Blood on the streets of Minneapolis

Blood on the streets of Minneapolis

For anyone following news out of the US over summer, Trump is dominating all media channels, while riding in the gutter in all polled approval ratings.

This has been the trend since he was re-elected to the presidency in 2024, but recent events involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in Minneapolis have been particularly disruptive for the city and catastrophic to the whole republic.

Several major developments in Minneapolis stand out, all tied to the federal government’s large‑scale enforcement initiative known as Operation Metro Surge, which began in December 2025.

The Trump government has gone to war with its own citizens in the name of rooting out illegal immigrants. The truth is that he has decided to terrorise targeted communities with para-military type goons – think of Germany in the late 1930s. For example, federal agents have made over 3000 arrests in Minnesota since Operation Metro Surge began, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Nearly 150 US citizens have been arrested for “assault or obstructing law enforcement”, highlighting how confrontations have escalated beyond immigration enforcement.

In Minneapolis, a federal officer shot a person on January 15 after a traffic stop escalated into an alleged attack on the officer.

Days earlier, Ice officers fatally shot Renee Good in her car, a 37‑year‑old mother. DHS claims she attempted to run over officers; local officials dispute this account, and citizens were able to view many online videos of the incident, clearly indicating the unprovoked killing of an innocent citizen. The incident has become a flashpoint for escalating protests and political tension.

Many Minneapolis residents – especially legal immigrants – report living in constant fear, avoiding leaving their homes for weeks. One long‑time resident described being too afraid to step outside for five weeks, worried about being seized by federal agents, while church and community leaders have been delivering food and supplies to people too frightened to leave their homes.

A few days after the Good killing, a similar thing happened to Alex Pretti, another US citizen, who is not an undocumented immigrant or violent offender. He was in fact a 37‑year‑old, law‑abiding veterans hospital nurse who happened to be on the street protesting the Ice outrage.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials immediately said Pretti was “brandishing” a handgun and attacking officers.

Once again, the video evidence and accounts from onlookers showed a completely different picture. Pretti was holding a cell phone, directing traffic, and helping a woman who had been pushed to the ground by agents. There was no footage of him approaching agents with a gun, albeit he had a firearm in his belt, something he was legally entitled to do under local laws.

The mismatch between the facts and the official narrative created a massive backlash from civil rights advocates, local officials, and even pro‑gun groups, calling it a “murder” and making the incident a significant embarrassment for the Trump administration, if such a thing as embarrassment is possible?

What should we feel about all this happening, so far away?

The first obvious thing is that authoritarian behaviour, by any leader, must be seen and resisted at every turn, right from the first hints.

Second, it is not merely something that can happen in North Korea, Sudan or Eritrea. It can happen anywhere.

And lastly, communities and groups can empower themselves against all this, as Minneapolis is showing. Protest, just through citizens bearing witness to aggressive behaviour and videoing incidents, is clearly pushing back against a tone-deaf US government.

The fight is not over for these people, and more people will be traumatised and die before it’s at an end. But it must be done if the bully is to be resisted, for the good of everyone.