A rage mob descended on a church filled with passive congregants enjoying a regular service. Leftists see it and think, “Trump made us do this!” Meanwhile, far more watch events like that unfold and admit they’re glad a Harris-Walz administration never saw the light of day.
Kimberly Ross (Washington Examiner)
Minneapolis was known for its “midwestern nice” folks until May 2020. That’s when one bad cop ignited three years of race-based turmoil, and four years of votes against law-and order candidates. In 2021, after two weeks of violent riots and one year of “police-free” zones, Mayor Jacob Frey was re-elected with 56% of the vote. In 2022, after two years of courthouse demonstrations, Governor Tim Walz was re-elected with 82.5% of the city’s vote. In 2024, after grand juries had charged the first four dozen Feeding Our Future fraudsters, Harris-Walz won 88% of the city’s vote.
Now, after local businesses have violated IRCA (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986) by knowingly employing illegal aliens, and local residents have violated Title 18 of the U.S. Code by forcibly assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers while they are performing official duties, maybe the President should offer Hennepin County (MN) to Denmark in exchange for 607 square miles of Greenland. Kidding aside, a metropolis that abuses the 1st amendment, and ignores the supremacy clause in our constitution, is a thorn in the side of our Republic.
A Partisan Misread of the 1st Amendment
Frey and Walz have under-protected a right-leaning congregation’s freedom of religion, and over-protected a left-leaning mob’s freedom of speech. The DOJ civil rights division begs to differ, indicting those who led the assault on the Cities Church in St. Paul. I’d simply remind Frey and Walz of the history of peaceful protests, starting with its architects. Mahatma Gandhi (“just means leads to just ends”) believed violence only left a trail of bitterness, and Martin Luther King (“love your enemies”) believed a violent minority would trigger a backlash from the majority.
What they understood was that one’s right to free speech, when it is political, is the right to persuade. That is why the 1st amendment specifies the “right to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (emphasis mine). Brilliant, and backed by recent and propitious history.
On June 8, 1967, over 30,000 college kids exercised free speech outside the White House (“hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”). The President did not retaliate, nobody died, and Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek his party’s nomination within a year (realizing he’d lose to anti-war Democrats Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy).
On June 12, 1982, almost 1,000,000 Americans peacefully protested nuclear weapons in Central Park. Mayor Ed Koch (D-NY) said, “It’s great. I only wish the same thing had happened in Moscow.” 54 participants and 5 NYPD officers were treated for sprains and eye injuries, none the result of violence (source: The New York Times). Four years later, President Ronald Reagan (R-CA) signed the INF treaty with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, resulting in 2,600 fewer nuclear missiles by 1991.
On April 24, 1993, over 800,000 Americans peacefully protested on the National Mall for LGBTQ civil rights protections and more funding for AIDS research, resulting in President Bill Clinton (D-AR) intensifying the federal response to HIV/AIDS. That 90% increase in funding for research, prevention, and treatment turned HIV into a manageable chronic condition by 1996. Later, LGBTQ Americans received hate-crime protection (2009), legalized same-sex marriage (2015), and Civil Rights Title VII protection for LGBTQ employees (2020).
A City at Odds With the Rest of America.
In 2020, nationwide George Floyd protests left 19 Americans dead, 900 police officers injured, and nearly $3.5 billion in property damage ($1.5B uninsured). Five years later, 72% of Americans believed that “the increased focus on racial inequality after Floyd’s death did not improve the lives of Black people” (source: Pew Research). Now, the anti-ICE resistance in Minneapolis is eerily on the same path (i.e. dead protestors and injured federal agents).
As Americans decide who’s at fault, The Atlantic reports that CBP has moved lead agent Greg Bovino back to California, and the BBC reports that deceased protestor Alex Pretti hurled f-bombs at ICE agents and shattered an ICE vehicle’s tail light. The view here is that time is on the Trump administration’s side, despite over 60% of Americans now saying ICE should not make arrests in churches, hospitals and schools (source: Pew Research). Because…
Pew also reports 54% of us support deporting ALL illegal aliens. That’s a simple majority, and it gets worse for anti-ICE Minnesotans; 97% of all Americans support the arrest and deportation of criminal illegal aliens (source: AP/NORC). And, on Saturday, a federal judge – appointed by Biden – denied Minnesota’s request to end the federal immigration operation in Minneapolis. Which is to say the “supremacy clause” is settled law.
In time, the partisan stench will out. Start in Tennessee, where Shelby County’s Democrat mayor sued to stop last fall’s National Guard deployment in spite of Republican governor Bill Lee’s authorization. Thanks to the guardsmen, serious crime in Memphis dropped to a 25-year-low by yearend, because of a 70% drop in car theft and 44% drop in murders (source: Memphis Police Department). And, the extra law enforcement was free of charge to Memphians.
Evidence of an Insurrection
It is possible to mourn the deaths of two protestors, demand better of our federal law enforcement, and suspect left-wing insurrection is at work in Minneapolis. I direct you to the citizen journalists who uncovered entitlement fraud in Minneapolis; specifically, Cam Higby’s reporting this weekend on the Signal Chat cabal. What follows are his screen-grabbed evidence of “ICE Watch” baddies:
“WHY FOLLOW ICE? 1. Throw ICE off their course, waste their time, and force them to drive away. 2. Alert at-risk people to ICE presence. 3. Make the whole neighborhood aware of ICE presence to get them outside and resisting. 4. Escalate at ICE abductions and create potential flashpoints.”
Their words, not mine, and the Signal Chat message “for fighting ICE” goes on to instruct recipients to (1) impede ICE and (2) create “flashpoints” that are moments of “chaos where we can warn and de-arrest illegal immigrants, and possibly result in the murder of a comrade.” Those are NOT instructions to peaceably assemble or a mission to petition the government – – because “chaos” is not peaceful, to “de-arrest” illegal immigrants is to aid and abet a suspected criminal, and the “murder of a comrade” is unconscionable.
One Way Out
On November 17, 2000, black comedian Chris Rock released a satirical video (“How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police”) mocking lawlessness and poor judgement in the wake of the Rodney King riots. Twenty-five years later, the protestors in Minneapolis should heed Rock’s advice: (1) obey the law, (2) use common sense, (3) stop the car immediately, (4) be polite, (5) shut the f**k up, and (6) don’t ride with a mad woman. Sadly, my Twitter-X feed is filled with Minnesotans doing the exact opposite, and two protestors are dead.