[asa400]

First, all of what you say is true. I'm going to try to add a little context as someone who is here on the ground, in the city in question.

There is the imminent threat of mass death, and no one here is under any illusions about it.

Every ICE agent is armed, and most have ready access to automatic weapons. These are not well-trained members of an elite organization with a storied, patriotic culture. ICE is a personalist paramilitary organization, and the president has indicated that these ICE agents are immune from consequences, even if they kill people. These are people who volunteered knowing they were going to go into American cities and do violence to people they perceive as their political enemies.

Most of these agents are inexperienced, jittery, poorly trained new recruits away from home. They aren't locals. Their nexus of power and governance isn't local. These are not our community members, they aren't from here, they don't know us or care about us, so they do not empathize with us.

In addition to this, the American citizenry is shockingly well armed. Because everyone involved is so well armed, everybody is slightly touchy about this descending into rioting, because there is a very short path from light rioting to what would essentially amount to civil war. The costs of such any such violence will overwhelmingly be borne by the innocent people who live here, and we know it.

So, people are trying to strike a balance of making sure these people know they aren't welcome here while trying to prevent the situation from spiraling into one in which some terrified agent mag-dumps a crowd of protestors and causes a chain reaction that results in truly catastrophic mass death.

Wish us luck, we're trying.

[BobaFloutist]

It's also worth noting that one function of brownshirts and blackshirts is to provoke violence against themselves, seeking to retroactively justify their existence and to justify a further crackdown.

Say all you want about how any protest, no matter how peaceful will be vilified (it will) or about how the entire foundation is built on lies (it is), but we still have some real elections coming up, and the imagery of ICE brutalizing someone who's clearly not an immigrant, not violent, not obstructing is much more rhetorically effective than that of armed clashes between government and non-governmental forces.

And as you said, many of us are still convinced that this can be solved at least partially rhetorically and electorally.

[ethbr1]

Hence the tactical frivolity Portland approach. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/10/22/trump-ice-port... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_frivolity

It's the social media evolution of non-violent confrontation, with the similar goal of making it impossible for any visual image or recording of a confrontation to seem anything other than ridiculous to the average viewer and laying bare the "violence inherent in the system" (as it were).

[jenadine]

> but we still have some real elections coming up,

Unless the president declares a permanent temporary state of emergency for whatever reason that would prevent such elections.

[embedding-shape]

Thank you a lot for taking the time to share what you see there, I really appreciate it. All we can hope for is that it gets better, and that there are genuine people out there who care about others in their community, who all help each other when needed. It's really sad to hear about the realization of how quickly it could spiral but considering the situation, it's real and make sense. Thank you and good luck!

[throwawayiceout]

Well said, thank you, and keep safe.

What I feared would happen appears to be happening on Saturday: anti-immigrant anti-muslim folks from outside the city and outside the state are gathering to rally in the Minneapolis Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and cause trouble.

The federal administration will use this to ratchet up the violence against peaceful protesters like myself, who are simply trying to stand up for our neighbors and friends and our city and our state. We have whistles and cell phones. The federal government has guns and is killing us.

[xnx]

Poorly trained police deployed into a volatile crowd with intent to draw an attack, justifying brutal retaliation by military forces. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ghorman_Massacre

[QuantumGood]

Last night a man was shot by ICE agents, who were (reportedly) attacked with shovel(s) while trying to capture the man, injuring one ICE agent.

BEFORE this began we had 7 million people protesting simultaneously nationwide—they are "out on the street". Minneapolis has organized hundreds into rapid response teams against ICE. The killings get more news than the protests, particularly as much of the media has been bought up by republican owners.

In Philadelphia, residents are being filmed patrolling with automatic weapons in advance of ICE supposedly heading there next. Read what @asa400, another local like myself, is saying in another comment to parent.

Many locals on social media are cheering on the shootings. America is incredibly polarized right now. It's not like all the public is against the government. Nearly half of those most likely to vote in past elections support this. “It wasn’t Hitler or Himmler who abducted me, beat me, and shot my family. It was the shoemaker, the milkman, the neighbor, who were given a uniform....” —Karl Stojka, Auschwitz survivor EDIT: added "(reportedly)" and rearranged sentence

[SauciestGNU]

>Last night ICE agents were attacked with shovels, injuring one. A man was shot.

We don't know if the shovel thing is true, video has emerged that doesn't show the shooting but does show the victim's family's 911 call in which they claim the agent shot through the door at the fleeing victim.

[xtracto]

>Every ICE agent is armed, and most have ready access to automatic weapons. These are not well-trained members of an elite organization with a storied, patriotic culture. ICE is a personalist paramilitary organization, and the president has indicated that these ICE agents are immune from consequences, even if they kill people.

This is what terrified me: Not that the ICE officer shot the woman in the car. But what happened afterwards. That he muttered "fucking bitch" after shooting her, that he walked nonchalantly after shooting a person, and everybody was recording him. This person goes to his car and drives just like that ...

[insane_dreamer]

I think the difference with Europe is that many countries have been through a form of this authoritarianism before, Franco in Spain for example, and have fought wars over it. They never want to see it happen again. The US hasn't experienced war on its soil since the Civil War and has no idea what an authoritarian government is really like. So most Americans either 1) believe the propaganda of a "strong" America (just like the Germans who supported Hitler), 2) think it's not that bad so long as they still have their cheeseburgers (so to speak), 3) think that it's pretty bad but there's nothing they can really do or it's not worth risking life and limb over, or 4) are horrified by where we're going and willing to risk life and limb to stop it. The latter are a very small group, whereas in Europe they'd be much larger. Europe already has a history of nationwide worker strikes whereas that has never been done in the US (also much more difficult being such a large country, but even statewide general strikes haven't happened).

[deeg]

Well done, thank you.

[fooqux]

You put that perfectly, well done. I may bookmark this and show it to every person that says something like "why not just start throwing bricks".

Good luck. Is there anything those that aren't living in ones of these towns can do to help in impactful ways?

[drcongo]

This was a really interesting comment and it's definitely made me re-think my outsider perspective. Thanks for posting it and good luck.

[gdilla]

eh, it's mostly racism. White america doesn't have to take to the streets with guns.they just have to yell at their peckerwood gop reps to impeach. Not a peep out of the red states though. they all wanted this.