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Ocelot II

(130,711 posts)
Mon Jan 26, 2026, 11:28 AM Jan 26

What's happening in MN isn't a protest, it's a resistance. [View all]

Learn from it, because if you live in a blue state or city this mess is coming your way.

From Atlantic:

Behind the violence in Minneapolis—captured in so many chilling photographs in recent weeks—is a different reality: a meticulous urban choreography of civic protest. You could see traces of it in the identical whistles the protesters used, in their chants, in their tactics, in the way they followed ICE agents but never actually blocked them from detaining people. Thousands of Minnesotans have been trained over the past year as legal observers and have taken part in lengthy role-playing exercises where they rehearse scenes exactly like the one I witnessed. They patrol neighborhoods day and night on foot and stay connected on encrypted apps such as Signal, in networks that were first formed after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

Again and again, I heard people say they were not protesters but protectors—of their communities, of their values, of the Constitution. Vice President Vance has decried the protests as “engineered chaos” produced by far-left activists working in tandem with local authorities. But the reality on the ground is both stranger and more interesting. The movement has grown much larger than the core of activists shown on TV newscasts, especially since the killing of Renee Good on January 7. And it lacks the sort of central direction that Vance and other administration officials seem to imagine.

At times, Minneapolis reminded me of what I saw during the Arab Spring in 2011, a series of street clashes between protesters and police that quickly swelled into a much larger struggle against autocracy. As in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Minneapolis has seen a layered civic uprising where a vanguard of protesters has gained strength as many others who don’t share progressive convictions joined in feeling, if not always in person. I heard the same tones of outrage from parents, ministers, school teachers, and elderly residents of an affluent suburb. Some of the quarrels that divided Minneapolis city leaders only a few weeks ago, over policing or Gaza or the budget, have faded as people have come together to oppose ICE.


https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/minneapolis-uprising/685755/
https://archive.is/iq74B

I have been to one of the training sessions described in this article; it might even have been the actual one the author described, based on the date and location. We aren't playing. Please pay attention and get ready.
31 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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K&R Solly Mack Jan 26 #1
Really important point on framing jmbar2 Jan 26 #2
Thank you O II. Important info. Clouds Passing Jan 26 #3
I wish. It would be nice to get paid for freezing my butt while waving a sign in subzero weather. Ocelot II Jan 26 #4
DURec leftstreet Jan 26 #5
Thank you Ocelot. murielm99 Jan 26 #6
Minnesota is leading the way peggysue2 Jan 26 #7
Minnesota is WE THE PEOPLE. yellow dahlia Jan 26 #26
Just what we need, "organized resistance" by "super smart, super right people." gulliver Jan 26 #8
Are you here? Do you know what's going on here? Ocelot II Jan 26 #9
What's an objection to my point? gulliver Jan 26 #12
What's happening here is far more than monitoring ICE movements on Signal. Ocelot II Jan 26 #18
Immigration reform would be a healthy thing to do. gulliver Jan 26 #22
"Immigration reform" has been debated for decades and nobody's managed to fix it. Ocelot II Jan 26 #24
"Both sides" nonsense Cirsium Jan 26 #29
Pretti's behavior "a perceived threat"?.... electric_blue68 Jan 26 #30
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. WhiskeyGrinder Jan 26 #10
I'm not against any of those things. gulliver Jan 26 #13
. WhiskeyGrinder Jan 26 #16
I agree in general gulliver Jan 26 #20
. WhiskeyGrinder Jan 26 #28
You don't seem to understand the reason for Signal monitoring, Ocelot II Jan 26 #19
I'm a systems engineer by training... haele Jan 26 #25
You have more faith in the system than most leftstreet Jan 26 #11
I see the system as really in trouble gulliver Jan 26 #14
What if The System itself is the virus? leftstreet Jan 26 #17
There's no avoiding systems. gulliver Jan 26 #23
What? Cirsium Jan 26 #27
That's true. MineralMan Jan 26 #15
A better example would be the Norwegian resistance. It was highly effective Ocelot II Jan 26 #21
Well that would mean I am a bit safer in my red city Tree Lady Jan 26 #31
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