so they lost their credibility, they lost the support of mushy institutions and politicians, they lost much of the popular support a would-be authoritarian needs to consolidate power.

And they lost it because we stood up to them.

3/

inthehands OP , 5 days ago

The Trump regime is •still• in the “alignment” phase of establishing authoritarianism, trying to consolidate power and get all the loci of power lined up behind them.

Still. Meaning they haven’t done it yet. Still.

And they look a •lot• further from accomplishing it than they did at the start of the ICE invasion of MSP.

/end

inthehands OP , 5 days ago

From where I sit, I don’t think it’s a trap. It’s been clear for a while that they’re digging themselves deeper in a hole the longer they keep doing what they’ve been doing, and that they’re going to need to declare “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” so they can switch to some different awful thing.

However, this is very much a “don’t let your guard down” moment. They’re gearing up for some different horrible thing. They’re not disappearing.

https://nrw.social/@elala/116058473879752331

inthehands OP , 6 days ago

@JessTheUnstill
Gallup’s statement on the matter is just a messy heap of bland-ass gobbdlegook. For it to be resigning in protest, they would have to actually make some kind of protest.

inthehands , 6 days ago

@JessTheUnstill Religious studies scholars bust through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man to debate “mythology” vs “legend” vs “folklore” vs “oral history”

inthehands , 6 days ago

@JessTheUnstill
Oh, for sure. There are nuances to all these terms that are beyond me, and I expect that scholars argue over how best to categorize specific texts, authors, and even individual passages.

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

It was the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti that punctured the bubble of the comfortable and launched Minneapolis to the top of international news. I understand why that is: the whiteness of the victims combined with unbelievable damning, stomach-churning video were something that a whole lot of people who’d been tuned out simply could not ignore. And those murders alone are so horrific that either one •should• be sufficient to pop the bubble of comfort — but they’re just the tip of an iceberg here.

2/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

For many people who’d been inside that bubble of comfort, particularly at national news orgs, the story •started• with those two murders. They now seem to have a half-formed mental narrative that runs something like this:

❝

1. First the Trump administration started deporting a lot more people.
2. Then ICE murdered Good and Pretti.
3. Those two escalations caused widespread unrest in Minneapolis.
   ❞

That narrative is wrong.

3/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

White people did not start protesting because ICE murdered Good and Pretti.

ICE murdered Good and Pretti •because• white people were protesting — and fighting back.

4/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

People were jumping into action here in Minneapolis — droves of people, comfortable people, white people — not in mid-January, but in •early December•.

Community meetings overflowing. Signal groups exploding. Observer trainings filling day after day after day. Mutual aid networks popping up like mushrooms. On and on.

Why? Because we saw brown and Black neighbors being dragged from their cars, dragged from their homes, stalked, terrorized, •kidnapped• with barely the slimmest shadow of due process or legal oversight.

5/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

Increased deportations would be bad enough. An increase in the kind of immigration nightmares you see in, say, “Mo” on Netflix would be awful already. But that’s not what we were seeing.

We were seeing anonymous masked thugs abducting people and disappearing them. We were seeing a secret police with blanket immunity. We were seeing a complete breakdown of the rule of law. We were seeing an authoritarian police state forming.

And we were expected not to care, because it was targeting dark-skinned people.

6/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

That is the horror that spurred Minneapolis-St. Paul into action. That is the horror we’ve been fighting. That is the horror that Renee Good and Alex Pretti died fighting.

And it is the horror that is destroying countless lives of people whose names you do not know.

7/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

I see that misguided narrative in the gutless business leaders who talk about “de-escalation” and “finding real solutions” — as if the problem is just that a few ICE murdered two people, not that all the ICE agents are an authoritarian secret police in the making.

I see that misguided narrative in the elected officials who decry ICE, but then talk about “better training” and “more oversight” — as if the secret police will become humane if they just get a few new rules to ignore and have to sit through a Powerpoint about them.

8/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

I also see that misguided narrative in the people who still (but increasingly rarely) dredge up stats about how many Obama- and Biden-era deportations there were, thinking it’s some kind of mic drop, thinking that deportations are the whole of the evil here, an evil we can just tally up with a bean counter.

And to be clear: those deportations •were• inhumane and evil. US treatment of immigrants has been morally intolerable since long before I was born. I need you to know that I know that when I tell you that this is a whole other level.

9/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

I see some posts arguing that everything in Minneapolis is just more of the same that people of color have been living with forever, and white people are just waking up to it. I have never once heard that sentiment, however, from a BIPOC person who’s been living •in Minneapolis• for the last two months.

There is a crucial point there: this •is• precedented. It’s all precedented. But it’s not just more of the same.

10/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

This •is• precedented:

DHS murdered Pretti and Good the exact same way police have been murdering Black people for generations. The ICE+CBP abduction patrols sure look a heck of a lot like the bounty hunters who operated in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The terror tactics of CBP and ICE bear an uncanny resemblance to the tactics of the KKK.

None of that is a coincidence. It’s the same historical thread. It’s basically the same people.

Precedented.

11/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

Precedented, but not the same:

If ICE and CBP are basically the reincarnation of the KKK, it’s the KKK with a budget the size of Russia’s entire military.

Literally. In the literal sense of “literally.” The incoming ICE + CBP budget is ~$140 billion.[1] Russia’s military budget is ~$145 billion.[2]

(If I’m misreading these numbers, please correct me.)

[1] https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy26_homeland_security_conference_bill_summary.pdf

[2] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-hikes-national-defence-spending-by-23-2025-2024-09-30/

12/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

Not just more of the same.

Note that this eye-popping graph only includes ICE, and not CBP, which saw a similar explosion.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump

13/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

My neighbors definitely do not think this is more of the same. You don’t have to take my word for it. Look at how many Somali and Latin-American restaurants were thriving in November and now are closed, or getting almost no business if they are taking the risk of staying open. Look at how many kids are staying home from school — regardless of legal status, just because of the color of their family’s skin. Look at how many families are living in houses filled with dirty laundry because they won’t even take the risk of leaving the house to go to the laundromat.

My neighbors are living in •terror•.

If it’s more of the same, why did all of this suddenly change in the last two months?

14/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

All of what’s happening in Minneapolis is deeply rooted in US history. And in Minneapolis and St. Paul history specifically: Read about the Rondo neighborhood, for example. It’s no accident the the flagship lake in the City of Lakes was named after the vice president of the Confederacy until just a few years ago. Don’t get too excited about making saints of us all here.

It’s crucial for us to recognize that historical precedent. It’s also crucial for us to recognize the extreme new danger of the present moment.

15/

inthehands OP , 17 days ago

The KKK but with a budget the size of Russia’s military. Running mass detention camps.

Think about that for a minute.

Think about what it could mean, what it •already is•:

https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/into-the-abyss

16/

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

Call if your Senator already agrees. Push them to do more. Make them lose sleep wondering how they can stop ICE harder.

Cal if your Senator is an irredeemable right-winger. Let them feel the heat. Make them know ICE’s murders will haunt them.

Call if your Senator is waffling. That means they’re weak, and right now that means we have the advantage.

For this brief moment, the fight is in the electoral arena, and your calls are actually good for something.

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

“top Republican candidate for Minnesota governor has dropped out of the race”

“‘I cannot support the…stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.’”

“‘National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,‘ he said”

“calling ICE operations in the state an ‘unmitigated disaster’”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/26/republican-chris-madel-minnesota-governor-race-ice

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/26/in-a-call-trump-told-walz-hed-look-into-reducing-the-number-of-federal-agents-in-minnesota/

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

“White House press secretary…seemed unusually defensive”

“avoided the kind of victim-blaming tirade that has become de rigueur for Donald Trump’s administration“

”called Pretti’s death a ‘tragedy’

“refused to endorse adviser Stephen Miller’s slander of Pretti”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/26/trump-analysis-white-house-alex-pretti-minnesota

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

“For the past seven months, Bovino has been the public face of [ICE’s] traveling immigration crackdown”

“Bovino worked outside his agency’s chain of command and appeared to relish his role as a political actor”

“sudden demotion”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/

Archive link: https://archive.is/kvBDb

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

My latest calls included: “Fewer agents is not enough. More oversight is not enough. Demoting people is not enough. Destroy ICE and CBP. Wipe them out. Burn them, bury them, and salt the earth. Eradicate them like a cancer.”

inthehands OP , 22 days ago

Just to reiterate:

Trump admin are trying to give Senators an excuse, any excuse, not to block funding to DHS.

We need to make sure that doesn’t work. Don’t let up. Keep them all afraid.

inthehands OP , 21 days ago

Noem, who’s in danger of being sacked, is trying to throw Stephen Miller under the bus. Meanwhile Miller is on TV trying to throw DHS under the bus. Basically they’re shitting their pants and flinging it at each other.

It’s working. Punch them harder.

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/post/3mdgo4t4md22k