‘This is what fascism looks like’: terror in Minneapolis reminiscent of civil war | Minneapolis
Federal agents wearing helmets, gas masks and camouflage suits took aim and prepared to open fire. “It looks like Call of Duty,” one said. he could be heard saying through a TV microphone, referencing the first-person shooter military video game. “Very nice, isn’t it?”
That was the scene Saturday on the streets of Minneapolis after armed agents in masks and tactical vests wrestled 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shot him to death. The murder occurred about a mile from where Renee Good was fatally shot on January 7; that crime scene was less than a mile from where police killed George Floyd in May 2020.
“How many more residents, how many more Americans, need to die or be seriously injured before this operation ends?” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made the request at a press conference on Saturday, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. An angry crowd gathered and shouted profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home.
Donald Trump talked about “American carnage” in his first speech nine years ago. The US president certainly did this by deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents onto the streets of a major city to create a demonstration of terror. reminiscent of the civil war – or a video game.
In the first year of his second presidency, Trump’s ICE deployments carefully targeted Democratic-led and often Black-led cities, as if imposing collective punishment for their defiance. In doing so, he borrows from an authoritarian playbook reminiscent of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, who targeted the Kurds, or Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who caused the Holodomor, or “starvation,” in Ukraine.
This is the same vengeful temper with which just last week Trump attacked Canada and other NATO allies for perceived slights at Davos during his quest to conquer Greenland.
Trump seems to have a particular hatred for Minnesota because he lost presidential elections It was there in 2016, 2020 and 2024, despite most neighboring states voting in its favor. He recently falsely claimed to have won Minnesota three times. In fact, no Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972, not even Ronald Reagan, has prevailed there.
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the country, making it a target of Trump’s hostility: Minnesota this week described Somalis as “low-IQ people,” not even trying to hide its racism. It’s also the home of Somali-born Ilhan Omar, a progressive congresswoman who annoys Trump. The state’s governor, Tim Walz, is a harsh critic of the president, who is Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 election, which she lost to Trump.
Additionally, Minneapolis was the scene of the police killing of Black Floyd towards the end of his first presidency. Floyd’s killing sparked Black Lives Matter protests that reached the doorstep of the White House. America felt hot and fragile in those days. This is another one of those moments.
Trump deployed 3,000 ICE officers and Customs and Border Protection The number of agents in Minnesota far outnumbers the 10 largest local and state police agencies there combined. Many operate with masks, guns and ostentatious impunity but are poorly trained in de-escalation techniques.
Local politicians were battered; legal observers were taken in free of charge; school children were tear gassed; Drivers were dragged from their vehicles. Even Native Americans whose ancestors lived here long before the United States existed were stopped and questioned. Just filming these agents is enough to be labeled as domestic terrorists.
Garrett Graff, journalist and historian. He wrote on the Doomsday Scenario blog: this week: “This is what fascism looks like; there is no bright line between democracy and autocracy, it is a spectrum, and the entire country will not experience this transition in the same way at the same time. But let’s be clear: there is a US city currently living under occupation by the fascist presidential secret police.”
It was hard to avoid that result on Saturday. Television footage showed the air filled with tear gas as agents forced a protester to the ground. He could be heard shouting: “I’m a citizen of the United States! You’re going to kill me! Is that what you want? You want to kill me?” Nearby, a woman knelt and screamed while a man tried to comfort her.
The protester who was fatally shot by a federal officer has been identified as critical care nurse Alex Pretti. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that officers opened “defensive fire” after a man with a handgun approached them. Walz accused authorities of “making a hasty decision” and called the attack “sickening.”
DHS and other government officials have already damaged their credibility in the past with false and misleading claims. A chorus of Democrats reacted with horror to the shooting and called for ICE to move out of Minneapolis; some have also called on Congress to cut its funding.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Published on social media platform: “Americans are being killed in the streets by their government. Our Constitution is being torn apart and our rights are being destroyed. Resist. Senate [Democrats] should block ICE funding this week. Activate the National Guard. “We can and must stop this.”
It felt like a turning point last week in Davos when Western leaders drew a line against Trump’s bullying of Greenland and said: No more. Pretti’s death could be a similar moment of reckoning for Democrats and others in the domestic arena to give Trump time to wage war on his own people.
J.B. PritzkerIllinois’ Democratic governor told the MS Now network: “We’re in an unsafe time, and I think if we don’t stop this now, if we don’t dismantle Trump’s ICE and make sure we have a trained law-abiding force, this is going to turn into something really terrible.”
“It already is, but it could be much worse.”
