~by Colleen O’Brien
Trump is untruthful, and so he and his administration need show no interest in investigating I.C.E. actions in Minneapolis because it’s the Democrats’ fault there is ‘chaos.’
Minnesota governor Walz, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frye and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar have asked the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, headed by another person who plays with the truth, Pam Bondi, to get her gangsters out of town. Bondi responded with her usual ugly, unhelpful, lie-based ultimatums:
~Ordered Gov. Walz to immediately stop opposing federal immigration enforcement and to actively support I.C.E. agents, warning that Walz’s policies “endanger agents” and foster “chaos.”
~Demanded access to state welfare, subsidized healthcare and voter registration records.
~Accused Gov. Walz of encouraging “left-wing agitators” to target federal agents and allowing the state to become a “mess.”
~And added a hypocritical “reminder to all those in Minnesota that no one is above the law.”
Count the ways that Bondi so glibly lies her way through her days with no hint of shame for her blasphemies.
On Jan. 7, Minneapolis citizen 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was driving home from taking her child to school. Within seconds of her maneuvering her car away from I.C.E., she was shot in the face – to death – by I.C.E.
Because of words directly out of the mouths of our government leaders, Renee Good was portrayed as a “domestic terrorist” by social media outlets and broadcast news.
Three weeks later the autopsy from the county medical examiner ruled Good’s death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds, including a fatal shot to her head.
The world saw the streamed videos available from courageous bystanders plainly tracking with cameras even as Trump and his personal Department of Justice decided that no investigation of the killer and his part in the “incident” would be necessary.
On Jan. 14, I.C.E. shot a Venezuelan man in the leg to keep him from running away. He was thrown into a black SUV and disappeared.
On Jan. 20, I.C.E. arrested a father who had just picked up his 5-year-old Liam Ramos from pre-school. That little boy was sent with his dad to a Texas prison. The Trump administration sent its second liar, vice-president JD Vance, to the scene so he could explain as if we were idiots that young Liam was not arrested.
On Jan 21, an older American man was arrested at gunpoint when I.C.E. charged into his home while he was taking a nap. I.C.E. marched him outside in the freezing Minnesota weather in his underwear and his grandson’s blanket. Chongley Scott Thao’s grandson watched from the window, crying for his grandpa being shoved into a car. Thao was returned later in the day with no explanation or apology other than I.C.E. answering a reporter’s question saying it was “a case of mistaken identity.”
On Jan 22, 2-year-old Chloe was detained with her father Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria by I.C.E. and put on a plane to Texas. A judge had ordered the girl released, but the plane took off with her on it.
On Jan. 23, more than 100 clergy and faith leaders – Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist – from across the country gathered in Minneapolis for peaceful protests against I.C.E. cruelty in deporting people by plane for out-of-state incarceration. The religious demanded that Delta Air Lines and Signature Aviation publicly call for an immediate end to what I.C.E. calls “surge” operations.
On Jan. 24, the latest fatality by I.C.E. in Minneapolis was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, who worked as an intensive care nurse at the VA Medical Center. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that I.C.E. felt threatened and acted upon some kind of training. According to the United States government, Pretti was a “domestic terrorist.” I.C.E. therefore shot him three times in the back, once in the upper-left chest and once in the neck. Pretti had a cell phone in his hand.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement now enjoys full immunity via a Trump administration new law, or new executive order, or just a casual “Do whatever it takes” to barge into a house without a search warrant. They haven’t been using warrants anyway, preferring to break down doors to get in; now it’s ‘legal’ for them to do so.
~~
I keep wishing for real and thorough retaliation from the Democrats. Or the Independents. Or maybe a Republican or two. Or the many MAGAs who have begun to renege on their once-avid devotion to the Red Cap Society.
Or the Press pulling together the next time the president calls to a reporter, “Be quiet, Piggy.”
Or that Big Law would gang together and save their country from the legal problems of getting rid of a lawless administration.
Or that all colleges and universities would rise up full of gorge at the treatment of them and their duty to the education of free speech for our future leaders.
Millions of Americans are marching. We’re calling our representatives to the point of choking up the phone lines. We’re commenting on social networks, podcasts, Substack and in personal calls, emails and letters.
As women, men and children are brutalized, we’re videoing for others who aren’t there to witness the horrors perpetrated by man.
Nothing is changing. Yet we continue to tamp down our fury and futility as we help each other get through the debilitating sadness of our country’s demise.
