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It Is Much Worse On The Ground Than We Know, And People There Are Seeing NO ONE Coming To Their Aid
by Paul CCommunity (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
5–7 minutes
There is a letter going around on FaceBook by a Frank Bennett who is sharing a letter from his son on the ground in Minneapolis and it is shocking. Things are much worse than we are being told and they are getting ZERO outside help in what can only be described as wartime conditions. But, at the same time, it is a letter of hope and resistance. I have transcribed it and present it here because he gave permission to share it widely:
Gents,
Writing this hour from Minneapolis with a message of both sadness and hope. This isn’t meant to be a political statement or a pity party. But all of you are people I care about, and when “stuff” hits the fan, one way I like to cope is to reach out to people I care about — hence this note.
A few observations in case you’re curious to get a first-person perspective, but absolutely zero obligation to read on.
First, the national news has covered the headlines prety well over the past couple weeks, and if you go down the Reddit or Instagram rabbit hole you can find lots of first-person footage that describes the illegal brutality and terror being enacted upon our community.
What is impossible to convey is that it’s so much worse than what you see via social media. The media simply can’t tell the story of the hundreds of unmarked SUVs rolling around the metro on a daily basis, beating and kidnapping women, children, elderly, and citizens alike.
Every day, a dozen or more cars are left idling with doors open and smashed windows in subzero temps. Flashbangs are routinely being thrown into homes where no warrant exists, oftentimes traumatizing families inside. Parents now instinctively know to shout the names of their children and school while being disappeared, hoping a bystander will go to that school to make sure the child isn’t left unattended for days at a time, not knowing where their parent went.
Chemical weapons are being used on peaceful bystanders to the point where we don’t even report it anymore. The same with automatic weapons being unholdtered and pointed between the eyeballs of US citizens.
Schools with high immigrant populations have mostly closed, and children of color in predominantly white districts don’t come to school anymore. Where school is taking place, parents form human chains at pickup and drop-off, both to look for ICE activity and subsequently ensure they are taken due to “obstructing federal officers” instead of the children.
The first death in ICE custody (Victor Manuel Diaz) has been recorded due to the brutality of the beatings during the arrest and lack of subsequent medical care, and there are more to come.
Right now, it’s chaos that is akin to the suspension of habeas corpus. Lawyers can’t get to their clients, and oftentimes ICE can’t find them.
Second, our learning thus far — should this come to your city at some point in the future — is that no one is coming to save you or your city. This realization was rock bottom for our city through this whole ordeal. Folks smarter than me can probably explain why, buy my cheap-seats view is that state and local officials are prohibited by law from interfering with legal federal enforcement activities, and the current game of illegal chicken is deliberately designed to incite and escalate “blue on blue” violence as a pretext for martial law.
So far, I believe our community understands the game and is denying victory through non-violent means, lawsuits, etc. In the meantime, we are left to grind it out in the streets.
Third, and most importantly, we are winning. Our rage has turned to resolve, and we are getting stronger each day. This story is equally under-reported outside the headlines about Walz, the National Guard, or ACLU lawsuits. We have thousands of people who have completed constitutional observer training in the past week, and the numbers grow with each day. We have thousands more average citizens who patrol the streets coordinating anti-ICE intel in real time, and without fail. Each time these goons step out of their cars, they are met with non-violent rage like I have never seen. They can no longer freely operate in densely populated neighborhoods due to the dozens of people who come out of the woodwork to tell them, in very impolite terms, that are not welcome in our city.
Every single person I know (no joke) is donating food, delivering groceries, contributing to GFundMes, offering pro-bono legal services, constitutional observation, etc. People organize around schools and churches, their favority restaurants — heck, even men’s league hockey teams.
The administration has led us to believe this surge has no end in sight, and we are ready for it. We are rapidly organizing and looking out for each other, knowing that we can and will outlast this evil.
And so, despite perhaps the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my 39 years on earth, I offer a message of hope — not because I am toxically positive, but because each day I get to see ordinary people do extraordinary things, and because, like me, they believe our community will prevail.
Lastly, feel free to share my thoughts above with anyone curious what is happening, and if you feel compelled to help in some way, reach out to someone you know who has ties to Minnesota and tell them they are not alone.
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