"but the consensus among people here is that people of color are inherently at risk regardless of status"
Oh noes.....
The anti-ICE leftists are doing exactly what they claim ICE is doing:
Profiling people, harassing them, demanding that you identify yourself, etc.
What you're seeing now was the goal of letting all these illegals in. As disgusting as Ds have been for years you have to give it to them for setting up conditions of chaos as a political weapon.
The violence was the goal. And then label anyone who is a law abiding citizen, who pushes back, as a bigot or racist.
Actually, they would have been disappointed not to have had a major drama like the Renee Good shooting. Same as the George Floyd situation. These unfortunate events add fuel to the fire for the leftwing activists in a way that looks like the fault of the authorities; they can pretend to justify their pushback through raising one of their own to martyrdom status. They have zero compassion for the person involved -- just another welcome tool they can weaponize for their cause.
They promote this because it's used for their propaganda machine. Someone gets killed? Wow! Great for the Democrat cause!! First, they open the borders to all kinds of vermin. Then they won't cooperate with government agencies to deport them. Lastly, they use incendiary language to encourage the population to rise up and create a dangerous and chaotic situation while these "leaders" pretend it's all the fault of the "other guy"!!!
Yes, indeed, Carol. This is one big manipulation stunt they are pulling. As they wail through their predictable street theatre. A few deaths? No problem....plays well for the cause.
But it only works if ICE and DHS and DOJ and Trump play into it and cross the line and do something illegal. Yes it’s not fair that WE have to be perfect, but if we want to win the long game, we HAVE TO BE perfect! Trump & his administration is blowing this.
MAGA can love this, but it’s not MAGA that swings elections IT’S THE MIDDLE.
If we are as bad as they as WE LOSE! You can not like these truths as much as you want but it won’t change the fact that ICE’s, DOGE’s, Trump’s tactics to accomplish our goals is driving the middle away from us.
George Floyd’s murder was much more than an “unfortunate event” and it most certainly was “the fault of the authorities” that Floyd died. If it wasn’t for Darnella Frazier continuously recording video for 10 minutes showing that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for over 9 minutes straight the later false claim by police that Floyd died due to a medical issue would have been believed.
As for protestors having “zero compassion for the person involved” — that is completely false. Millions of Americans as well as many others are sympathetic to the plight of victims of state violence in the United States.
But good government doesn’t kill a person for resisting as George Floyd did.
Neither should Ms Good have been shot. SHE WAS WRONG! But our standard procedures shouldn’t get her shot in spite of how awful, arrogant, and stupid she was - she hit the gas with a law enforcer standing 3 ft in front of her pointing a gun at her. She asked for it but she didn’t deserve it.
Personally I’m not seeing “protests “. I am seeing people interfering with federal law enforcement. As Matt said so eloquently when interviewed; these same tactics were employed by ICE in the Obama administration. CNN actually did a ride a long with ICE agents and were supportive.
No, those "same tactics" were not widely employed by ICE under Obama. Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has the most comprehensive public database of immigration enforcement. During the last year of Obama's presidency, TRAC says approximately 1,250 people were detained and deported by ICE each week. Only a small percentage of those arrests, however, was the result of ICE raids. Instead, most of those estimated weekly 1,250 ICE apprehensions happened when ICE assumed custody of individuals held by another law enforcement agency.
Before it was taken down I watched video of Floyd standing vertical next to the police car agitated and saying he couldn't breath. I saw video of Chauvin restraining him by applying pressure to the side of his neck not lyranix. His autopsy showed no damage to his lyranix and a lethal dose of fetynal in his system. The autopsy used in court was from a physician hired by the family who did not even examin the body. The whole racist cop narrative was a manufactured lie.
Nope. The Hennepin County medical examiner stated that the fentanyl concentration in George Floyd could have been fatal for someone with no tolerance but a forensic toxicologist as well as Floyd's girlfriend stated that Floyd had a high tolerance to opioids and therefore the medical examiner concluded that the fentanyl in Floyd's system did not cause his death.
The lack of damage to Floyd's larynx is irrelevant. While Floyd's autopsy did not show physical signs of strangulation, medical experts testified that Floyd died of positional asphyxia — a lack of oxygen caused by the compression of his back and neck, rather than direct damage to Floyd's throat structure.
Your claim that "the autopsy used in court was from a physician hired by the family who did not even examine the body" is false. Floyd's family hired two doctors, Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson, to perform a second, independent autopsy which they did. Both doctors testified that they did conduct a physical examination of Floyd’s body.
Your other claim about "the whole racist cop narrative" is also false. Derek Chauvin was never accused of being racist by the prosecution.
The documentary feature "The Fall of Minneapolis" and its follow-up shorter documentary reveals that (a) Chauvin was using an approved technique that involved placing his knee on Floyd's shoulder adjacent to his neck. At one point, his knee slipped and was indeed on Floyd's neck, but not for long. (b) Floyd started saying "I can't breathe" long before Chauvin restrained him, probably because he had "hooped" fentanyl earier. The original autopsy showed no signs of death by airflow restriction. Floyd accidentally killed himself by overdose.
The documentary also reveals something that has been confirmed over and over. The Minneapolis show trial withheld vital exculpatory evidence and featured several witnesses for the prosecution committing perjury.
The followup documentary shows Floyd being stopped by police a year earlier and using exactly the same language and behavior he used in the Minneapolis incident -- he faked fear and submission to trick the officers and throw them off guard.
Another fact. Chauvin and co-workers called for an ambulance, but the ambulance driver went to the wrong address --- through no fault of Chauvin. The lengthy delay likely cost Floyd his life.
Anyone who's worked with drug addicts can spot a classic career criminal like Floyd a mile away. A vicious bully who terrified a pregnant woman by pointing a gun at her uterus, a whining, simpering pussycat when arrested on the day he died.
The claim that Chauvin placed only one of his knees on Floyd and that Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's shoulder most of the time and not on Floyd's neck is false. Chauvin placed both his knees on Floyd. Chauvin placed his left knee on George Floyd's neck and his right knee on Floyd's back/shoulder area for most of the restraint period. Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist who specializes in the mechanics and physics of breathing, testified that Floyd died from a “low level of oxygen” that led to brain damage and an arrhythmia that “caused his heart to stop.” Dr. Tobin said that video showed that Chauvin’s left knee was on Floyd’s neck “more than 90% of the time" while Chauvin's right knee was on Floyd’s back/shoulder area at least 57% of the time. Dr. Tobin said that for the rest of the time, the available video did not provide a good view of the exact location of Chauvin’s right knee.
If there hadn’t been a massive propaganda campaign immediately followed by nationwide op, the accurate statement that he died due to a medical issue would have been believed.
can’t suffocate a person with pressure to the side of the neck without breaking something. Nothing was broken. Dude was dying in the store before the cops ever showed up. Dying in his vehicle. Video is there. That dude died from fentanyl poisoning. Everybody knows that; the coroner report had it in writing.
That is false. A person can be suffocated by pressure to the side of the neck without breaking any bones or damaging organs such as the trachea or larynx. The death of George Floyd was officially ruled a homicide by neck compression which caused asphyxiation.
Your other claim that Floyd was "dying in the store before the cops ever showed up. Dying in his vehicle" is also false. Floyd was conscious and alert the entire time he was in the store and in his car.
Your final claim about "fentanyl poisoning" is also false. The coroner's report said the amount of fentanyl in Floyd's system would have killed someone with no tolerance but Floyd had a high tolerance to fentanyl since he was a regular user of opioids. The forensic toxicologist Dr. Daniel Isenschmid testified that the level of fentanyl found in Floyd's system was consistent with someone who had developed a high tolerance to opioids. Dr. Isenschmid explained that the 11 ng/mL of fentanyl in Floyd's system, combined with the presence of its metabolite (norfentanyl), showed that a significant amount had been broken down, indicating Floyd was a chronic user with a high tolerance to fentanyl.
Oh yes. And they frequently create fake scenarios just to add more ‘human atrocity’ to their list. If these activists could tell the truth when they are screaming about how lives matter, they would have more credibility. No they are looking to add fuel for more protest and disruption which is the primary aim.
Tactics such as these can also be found described in the recent PhD thesis of Dr. Karen Mitchell of Australia. Her topic was the Dark Triad Personalities of High-functioning Human Predators.
Matt and Walter should do some homework and read it.
Well....Considering that I identify humans as belonging to the animal species with the same attributes, I will surely find it repetitive or supportive of my observations of the human species.
Everything goes back to the mother...or, in the case of the father, his mother...keep walking it back to the beginning of the dysfunctional chain...everything goes back to the mother...the nurturer...
Yeah, this is such a silly accusation. If ICE is looking for a Venezuelan or Salvadorian illegal alien, they will look for someone who looks like a Venezuelan or Salvadorian native. Highly unlikely that they would be looking for blond, blue-eyed, Nordic Lutheran person.
Also "Many people are afraid to go outside, fearing interaction with ICE regardless of immigration status or any kind of related conflict." This is insane!
I've done my own research to figure out how ICE operates (no, they don't stop people on streets and don't arrest kids, although, they might've picked up a victim of trafficking or somebody whose parents got arrested). The civil division of ICE responsible for regular deportations is called Enforcement and Removal Operations. They wear vests saying "ERO" but this video compilation doesn't show a single one of them. Instead, it's full of various "police" vests, i.e. criminal enforcement, including HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) with vests saying "ICE police" and various deputized federal agencies like CBP, HSA and even Bureau of Prisons. Those can actually arrest protestors for impeding ICE work as it's an immigration crime. The media and government officials in Minnesota should've told people to stop worrying and impeding immigration operations, but they're doing the opposite, spreading propaganda and insane fear mongering. Local police could've helped to manage the crowds but they're not at the scene. No wonder there are riots in Minneapolis, I wouldn't call them protests at this point.
Ford gives the impression he’s not entirely neutral. And I’m skeptical that Minnesotans are as united in their opposition to the American government enforcing an overwhelmingly popular mandate to repatriate illegals as he implies. Maybe it’s because he’s sampling mostly lunatics with whistles, but it seems unlikely the entire state is as crazy as the protesters. Perhaps the normies as staying inside for fear of the mostly peaceful protesters, having prior experience with the species.
Ford is by no means neutral! His description of having to leave dinner for "another shooting" leaves out the fact that during a targeted stop(targeted as in court order) the person fled, ran into his domicile, where he and 2 others came out to attack with shovels and a broom handle. The "targeted" person was shot in the leg by the FBI/LEO. He also leaves out that the vehicle was torn apart by the "mostly peaceful" rioters , paperwork and a gun locker was stolen.
I agree with your assessment, Art. Minnesota is simply being Minnesota. The Black Lives Matter riots have morphed into lunacy on display. And look at who they elect as their leaders.
Keep dreaming. Federal oversight is precisely the point. Body cams are a window into miscreant behavior by criminals. So I'll give those to you. But we all know about the 'peaceful protests' of BLM. And the grift created by the Marxist BLM leaders. But of course, you don't want to discuss that, do you?
You made the claim that the BLM movement was "lunacy". I refuted that by listing 5 different changes resulting from the BLM movement that have improved policing in America.
As for body cams being "a window into miscreant behavior by criminals" — body cams are also a window into the despicable actions of some police officers.
Not in Louisville. The Biden DOJ tried to ram through a consent decree as the rats were scurrying off the ship but it was blocked and then dropped by the Trump DOJ. We still have effective policing (as much as the Democrats running the city will allow)
The Louisville Metro Police Department agreed to the consent decree with Biden's DOJ but a Trump-appointed judge dragged his feet on approving it until Trump's DOJ declined to support the decree. The feds under Biden did perform oversight that identified numerous problems with the Louisville police force that resulted in the agreed upon decree. After Trump's DOJ decided to not support the consent decree, the Louisville mayor and police chief implemented their own plan called “Community Commitment" that includes most of the same reforms that were in the original consent decree. Your claim that Louisville has always had "effective policing" is false. Multiple investigations of the Louisville police found racial discrimination, excessive force and illegal searches were common. One egregious example was the affidavit for the no-knock warrant, prepared by Detective Joshua Jaynes and approved by Sgt. Kyle Meany, that falsely claimed that a U.S. postal inspector had verified a suspected drug dealer (Taylor's ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover) was receiving suspicious packages at Taylor's home.
Could it be also that his job, his career, his everyday work environment, depends entirely on his being able to be close to the protesters? That if he is very cognizant of the fact that if he develops any sort of an identity as one who is in any form critical of anything they do, that he will be an easy target, because he's right there? We've seen how these mobs behave, what they are capable of. If FF is identified as being "on the other side" not "one of them", then his profession, his career, is over.
I also agree. Renee Good and her partner were spending their days following and interfering with ICE agents. How do they live if they're not getting paid?!! I see no real likelihood that they are independently wealthy.
I suppose they could be on welfare, but that would just mean they are getting paid by the state -- and maybe federal gpvernment -- to protest. Even better, Laura Ingram actually got one of the protesters in Minni to admit ON CAMERA that she was getting paid to protest!! Sorry, but that kind of seals the deal.
I guess we all know now that she didn't have a wife at all. Apparently the $1.5M gofundme is going to be fought over by her parents, her kids, and her 'partner.'
Yes! There’s almost no scenario in which some entity or person singles out 1 person and pays that 1 person to go protest. That makes absolutely no sense!! The point of paying protesters is to obtain a large group of people, which signifies popular support for whatever cause de jour. Paying 1 protester to go protest does not a protest make; that’s why there are actual businesses who hire large number of people to create crowds. On fact, one of those businesses has been very public in saying that it will not provide its employees to the types of protests occurring in Minniapolis. Laura Ingram, who is not really one of my favorite talking-heads, was absolutely right to crow about getting one of the Minniapolis protesters to admit to being paid to protest. That admission proved that these protests are largely a sham.
That and the fact that there usually seem to be mass produced signs and the protestors being equipped with masks and megaphones and other loud-protest-only type equipment seems evidence of a paid job.
One of our gigs inside a nice hotel was crashed by crazy Hamasholes one night. They all had the same stuff. and, also, out came the $50 bill that DSA rioters give to those who's jobs they eff up (including cab drivers and musicians) that they think make it all okay. It's SOP and a sign that these privileged jerks have no idea that those who actually work deserve dignity.
Indeed, "Many people are afraid to go outside, fearing interaction with ICE regardless of immigration status or any kind of related conflict" doesn't make sense. Unless they don't want to be harassed in restaurants by the mostly peaceful protestors.
A lot of those people travel to protest so they can have fun offing around and get paid and feel like freedom fighters. So, at least some of them he's talking to aren't Minnesotans. I'm sure not all Minnesotans are that demented.
The "popular mandate" was billed by the Trump administration as going after the worst of the worst — not students, construction workers, janitors, stay-at-home moms, etc. But ICE is going after just such immigrants who have committed no crimes (not to mention black and brown American citizens). It's not surprising that many Minnesotans are opposed to these actions by ICE.
Ford is on the ground where these protests are happening and his observation that he sees different people, rather than the same people, at all the protests indicates that the protestors are not paid and are rather local folks who emerge from their homes when they receive an alert on their phones or hear whistles indicating that ICE is nearby.
You are mistaken. We voted to remove ALL illegals. And that's what he promised.
If you don’t like the current situation then you can thank autopen for letting in 11 mil illegals...in order to set up the circumstances you're now seeing.
Anyone in the country illegally, has committed a crime. Working without a "green card" is a violation of the law.
Trump said he'd remove the illegal aliens and that's what he's doing now.
Another way to stop this madness is to go after the employers who are paying the people who are working without authorization. I'm certain we'll discover lots of ID theft.
Again, Trump said he would remove "the worst of the worst" — he never said "all the illegal aliens."
As for "the employers" — Trump is one of them. He employed 200 undocumented workers at the construction site of Trump Tower in NYC. Trump also employed numerous undocumented folks at his golf clubs in Bedminster, NJ, Pine Hill, NJ and Westchester, NY as well as the Trump Winery in Virginia.
You are absolutely right that the way to address this is to go after the employers. When a few corporate VPs and plant managers go on trial, behavior will change.
But like all societal issues, we think we can solve them only by going after the supply side (see also: drugs, abortions) vs. trying to reduce demand.
Nope. On the DHS website at https://www.dhs.gov/making-america-safe-again it says “the hardworking men and women of DHS are fulfilling President Trump’s promise to Make America Safe Again by removing violent criminal illegal aliens.” It does not say “all illegals” as you claim.
While Minnesotans may be united or not on enforcing immigration laws, they may not like it being done in a manner that reminds of them of a military invasion or occupation.
Mostly the street-level protestors get "mutual aid" donations from like-minded people across the country, but at a higher level, somebody's paying for the professional signage and whatnot.
Just in time for a new pro-migrant, progressive archbishop of New York to be installed. It’s a powerful position, no matter one’s views on religion or Catholicism. The left will use this to claim the moral high ground.
Exactly. In a world of performative social media and gofundme--donations are getting paid.
An OnlyFans performer who says they can't do 'certain acts" until they get 50K in donations for "certain tools and implements" is not only getting paid--but understands the dance.
It's especially silly when Ford is shaking the same tree.
Estimates are that some 10 million people illegally entered the US as a result of the active abrogation of responsibility by the OBiden administration.
Correcting this egregious flouting of immigration law will require extraordinary measures.
Sadly, it is almost certain that some mistakes will occur. There is no human activity, certainly at this scale and with this level of urgency, that wouldn't involve errors.
But just stating without reference "the child who was detained and driven off in a van in front of his own home" is neither useful nor pertinent.
What child? Where? Who took this child? Where did they take the child? How do you know of this incident?
And, even assuming you've mentioned something that actually occurred, what percentage does this represent as regards the interactions and efforts by ICE?
Name-calling further deprecates the value of your comment.
What occurred under the OBiden administration was a national crime. A crime against the nation. It was conducted actively and represents one of the most, if not the most, cynical and callous attack on the integrity of the United States in history.
Any correction of this travesty has to be at scale and because of the scale of the OBiden illegal immigration invasion, it's going to be a mess.
But it was a mess created purposefully by the OBiden administration.
I think "sick" applies to the people who created this disaster more than anyone.
The event occurred in the video and was mentioned in the article. That’s why I referenced it. And I’m sorry, but it is sick to dehumanize people just for leaving deplorable conditions and moving hoping to find a better life.
It’s also sick to have no concern for the systematic rights violations and harassment of ordinary people that is happening and of necessity will happen if the goal is to roundup every last undocumented person.
We can debate the competing values of openness to outsiders and social cohesion. We can debate the proper number of visas or asylum to grant. What we cannot do, and what I have been shouting endlessly, is disregard our sacred constitutional rights to not carry papers, to not be subject to warrantless searches. THAT is what I’m outraged about. Not immigration enforcement.1
Do you believe that when a local police department discovers that a person they have arrested is illegally in the country they should turn that person over to federal immigration authorities? Most of this nonsense would end if they would.
I hope I'm not repeating myself (at least not too much) but the situation is extreme because of the previous administration which created a massive problem that cannot be ignored and must be addressed.
Okay, then what to do?
Clearly, the government has to move quickly or otherwise people who are the subject of the apprehension will get advance notice and take evasive action. Swift action by the government will almost certainly result in non-camera friendly footage.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I went to grad school in Minnesota and lived in various locations in the Twin Cities. Protesting is a self-fulfilling end for that culture. The "issue" is irrelevant, the "issue" is merely an excuse to have a "protest". I watched it for years and it resulted in my no longer identifying as a liberal (despite still holding what I think are many traditional liberal beliefs).
The point here is that virtue-signaling of the "protesters" [sic] only confounds the matter and really brings no useful value. It is theater and I do not respect it. I observed these antics for too long to give them credibility.
They are endangering themselves -- tragically, as in the case of Renee Good -- and of the officers who are executing laws passed by democratically elected representatives to Congress.
The warrantless search issue is tricky, I'll grant you that. I'm not an attorney nor a legal expert, but I believe police actions do not require a warrant when a crime is in progress. If someone is harboring (or employing or whatever) illegal immigrants, that's a crime in progress.
The matter of "carrying papers" seems to be getting blown way out of proportion. I'm in Chicago where there were large-scale ICE operations (which also garnered the photo-hound protest shenanigans) and I also happen to know lots of Mexican Americans. Not one has ever expressed to me any concern for need to "carry papers".
The tragic edge cases also include those people brought to this country (illegally) as children who have never known any other country. That is a vexing problem to which I do not have an answer. But the simple truth is that the person is not here legally.
The abuse of our immigration system by the OBiden administration was nothing short of criminal. I seriously do not think this was done out of compassion or out of any concern for the well-being of any of the illegal immigrants...and certainly without any concern as to how it would effect the country. It was callous, cynical and entirely calculated.
Correcting that enormous breach of law (i.e., as written in the Constitution) is an incredibly difficult task, both in terms of scale and individual detail.
These so-called protesters are simply making a very difficult situation much worse with their selfish, self-centered, street-theater antics. Their antics only put more pressure on immigration enforcement which, I would claim, only makes the likelihood of "negative outcomes" greater.
But this problem has to be addressed. I wish there had been this much outcry when the crime was being committed by the OBiden administration so that we might have avoided having to correct matters afterward.
But I respect your concerns. I just think we've got a colossal mess that we have to address and it's not going to be pleasant even with extreme care taken.
Trouble is, the illegal immigrants expect other people to take care of them, at their expense. They never consider what they are doing to the countries and culture and people who are forced to host them.
We cannot take in the entire third world. I'm sorry, but we just can't.
Rest easy -- there is no way we will ever return all of the illegal immigrants. Ideally, more of them will opt to self-deport, but most will remain here, helping increase housing costs, and decrease wages for the working class -- all while you pat yourself on the back for being so kind-hearted.
Yes. An arrest by law enforcement, although extremely inconvenient, is not an illegal siezure. SCOTUS in Graham v. Connor — 1989. And it was a unanimous decision.
Watch the video and draw your own conclusions. If standing outside your own home and not having ID is grounds for arrest, then we live in a police state
The Alien Registration Act, passed in 1940, requires aliens to be registered. Since April of this year, a Trump executive order requires that aliens carry their green cards/visas on their persons at all time.
While I think that's perhaps excessive, what I think doesn't change the law. And to the extent it is excessive, that's a reaction to four years of Biden intentionally not enforcing laws.
One issue in this matter is also frequency and scale.
How often has this happened? Out of how many interactions.
During the substantial immigration enforcement here in Chicago, there was much protest and complaint (notably by local news outlets I suspect of having NGO-or-other ties...as I simply don't see how they survive financially).
After the enforcement action concluded, there was much self-congratulatory talk and articles of "how ICE affected Chicago". But suddenly all the stories of people being apprehended ended. No follow up. Were they all let go? What happened to them?
The point being, the hysteria is clearly being manufactured by parties that want illegal immigration. There are plenty of plausible motivating interests (e.g., cheap labor, cheap votes, etc.).
What is clear is that video can be used to highlight a particular case and suggest an extrapolation that is not accurate.
There is a massive effort underway to address the egregious violations committed by the OBiden administration. This is a huge undertaking, is full of risk for the agents involved, and will almost certainly involve mistakes.
Everything involves mistakes and failures. A real question is, what is tolerable? And by tolerable I don't mean that anyone likes it. But these considerations are routine -- in product safety and elsewhere.
My point is that obsessing on particular examples can be inappropriate and inaccurate. Of the apparently-now-millions of interactions of ICE agents performing their job, how many have been mistakes?
In a quasi-Hegelian sense (I think the attribution is accurate) what we are dealing with is essentially a matter of quantity (scale) also being pertinent to quality: namely, isolated incidents of mistakes or of people being asked for identification are putatively not the same as being in a "police state".
It's a rotten situation, I'll certainly give you that, but it was one that was purposefully created by the OBiden administration. Where's the outrage over the original crime? The original crime (i.e., by the OBiden administration) is what created the environment we find ourselves in.
You don't want to argue this one. The video does not show the officers in a very good light. Grabbing the kid because he didn't have ID on him? Not a good look.
I'm sure there's some logic to the "can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs," but when someone points out one of the ugly examples of eggs breaking, don't argue the point.
I asked him a simple question, which he didn’t answer.
“Was it a legal arrest or detention? If it was, then it is immaterial what you pretend to think about it.”
We don’t know from the video whether it was lawful or not, and we all know by now we can’t depend on the media for any truths, such as whether he was detained for no ID, or for some other reason.
I admit it looks bad, but we only got one side of the story here. It would have been more interesting and humane if the reporter would have knocked on the door and asked, then if he did have proper documentation, show it to ICE and give the kid a ride back home.
I don’t this this reporter is interested in seeking truth.
Showing identification to ICE has been proven to not help. ICE agents have been captured on video time and again saying "That ID looks fake!" before hauling folks away. That's why ICE agents now slap the phones out of people's hands whenever they are close enough to record the agents' voices.
> I have absolutely seen vehicles left on the street in a way that inadvertently has this effect [of blocking agents]
Wait, how does Ford Fischer know whether leaving the vehicles was intentional or "inadvertent"?
Did he interview the empty cars, or is he making an assumption?
Is Ford reporting facts, or just sharing his opinion? The *fact* is the vehicles were abandoned; the absent drivers' motivations are guessed at by Ford.
And strictly speaking, of course it's not inadvertent: every vehicle left blocking the street was left because the driver parked it there and got out, not because some act of God teleported the driver away.
The cars were left, either to intentionally block the street, or...
...because the driver felt rushing to the protest was more important than finding a safe and legal place to park.
Which is the arrogance of the Left that's behind all of this: the Left thinks that laws can be flouted in the name of "Social Justice". According to the law-nullification Left, "undocumented migrants" can illegally enter the United States, because that's the greater good, Federal law enforcement can be impeded or even attacked, because illegal immigrants shouldn't be deported, and so of course cars can be parked blocking streets in order to not waste protest time finding parking. Or, to block law enforcement.
The protesters think they're above the law, because they believe their cause is just, even as they flout the laws supported by a majority of Americans and passed by a democratically elected Congress.
It's pure tantrum-throwing arrogance: "I'm a protester on a holy mission, I can abandon my car anywhere that's convenient!"
FF "For protesters and agents, this is a chaotic environment, but one they’ve elected to end up in."
Interesting use of the words "elected to end up in"
The ICE agents are there because they have a job to do. They cannot do it if they are not there. The protesters on the other hand do not have to be there. They choose to be there. I get it that FF and Matt want to be as neutral as possible. To not take a side in this dispute. But that can be done while still being more honest about who is acting and who is reacting, without say who they believe is right or wrong. It should be allowable, without taking a side, for both Matt and FF to clarify that one group is enforcing federal law and one group is interfering with the execution of federal law. They seem to both go to extremes to avoid this important fact.
"one group is enforcing federal law..." Um, no, ICE is violating the rights of Americans on a regular basis by: 1) hauling citizens away on the pretext that their IDs are fake when their IDs are in fact real, 2) blocking traffic and then busting the windows of drivers who honk or get caught in the roadblock and then hauling those drivers out of their cars, 3) denying lawyers access to detainees, 4) performing unreasonable searches and seizures and 5) attempting to shut down peaceful protests.
"The ICE agents are there because they have a job to do... The protesters on the other hand do not have to be there..." Um, no, the Minneapolis protestors live there. The ICE agents do not. The ICE agents do not have to be roaming neighborhoods lobbing tear gas and flash bang grenades at protestors while terrorizing every person of color who crosses their path.
Protesting against government overreach is how America was founded. What ICE is doing is overreach. What the protestors are doing is in the proud tradition of the founders of the United States.
It seems your report differs markedly from others I have seen on the ground. You don’t even mention the protesters barging into the church and verbally assaulting the pastor and worshippers and you barely touched on Frey calling people to go out and put their bodies on the line. Further, the city is crawling with radical left wing organizations and experienced, professional activists like BLM. The twin cities have been completely taken over by revolutionaries. That is the reality.
Good grief. Nobody "broke into the church." The protestors walked into the church during a service when it was open to the public. Frey is not asking "people to go out and put their bodies on the line." Frey specifically said folks who choose to protest should remain peaceful and request Minneapolis police to intervene if they witness ICE officers breaking the law. As for what the city is "crawling with" — it's crawling with ICE and Border Patrol agents. That is the reality.
Don Lemon went with these terrorists and he is being looked at for violations of several laws. Just because the doors weren't locked doesn't mean you have the right to walk in and take over. Can you go to a bar and grab the mic from the band and do your own thing? Can you go in a restaurant and enter the kitchen and mess with cooks??
Other than trespassing at the invitation of 40 or 50 FBI plants in the crowd, not much of anything. They were unarmed. Ashley Babbit, an unarmed military veteran, was shot and killed by a capital
Policeman. That was the biggest crime of the day. For that, he was promoted.
The Trump administration targets anyone who disagrees with it so the fact that Don Lemon is "being looked at for violations" is not surprising. Letitia James, Jerome Powell, James Comey, Mark Kelly, Lisa Cook, Sean Dunn, John Brennan, and Adam Schiff have also been "looked at".
As if the Biden admin didn't target 1000s of J6ers, hundreds of lawyers, moms at school board meetings, Catholics......the fact that Trump promised to drain the swamp meant yes, his admin would look at ACTUAL criminals. Fauci should be on that list too. And Lemon violated the KKK law, the FACE Act plus other federal laws if he used mail or other federal services conspiring to attack the church
They had to be “looked at” and thoroughly investigated. Comey, Brennan and Schiff committed high crimes and completely fabricated the Russiagate hoax as directed by Obama in their attempted coup to oust Trump. This is all available for public consumption in Gabbard’s declassified release of documents. James ran her campaign on indicting Trump in a public threatening run looking for a crime. She partnered with her boyfriend to involve him in the plot for which she was removed from her position and frankly, is a haughty, leftie lunatic.
Don Lemon accompanied a bunch of loud-mouthed protesters into a house of worship during worship services, and proceeded to badger the minister, after the protesters disrupted services and terrified church members.
If Alex Jones led a bunch of Proud Boys into a black church during a worship service and started badgering the pastor, would you have the same reaction?
Disingenous comments like your's are the reason why Substack needs a dislike option. So other's don't have to waste time reading fallacious BS.
That church is private property and were holding a worship service open to anyone who wanted to join in their sermony. It was not open to the rioters who came in to distrupt and terrorize the members.
Talk about "disingenuous comments" — the protestors were hardly "rioters". They entered the church for a brief period of time, chanted "ICE out" and "Renee Good" and then left before the police even arrived.
Would you be so accepting if Tucker Carlson led a bunch of Oath Keepers into a black church service to chant something, before Tucker badgered the minister?
I second that. If you find somebody too annoying I was able to find a 'block' function accessible in the 'more actions' (...) menu on the poster's profile page and have used that for a few trolls that were infesting the comments on various substacks I read.
You two are such snowflakes. You're complaining about me entering your safe space? Seriously? Taibbi's substack comments are full of right wingers spouting nonsense all day long. I'm just bringing some balance to the conversation.
I’m sorry, what? They didn’t walk in to worship, they abused the invitation by disrespecting and disrupting those who were. Don’t normalize what has traditionally been considered safe havens. I would object with full force if ICE waltzed into my church and started arresting people.
Trump has said there are no safe havens anymore. On January 20, 2025 the Department of Homeland Security revoked guidance that limited ICE activity in and around churches, schools and hospitals.
So if my house is unlocked then you consider it open to the public, you can just waltz right in with your bullhorns?? This was private property. Don Lemon was a total a-hole, accusing the members of the church of being white supremacists.
Your house is not a church where members of the public are allowed in during services. The church has David Easterwood as its pastor. Easterwood is the field director for ICE in Minnesota. That's a huge conflict of interest and invites pushback which is exactly what's happening.
The church is private property. My family, friends, and neighbors are welcome in my house, that doesn't mean leftist lunatics can enter and harass me. Is the pastor doing something illegal?
"FF: From my perspective, this week has further entrenched my view that “paid protesters” is, for the most part, an absurd fantasy. Having watched the Signal chats used to track the activities of ICE, these are formed by people joining and volunteering as they can, most of whom don’t even appear to know each other, and the work is done out of sheer commitment.
I will caveat this by saying that of course, some demonstrations are led by coalitions that have non-profits attached to them, and so donations are clearly used for things like signage. However, their calls to demonstrate attract the public with absolutely zero, zilch, nada evidence that the participants are somehow financially incentivized to participate.
In 10 years of documenting activism, I’ve very rarely run into even a crumb of evidence of “paid protesters,” but I’ve heard the accusation thrown around constantly without evidence to discredit them."
LOL, absurd fantasy until they need "signage" or um, whatever. Yeah, this is credible.
Matt, is this the type of journalism that is now going to be had on Racket? I read enough douchebags everywhere else, please tell me it is a "NO!"
there's been a lot of things since Trump was elected in 2016 that sounded utterly absurd, but turned out to be true.
i don't watch Fox, but there was a protestor she interviewed, and she asked if she had a job. the protestor replied, "yes, i'm getting paid to protest"...in so many words.
i think what's more interesting is that you don't see any "people of color" who are actual citizens out there protesting. and i doubt any somalians or tren de aragua thugs held any midnight vigils for Renee Good....
instead, it's the most dangerous demographic in western civilization:
angry white liberal females.
i hate to even call them liberal as I am a classical liberal....whatever happened to them?
"Illiberal" really does seem to nail it. They're not "liberal" in any sense that I remember.
I went to grad school in Minnesota. Land of the Protest-Industrial Complex.
I arrived quite liberal (in the traditional sense) but left pretty conservative.
I still hold many traditional liberal views: I'd love to have a great educational system that provided a solid, quality education for "free" [sic: nothing is "free" of course, someone pays for it] as the social benefits are significant.
But the obsessive, self-hating is unhealthy.
While in Minnesota, I came up with a theory as to the source of the self-loathing.
Namely, I grew up in Chicago where the city's immigrant and industrial history were palpable.
When I got to Minnesota in the 1980's, the city was still very racially homogeneous and prosperous. But most of the people (young people in particular) had no connection to the source of this comfort. Most had never worked in a factory nor ever would and never worked on a farm or mill or mine nor ever would.
I'm no Marxist -- certainly in terms of economic theory -- but Marx was an insightful analyst.
Specifically, I think his theory of alienation can be used to explain a lot of what we see:
Namely, these "kids" have no idea where their comfort comes from, no idea as to the source or history that resulted in their comfortable existence.
Then, they are "told" about all the evils of "whiteness", "capitalism" and every other catch-all category and, being young and lazy and excitable (which many are, I'm certainly imperfect), they fall for this, wanting to be "cool" and part of the "in crowd".
So these forces have worked to create the modern illiberal.
There are plenty of receipts out there from numerous sources showing these people are being paid. The absurd part is this "reporter" said he "had not seen it" and then goes on to say it is "signage." It makes it the most riduculous that he says it is something that is meant to be seen.
Her actual words to Laura Ingraham were "Yes, I'm getting paid right now". So the 'fantasy' of these people NOT getting paid is purely laughable. This 'journalist' reporting for Matt is, in fact, laughable as well.
You are probably one of the few who believe that comment was sarcastic. These fools aren't intelligent enough to be sarcastic. But they are hysterical...in more ways than one.
Check out the videos from the Sunday church service disruption. Lots of people of color. Main organizer woman was with BLM and used to be the local president of the NAACP.
Agreed! I am doing the same. My subscription just ended , going MTM for now. Matt thinks his bias doesn't show but it does( IMO) he also doesn't do thorough research , vetting of topics. I feel like I am hearing a MSNOW story.
For now I will be here for Walter and see how it goes.
Slanted as in factual, right or left doesn't matter. If a subject matter is not fully researched, and presented as truth then it becomes propaganda -ish.
I have been a subscriber here for a long time, and contributed many comments and resources. I never fully trusted Matt, as I sensed he did not grasp what is going on under the surface of these scenarios. He does not understand or even think of the psychology here.
I tried to educate him. But it has not worked. He is becoming more blatantly leftwing. And the topics he writes about are becoming too limited for my tastes. I am off to greener pastures.
I think Mr. Fischer has gotten in front of his headlights. Protesters financial arrangements are not observable, and where they exist they are likely not readily disclosed in interviews.
As I write this (4:30 pm, 1/17/26) the air temperature in Minneapolis is 2 degrees F with windchill of -15 degrees F. Anyone out protesting is getting paid.
I grew up in northern Iowa not far from the Minnesota border, and I wouldn't use the weather as evidence. Yeah, it's cold but it's always cold during the winter there and anybody who has lived there for awhile is used to being out in it.
A benign view of the protest activities no? Calling them watchers? Where are they watching from? A lot of crowd control semi-violent defensive tactics by ICE repeatedly noted. What’s prompting that? Not my experience that law enforcement over reaches in the physicality department. The absence of any mention of weaponized chaos by the “watchers”? it’s evident that Ford is trying hard to come across as an unbiased observer. But he slips up far too many times in this one article alone to leave any doubt he’s anything but unbiased. Reading all the comments it’s also apparent he’s not fooling anyone.
I see that perspective about Matt. It’s not easy for some seeing the effects of strictly enforcing immigration laws left unenforced for years but I think the welfare of the country absolutely has to come first. Period. It’s come to that. This is the result of unfettered mass migration of maybe 8 million people or more over the past 4 years or more and absolutely no cooperation by local law enforcement which results in the only strategy available to the feds. Go out into the neighborhoods in force. And maybe they are going after anyone they can find now. I doubt that but even if true, the country is at stake here. It has to come first. Blaming the feds for the chaos involved in that and in long time undocumented aliens getting picked up makes no sense to me.
The very extreme long-term damage caused by all the post-war years of "liberal progressiveness" was meant to destroy the West. And it has come very close.
So now....it is going to take extreme measures to correct it. And I do not find this work by ICE agents as extreme as it could become. They are showing admirable restraint in what could easily be pushed into war-zone scenarios.
So, you like and agree with the coverage Fischer has contributed when it's benefited your side, but claim he's "biased" when it benefits the other side. Got it.
Speaking of leftwing activism, I suppose it goes without saying that the crazed masses of Pro-Hamas supporters were nowhere to be seen when Iranians took to the streets with amazing courage to throw out the Ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard.
Silence from all of the "But it's GENOCIDE!" people. Neither did the mobs of Western feminists speak up. It they hadn't given themselves away already about their true motivations, the Iranian Uprising and the ensuing Western leftwing complacency certainly did it.
Oops....the protesting Iranians had the wrong narrative, it seems. It was never actually about human rights.
The Western Left can only be roused when their narrative has an opening for a white-savior protagonist, where the heroic white ally helps the poor brown oppressed defeat those OTHER evil whites on their road to justice and liberation.
BLM, Hamas, migrants etc all follow this template: the innocent BIPOC is menaced by a white colonialist oppressor, who must be defeated by a coalition led by white allies blessed with superior levels of empathy and "critical consciousness". It is entirely an intra-Western performance designed to "raise awareness" of the activist class, who have no sense of identity or life purpose except BEING SEEN cosplaying the role of either the Underground Railroad, French Resistance or Civil Rights marcher.
If a country or event is a civil dispute between POCs or other people with high oppression scores, there's no place for their script and starring role and thus they have no interest. The narrative is so crucial that they even had to invent a "white" Israel, while the real Israel is multiracial and at least half Sephardic, not to mention the thousands of Ethiopians and 20% Arab citizentry.
But why let reality interfere with such a rich, fulfilling fantasy life?
Mamdani’s new equity czar had some interesting comments regarding white liberal women and their special type of racism.
“ Atta-Mensah appeared to take notice and hid her own social media past — which included retweeting or replying to at least three separate posts complaining about liberal white women, including one where she responded to somebody who wrote “we don’t talk about white liberal racism enough.”
“Facts! It would need to be a series of loooooonnnnnnnggggg conversations” Atta-Mensah replied.
She also reposted part of a thread from a post reading,”Who’s not police but FEELS like police to you?
“white women at nonprofit organizations,” read a reply Atta-Mensah reposted in September 2024”
But what she leaves out is how this is like S&M for AWFLs and how much they get off on being lashed with the whip of racial retribution by a black woman—especially by one named Afua Atta-Mensah, that's just a delicious cherry on top.
This crusade by guilt-ridden Western bourgeois women is meant to perform atonement, seek redemption and display how much more righteous they are than their political enemies. If they have to be verbally abused by a POC, it only provides a frisson of radical joy.
Their entire project is a post-religious psychodrama to find all the meaning, community and confessions of sin/guilt that religions provide. The Church of Social Justice is Christianity with Jesus replaced by a rotating cast of victimized POCs, who each get their turn on the cross. And the pews are packed!
My mother would have sneered that liberal women yell and carry on like Fishwives. Which was her way of saying that this is very low and vulgar behaviour.
I knew personally of activist organizers in Canadian cities over the past 20 years or so rounding up the local homeless and offering them $50 and a hot meal for pretending to be a protestor. It was common knowledge. The homeless guy who would regularly hit you up for "spare change" on the way to work would be the same guy you would see holding the "sign of the day" the next week in whatever protest came around.
I don't buy the perspective in this article on that point. I find Matt is leaning too far leftwing.
This entire situation could end if the mayor & governor would allow ICE into the jails to transfer custody of persons under arrest who are found to be illegal aliens.
I don't give a damn if the goofball mayor and Gov. Elmer Fudd don't like the law. Too damned bad if they don't like the law.
As another commenter ("Art") said, I'm skeptical that there's widespread support for the anti-government demonstrations.
The recent church invasion is absolutely beyond belief. I could only think of my elderly father, sitting at Mass, while the church was invaded by these obnoxious people. Not to mention the little kids huddled with their parents.
And Don Lemon? He's as much a grifter as the fraudsters.
Paid protestors - provide them with organization, food, signs. You don't need to stick a $20 in someone's pocket if you're amping them up to blame everyone else for all of their problems. Just keep filling their heads with Trump fascist no one is illegal sloganeering and make 'em a sandwich. These automatons will do the rest.
Oh, and pay no attention to the theft occurring in your own community. The stupidity of rioters can never been overstated.
Ford is correct. It's obvious that the protesters aren't being paid. If they were being paid, there would be more of them.
All of my following commentary is directed at Ford, not Matt.
1. Y'all are like the new Paparazzi.
2. Which one is it, Ford?
- People are too scared of being rounded up by ICE that they aren't going outside for any reason, not even to dine at a restaurant.
OR
- This kid that got stopped and picked up just happened to be recklessly walking around with papers that were in his house?
My opinion... People are reasonably afraid to go outside - some are afraid of ICE and some are afraid of getting boxed in by the chaos. It's more than likely that the kid didn't have papers on him because he doesn't have papers.
If you want to say protesters are lower in numbers because of the freezing temperatures, fine. Just admit that might also be the reason people aren't going to restaurants.
3. I've followed Ford's channel and videos for at least 5 years if not more. What I despise more than anything is a person who actually CLAIMS to be unbiased, but in truth is lying about it. That's my opinion of Ford. I was way more libertarian in my views toward police 5 years ago. Even when the GF protests started, I believed law enforcement or 'black bloc' provocateurs were responsible. It was gradually chipped away by the Left's lunacy. When Charlie was assassinated, there was nothing left.
4. Unless I missed the article, I have no doubt Matt will cover the Don Lemon trespassing incident, and the 6 incidents I've seen over the weekend of mostly Minneapolis residents being stalked and attacked by what normal people would refer to as Lunatics, which are unfortunately their fellow neighbors. Even a group of engineers couldn't venture out for lunch on a Friday without being screamed at and accused of being undercover ICE agents. Maybe THAT's why restaurants are hurting? Whatever Minneapolis suffers over the next weeks and months, they brought it on themselves.
"but the consensus among people here is that people of color are inherently at risk regardless of status"
Oh noes.....
The anti-ICE leftists are doing exactly what they claim ICE is doing:
Profiling people, harassing them, demanding that you identify yourself, etc.
What you're seeing now was the goal of letting all these illegals in. As disgusting as Ds have been for years you have to give it to them for setting up conditions of chaos as a political weapon.
The violence was the goal. And then label anyone who is a law abiding citizen, who pushes back, as a bigot or racist.
So friggin' obvious.
Actually, they would have been disappointed not to have had a major drama like the Renee Good shooting. Same as the George Floyd situation. These unfortunate events add fuel to the fire for the leftwing activists in a way that looks like the fault of the authorities; they can pretend to justify their pushback through raising one of their own to martyrdom status. They have zero compassion for the person involved -- just another welcome tool they can weaponize for their cause.
Let no crisis (real or ginned up) go to waste
They promote this because it's used for their propaganda machine. Someone gets killed? Wow! Great for the Democrat cause!! First, they open the borders to all kinds of vermin. Then they won't cooperate with government agencies to deport them. Lastly, they use incendiary language to encourage the population to rise up and create a dangerous and chaotic situation while these "leaders" pretend it's all the fault of the "other guy"!!!
Yes, indeed, Carol. This is one big manipulation stunt they are pulling. As they wail through their predictable street theatre. A few deaths? No problem....plays well for the cause.
But it only works if ICE and DHS and DOJ and Trump play into it and cross the line and do something illegal. Yes it’s not fair that WE have to be perfect, but if we want to win the long game, we HAVE TO BE perfect! Trump & his administration is blowing this.
MAGA can love this, but it’s not MAGA that swings elections IT’S THE MIDDLE.
If we are as bad as they as WE LOSE! You can not like these truths as much as you want but it won’t change the fact that ICE’s, DOGE’s, Trump’s tactics to accomplish our goals is driving the middle away from us.
George Floyd’s murder was much more than an “unfortunate event” and it most certainly was “the fault of the authorities” that Floyd died. If it wasn’t for Darnella Frazier continuously recording video for 10 minutes showing that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for over 9 minutes straight the later false claim by police that Floyd died due to a medical issue would have been believed.
As for protestors having “zero compassion for the person involved” — that is completely false. Millions of Americans as well as many others are sympathetic to the plight of victims of state violence in the United States.
You know, if Floyd hadn't resisted, the day would have ended with him going home that evening. He turned it into the death-by-cop FUBAR.
Drug induced fubar
But good government doesn’t kill a person for resisting as George Floyd did.
Neither should Ms Good have been shot. SHE WAS WRONG! But our standard procedures shouldn’t get her shot in spite of how awful, arrogant, and stupid she was - she hit the gas with a law enforcer standing 3 ft in front of her pointing a gun at her. She asked for it but she didn’t deserve it.
Personally I’m not seeing “protests “. I am seeing people interfering with federal law enforcement. As Matt said so eloquently when interviewed; these same tactics were employed by ICE in the Obama administration. CNN actually did a ride a long with ICE agents and were supportive.
No, those "same tactics" were not widely employed by ICE under Obama. Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has the most comprehensive public database of immigration enforcement. During the last year of Obama's presidency, TRAC says approximately 1,250 people were detained and deported by ICE each week. Only a small percentage of those arrests, however, was the result of ICE raids. Instead, most of those estimated weekly 1,250 ICE apprehensions happened when ICE assumed custody of individuals held by another law enforcement agency.
五毛 Alert!
Before it was taken down I watched video of Floyd standing vertical next to the police car agitated and saying he couldn't breath. I saw video of Chauvin restraining him by applying pressure to the side of his neck not lyranix. His autopsy showed no damage to his lyranix and a lethal dose of fetynal in his system. The autopsy used in court was from a physician hired by the family who did not even examin the body. The whole racist cop narrative was a manufactured lie.
Dick Minnis
removingthecataract.substack.com
Nope. The Hennepin County medical examiner stated that the fentanyl concentration in George Floyd could have been fatal for someone with no tolerance but a forensic toxicologist as well as Floyd's girlfriend stated that Floyd had a high tolerance to opioids and therefore the medical examiner concluded that the fentanyl in Floyd's system did not cause his death.
The lack of damage to Floyd's larynx is irrelevant. While Floyd's autopsy did not show physical signs of strangulation, medical experts testified that Floyd died of positional asphyxia — a lack of oxygen caused by the compression of his back and neck, rather than direct damage to Floyd's throat structure.
Your claim that "the autopsy used in court was from a physician hired by the family who did not even examine the body" is false. Floyd's family hired two doctors, Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson, to perform a second, independent autopsy which they did. Both doctors testified that they did conduct a physical examination of Floyd’s body.
Your other claim about "the whole racist cop narrative" is also false. Derek Chauvin was never accused of being racist by the prosecution.
The documentary feature "The Fall of Minneapolis" and its follow-up shorter documentary reveals that (a) Chauvin was using an approved technique that involved placing his knee on Floyd's shoulder adjacent to his neck. At one point, his knee slipped and was indeed on Floyd's neck, but not for long. (b) Floyd started saying "I can't breathe" long before Chauvin restrained him, probably because he had "hooped" fentanyl earier. The original autopsy showed no signs of death by airflow restriction. Floyd accidentally killed himself by overdose.
The documentary also reveals something that has been confirmed over and over. The Minneapolis show trial withheld vital exculpatory evidence and featured several witnesses for the prosecution committing perjury.
The followup documentary shows Floyd being stopped by police a year earlier and using exactly the same language and behavior he used in the Minneapolis incident -- he faked fear and submission to trick the officers and throw them off guard.
Another fact. Chauvin and co-workers called for an ambulance, but the ambulance driver went to the wrong address --- through no fault of Chauvin. The lengthy delay likely cost Floyd his life.
Anyone who's worked with drug addicts can spot a classic career criminal like Floyd a mile away. A vicious bully who terrified a pregnant woman by pointing a gun at her uterus, a whining, simpering pussycat when arrested on the day he died.
The claim that Chauvin placed only one of his knees on Floyd and that Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's shoulder most of the time and not on Floyd's neck is false. Chauvin placed both his knees on Floyd. Chauvin placed his left knee on George Floyd's neck and his right knee on Floyd's back/shoulder area for most of the restraint period. Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist who specializes in the mechanics and physics of breathing, testified that Floyd died from a “low level of oxygen” that led to brain damage and an arrhythmia that “caused his heart to stop.” Dr. Tobin said that video showed that Chauvin’s left knee was on Floyd’s neck “more than 90% of the time" while Chauvin's right knee was on Floyd’s back/shoulder area at least 57% of the time. Dr. Tobin said that for the rest of the time, the available video did not provide a good view of the exact location of Chauvin’s right knee.
If there hadn’t been a massive propaganda campaign immediately followed by nationwide op, the accurate statement that he died due to a medical issue would have been believed.
can’t suffocate a person with pressure to the side of the neck without breaking something. Nothing was broken. Dude was dying in the store before the cops ever showed up. Dying in his vehicle. Video is there. That dude died from fentanyl poisoning. Everybody knows that; the coroner report had it in writing.
Straight propaganda, helo.
That is false. A person can be suffocated by pressure to the side of the neck without breaking any bones or damaging organs such as the trachea or larynx. The death of George Floyd was officially ruled a homicide by neck compression which caused asphyxiation.
Your other claim that Floyd was "dying in the store before the cops ever showed up. Dying in his vehicle" is also false. Floyd was conscious and alert the entire time he was in the store and in his car.
Your final claim about "fentanyl poisoning" is also false. The coroner's report said the amount of fentanyl in Floyd's system would have killed someone with no tolerance but Floyd had a high tolerance to fentanyl since he was a regular user of opioids. The forensic toxicologist Dr. Daniel Isenschmid testified that the level of fentanyl found in Floyd's system was consistent with someone who had developed a high tolerance to opioids. Dr. Isenschmid explained that the 11 ng/mL of fentanyl in Floyd's system, combined with the presence of its metabolite (norfentanyl), showed that a significant amount had been broken down, indicating Floyd was a chronic user with a high tolerance to fentanyl.
Watch "The Fall of Minneapolis". Very detailed convincing overview of what really happened. It wasn't what the mainstream media wanted us to know.
There was a very detailed convincing takedown of the "The Fall of Minneapolis" on Medium that you should read. Link is below.
https://medium.com/@willemedia/the-fall-of-minneapolis-is-full-of-shameless-lies-d4c36d3ec86c
Oh yes. And they frequently create fake scenarios just to add more ‘human atrocity’ to their list. If these activists could tell the truth when they are screaming about how lives matter, they would have more credibility. No they are looking to add fuel for more protest and disruption which is the primary aim.
Tactics similar to these were given in detail in the 1971 leftwing classic, "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinksy.
You mean Obama's bible?
Tactics such as these can also be found described in the recent PhD thesis of Dr. Karen Mitchell of Australia. Her topic was the Dark Triad Personalities of High-functioning Human Predators.
Matt and Walter should do some homework and read it.
https://kalmor.com.au/media
Well....Considering that I identify humans as belonging to the animal species with the same attributes, I will surely find it repetitive or supportive of my observations of the human species.
Everything goes back to the mother...or, in the case of the father, his mother...keep walking it back to the beginning of the dysfunctional chain...everything goes back to the mother...the nurturer...
Yeah, this is such a silly accusation. If ICE is looking for a Venezuelan or Salvadorian illegal alien, they will look for someone who looks like a Venezuelan or Salvadorian native. Highly unlikely that they would be looking for blond, blue-eyed, Nordic Lutheran person.
That certainly makes sense, doesn't it. But the words "racially profiling"are so much more incendiary.
Also "Many people are afraid to go outside, fearing interaction with ICE regardless of immigration status or any kind of related conflict." This is insane!
I've done my own research to figure out how ICE operates (no, they don't stop people on streets and don't arrest kids, although, they might've picked up a victim of trafficking or somebody whose parents got arrested). The civil division of ICE responsible for regular deportations is called Enforcement and Removal Operations. They wear vests saying "ERO" but this video compilation doesn't show a single one of them. Instead, it's full of various "police" vests, i.e. criminal enforcement, including HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) with vests saying "ICE police" and various deputized federal agencies like CBP, HSA and even Bureau of Prisons. Those can actually arrest protestors for impeding ICE work as it's an immigration crime. The media and government officials in Minnesota should've told people to stop worrying and impeding immigration operations, but they're doing the opposite, spreading propaganda and insane fear mongering. Local police could've helped to manage the crowds but they're not at the scene. No wonder there are riots in Minneapolis, I wouldn't call them protests at this point.
Or maybe it looks like ICE is randomly targeting black people and brown people who resemble the illegal immigrants for whom they're searching.
Ford gives the impression he’s not entirely neutral. And I’m skeptical that Minnesotans are as united in their opposition to the American government enforcing an overwhelmingly popular mandate to repatriate illegals as he implies. Maybe it’s because he’s sampling mostly lunatics with whistles, but it seems unlikely the entire state is as crazy as the protesters. Perhaps the normies as staying inside for fear of the mostly peaceful protesters, having prior experience with the species.
Ford is by no means neutral! His description of having to leave dinner for "another shooting" leaves out the fact that during a targeted stop(targeted as in court order) the person fled, ran into his domicile, where he and 2 others came out to attack with shovels and a broom handle. The "targeted" person was shot in the leg by the FBI/LEO. He also leaves out that the vehicle was torn apart by the "mostly peaceful" rioters , paperwork and a gun locker was stolen.
I agree with your assessment, Art. Minnesota is simply being Minnesota. The Black Lives Matter riots have morphed into lunacy on display. And look at who they elect as their leaders.
The BLM movement resulted in real change such as:
1) Use of force restrictions — chokeholds banned, de-escalation mandated
2) Body camera requirements — video evidence is now available
3) Duty to intervene — officers must intervene when colleagues use excessive force
4) Records transparency — police disciplinary records are no longer private
5) Increased oversight — federal oversight in problematic cities such as Ferguson, Louisville, Memphis, Minneapolis and New Orleans.
It also resulted in many family businesses bankrupted and mansions for BLM leaders
Keep dreaming. Federal oversight is precisely the point. Body cams are a window into miscreant behavior by criminals. So I'll give those to you. But we all know about the 'peaceful protests' of BLM. And the grift created by the Marxist BLM leaders. But of course, you don't want to discuss that, do you?
You made the claim that the BLM movement was "lunacy". I refuted that by listing 5 different changes resulting from the BLM movement that have improved policing in America.
As for body cams being "a window into miscreant behavior by criminals" — body cams are also a window into the despicable actions of some police officers.
That’s like saying 9/11 had a good side because they X-ray all luggage at airports now
Not in Louisville. The Biden DOJ tried to ram through a consent decree as the rats were scurrying off the ship but it was blocked and then dropped by the Trump DOJ. We still have effective policing (as much as the Democrats running the city will allow)
The Louisville Metro Police Department agreed to the consent decree with Biden's DOJ but a Trump-appointed judge dragged his feet on approving it until Trump's DOJ declined to support the decree. The feds under Biden did perform oversight that identified numerous problems with the Louisville police force that resulted in the agreed upon decree. After Trump's DOJ decided to not support the consent decree, the Louisville mayor and police chief implemented their own plan called “Community Commitment" that includes most of the same reforms that were in the original consent decree. Your claim that Louisville has always had "effective policing" is false. Multiple investigations of the Louisville police found racial discrimination, excessive force and illegal searches were common. One egregious example was the affidavit for the no-knock warrant, prepared by Detective Joshua Jaynes and approved by Sgt. Kyle Meany, that falsely claimed that a U.S. postal inspector had verified a suspected drug dealer (Taylor's ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover) was receiving suspicious packages at Taylor's home.
Could it be also that his job, his career, his everyday work environment, depends entirely on his being able to be close to the protesters? That if he is very cognizant of the fact that if he develops any sort of an identity as one who is in any form critical of anything they do, that he will be an easy target, because he's right there? We've seen how these mobs behave, what they are capable of. If FF is identified as being "on the other side" not "one of them", then his profession, his career, is over.
So he should report BS because he needs a job?
Not what I said
Ok. Can you please clarify?
This sounds like the excuse of every hack reporter ever.
The world overflows with pr friendly influencers.
IMO That would still make him not neutral. Safer. Saner. But not neutral
Sounds exactly how another fringe group, Auntiflo treats journalists like Andy Ngo.
And potentially his personal safety
It's typically a small percent of ignoramuses behaving this way while the rest of the people just want them to shut up and leave.
Only state not to vote for Reagan in 1984? Minnesota.
Walter Mondale of Minnesota was the D candidate.
That likely took the air out of whatever conspiracy-minded thought drove the 1984 point.
Perhaps Ford is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome in part.
normal life in the western suburbs. most people rolling their eyes at the crazy
I also agree. Renee Good and her partner were spending their days following and interfering with ICE agents. How do they live if they're not getting paid?!! I see no real likelihood that they are independently wealthy.
I suppose they could be on welfare, but that would just mean they are getting paid by the state -- and maybe federal gpvernment -- to protest. Even better, Laura Ingram actually got one of the protesters in Minni to admit ON CAMERA that she was getting paid to protest!! Sorry, but that kind of seals the deal.
I guess we all know now that she didn't have a wife at all. Apparently the $1.5M gofundme is going to be fought over by her parents, her kids, and her 'partner.'
and Ice Watch benefited from training a person of small intellect to get herself killed.
That's why they're recruiting women. It looks worse for LEOs. Very HAMAS Operating technique--women and children first.
btw, the Inflation Production* Act, as I've read, included provision to pay NGOs to fund and organize protests.
Make it make sense.
________________
*My opinion of the correct spelling for that Act
One person says on camera she's getting paid to protest, and that's all the evidence you need?
Yes! There’s almost no scenario in which some entity or person singles out 1 person and pays that 1 person to go protest. That makes absolutely no sense!! The point of paying protesters is to obtain a large group of people, which signifies popular support for whatever cause de jour. Paying 1 protester to go protest does not a protest make; that’s why there are actual businesses who hire large number of people to create crowds. On fact, one of those businesses has been very public in saying that it will not provide its employees to the types of protests occurring in Minniapolis. Laura Ingram, who is not really one of my favorite talking-heads, was absolutely right to crow about getting one of the Minniapolis protesters to admit to being paid to protest. That admission proved that these protests are largely a sham.
That and the fact that there usually seem to be mass produced signs and the protestors being equipped with masks and megaphones and other loud-protest-only type equipment seems evidence of a paid job.
One of our gigs inside a nice hotel was crashed by crazy Hamasholes one night. They all had the same stuff. and, also, out came the $50 bill that DSA rioters give to those who's jobs they eff up (including cab drivers and musicians) that they think make it all okay. It's SOP and a sign that these privileged jerks have no idea that those who actually work deserve dignity.
Who is paying the protestors? Where are the records of payments?
Indeed, "Many people are afraid to go outside, fearing interaction with ICE regardless of immigration status or any kind of related conflict" doesn't make sense. Unless they don't want to be harassed in restaurants by the mostly peaceful protestors.
exactly. Why I'm sure no one wants to go to Minnesota to go cross country skiing or anything anymore.
Yeah, Ford is there, actually talking to citizens of Minneapolis, but I'm sure you're right.
Talking to all 429,954 of them? Especially those who are afraid to go outside. But I'm sure you're right.
My point, Julia, is that he is there talking to people who live there. You are sitting at home typing on a laptop or your phone, just like me.
Based on that simple fact alone, he has more credibility than you. Or me.
A lot of those people travel to protest so they can have fun offing around and get paid and feel like freedom fighters. So, at least some of them he's talking to aren't Minnesotans. I'm sure not all Minnesotans are that demented.
The "popular mandate" was billed by the Trump administration as going after the worst of the worst — not students, construction workers, janitors, stay-at-home moms, etc. But ICE is going after just such immigrants who have committed no crimes (not to mention black and brown American citizens). It's not surprising that many Minnesotans are opposed to these actions by ICE.
Ford is on the ground where these protests are happening and his observation that he sees different people, rather than the same people, at all the protests indicates that the protestors are not paid and are rather local folks who emerge from their homes when they receive an alert on their phones or hear whistles indicating that ICE is nearby.
You are mistaken. We voted to remove ALL illegals. And that's what he promised.
If you don’t like the current situation then you can thank autopen for letting in 11 mil illegals...in order to set up the circumstances you're now seeing.
Anyone in the country illegally, has committed a crime. Working without a "green card" is a violation of the law.
Trump said he'd remove the illegal aliens and that's what he's doing now.
Another way to stop this madness is to go after the employers who are paying the people who are working without authorization. I'm certain we'll discover lots of ID theft.
Again, Trump said he would remove "the worst of the worst" — he never said "all the illegal aliens."
As for "the employers" — Trump is one of them. He employed 200 undocumented workers at the construction site of Trump Tower in NYC. Trump also employed numerous undocumented folks at his golf clubs in Bedminster, NJ, Pine Hill, NJ and Westchester, NY as well as the Trump Winery in Virginia.
You are absolutely right that the way to address this is to go after the employers. When a few corporate VPs and plant managers go on trial, behavior will change.
But like all societal issues, we think we can solve them only by going after the supply side (see also: drugs, abortions) vs. trying to reduce demand.
Nope. On the DHS website at https://www.dhs.gov/making-america-safe-again it says “the hardworking men and women of DHS are fulfilling President Trump’s promise to Make America Safe Again by removing violent criminal illegal aliens.” It does not say “all illegals” as you claim.
BTW, I'm not certain he'll deport of all them, whether its just Trump being Trump or if its simply impossible given the scale of the operation.
What i want accomplished is a HARD lesson for this country on the consequences of allowing open borders.
Its hard to believe people are even debating this. We're either a nation under the rule of law, or we're a banana republic.
The seen, and the unseen.
You choose.
Dude, that's political rhetoric. Of course he says that for a reason.
Plus it just makes sense to go after the violent ones first. That's what they're doing. Few eggs.....sorry. man up and live with it..
I’d like to see actual documentation of those misdeeds. Also I’ve seen plenty of protestors bragging on video that they get paid
so, it's a proven fact that it is not possible for construction workers and janitors to break laws?
While Minnesotans may be united or not on enforcing immigration laws, they may not like it being done in a manner that reminds of them of a military invasion or occupation.
Mostly the street-level protestors get "mutual aid" donations from like-minded people across the country, but at a higher level, somebody's paying for the professional signage and whatnot.
One company, "Crowds on Demand" (their actual name!!!) said they would not work with ICE Watch, the activist group that Renee Good belonged to:
https://crowdsondemand.com/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/red-flags-expose-paid-agitators-violent-anti-ice-riots-ceo-says
https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/01/the-problem-isnt-ice-its-ice-watch/
Oh they are well-financed for sure. NYC is next - and is preparing now: https://open.substack.com/pub/andmagazine/p/they-are-getting-ready-to-burn-new?r=1o2l6&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
Just in time for a new pro-migrant, progressive archbishop of New York to be installed. It’s a powerful position, no matter one’s views on religion or Catholicism. The left will use this to claim the moral high ground.
Exactly. In a world of performative social media and gofundme--donations are getting paid.
An OnlyFans performer who says they can't do 'certain acts" until they get 50K in donations for "certain tools and implements" is not only getting paid--but understands the dance.
It's especially silly when Ford is shaking the same tree.
Here is the gofundme of the nutjob who was at the Don Lemon Party church occupation and has been harassing people at Hegseth's church.
This is exactly how the game is played.
I seriously doubt Ford hasn't figured this out yet.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-to-continue-agitating-the-nazis
It’s real simple. Respect the laws of your own country.
Don’t defend fraud.
Was the child who was detained and driven off in a van in front of his own home respecting the laws of his country? You people are sick
Estimates are that some 10 million people illegally entered the US as a result of the active abrogation of responsibility by the OBiden administration.
Correcting this egregious flouting of immigration law will require extraordinary measures.
Sadly, it is almost certain that some mistakes will occur. There is no human activity, certainly at this scale and with this level of urgency, that wouldn't involve errors.
But just stating without reference "the child who was detained and driven off in a van in front of his own home" is neither useful nor pertinent.
What child? Where? Who took this child? Where did they take the child? How do you know of this incident?
And, even assuming you've mentioned something that actually occurred, what percentage does this represent as regards the interactions and efforts by ICE?
Name-calling further deprecates the value of your comment.
What occurred under the OBiden administration was a national crime. A crime against the nation. It was conducted actively and represents one of the most, if not the most, cynical and callous attack on the integrity of the United States in history.
Any correction of this travesty has to be at scale and because of the scale of the OBiden illegal immigration invasion, it's going to be a mess.
But it was a mess created purposefully by the OBiden administration.
I think "sick" applies to the people who created this disaster more than anyone.
The event occurred in the video and was mentioned in the article. That’s why I referenced it. And I’m sorry, but it is sick to dehumanize people just for leaving deplorable conditions and moving hoping to find a better life.
It’s also sick to have no concern for the systematic rights violations and harassment of ordinary people that is happening and of necessity will happen if the goal is to roundup every last undocumented person.
We can debate the competing values of openness to outsiders and social cohesion. We can debate the proper number of visas or asylum to grant. What we cannot do, and what I have been shouting endlessly, is disregard our sacred constitutional rights to not carry papers, to not be subject to warrantless searches. THAT is what I’m outraged about. Not immigration enforcement.1
Do you believe that when a local police department discovers that a person they have arrested is illegally in the country they should turn that person over to federal immigration authorities? Most of this nonsense would end if they would.
Fair enough -- thank you for your reply.
I hope I'm not repeating myself (at least not too much) but the situation is extreme because of the previous administration which created a massive problem that cannot be ignored and must be addressed.
Okay, then what to do?
Clearly, the government has to move quickly or otherwise people who are the subject of the apprehension will get advance notice and take evasive action. Swift action by the government will almost certainly result in non-camera friendly footage.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I went to grad school in Minnesota and lived in various locations in the Twin Cities. Protesting is a self-fulfilling end for that culture. The "issue" is irrelevant, the "issue" is merely an excuse to have a "protest". I watched it for years and it resulted in my no longer identifying as a liberal (despite still holding what I think are many traditional liberal beliefs).
The point here is that virtue-signaling of the "protesters" [sic] only confounds the matter and really brings no useful value. It is theater and I do not respect it. I observed these antics for too long to give them credibility.
They are endangering themselves -- tragically, as in the case of Renee Good -- and of the officers who are executing laws passed by democratically elected representatives to Congress.
The warrantless search issue is tricky, I'll grant you that. I'm not an attorney nor a legal expert, but I believe police actions do not require a warrant when a crime is in progress. If someone is harboring (or employing or whatever) illegal immigrants, that's a crime in progress.
The matter of "carrying papers" seems to be getting blown way out of proportion. I'm in Chicago where there were large-scale ICE operations (which also garnered the photo-hound protest shenanigans) and I also happen to know lots of Mexican Americans. Not one has ever expressed to me any concern for need to "carry papers".
The tragic edge cases also include those people brought to this country (illegally) as children who have never known any other country. That is a vexing problem to which I do not have an answer. But the simple truth is that the person is not here legally.
The abuse of our immigration system by the OBiden administration was nothing short of criminal. I seriously do not think this was done out of compassion or out of any concern for the well-being of any of the illegal immigrants...and certainly without any concern as to how it would effect the country. It was callous, cynical and entirely calculated.
Correcting that enormous breach of law (i.e., as written in the Constitution) is an incredibly difficult task, both in terms of scale and individual detail.
These so-called protesters are simply making a very difficult situation much worse with their selfish, self-centered, street-theater antics. Their antics only put more pressure on immigration enforcement which, I would claim, only makes the likelihood of "negative outcomes" greater.
But this problem has to be addressed. I wish there had been this much outcry when the crime was being committed by the OBiden administration so that we might have avoided having to correct matters afterward.
But I respect your concerns. I just think we've got a colossal mess that we have to address and it's not going to be pleasant even with extreme care taken.
Trouble is, the illegal immigrants expect other people to take care of them, at their expense. They never consider what they are doing to the countries and culture and people who are forced to host them.
They are not being "dehumanized."
We cannot take in the entire third world. I'm sorry, but we just can't.
Rest easy -- there is no way we will ever return all of the illegal immigrants. Ideally, more of them will opt to self-deport, but most will remain here, helping increase housing costs, and decrease wages for the working class -- all while you pat yourself on the back for being so kind-hearted.
Being a retarded cunt is not something to be rapid of
Yes. An arrest by law enforcement, although extremely inconvenient, is not an illegal siezure. SCOTUS in Graham v. Connor — 1989. And it was a unanimous decision.
We'd have to know what the child's country is, before we can tell if he's respecting its laws. 😉
And that's exactly what the ICE officers were asking him! Sounds like you agree with them!
Was it a legal arrest or detention? If it was, then it is immaterial what you pretend to think about it.
Watch the video and draw your own conclusions. If standing outside your own home and not having ID is grounds for arrest, then we live in a police state
The Alien Registration Act, passed in 1940, requires aliens to be registered. Since April of this year, a Trump executive order requires that aliens carry their green cards/visas on their persons at all time.
While I think that's perhaps excessive, what I think doesn't change the law. And to the extent it is excessive, that's a reaction to four years of Biden intentionally not enforcing laws.
One issue in this matter is also frequency and scale.
How often has this happened? Out of how many interactions.
During the substantial immigration enforcement here in Chicago, there was much protest and complaint (notably by local news outlets I suspect of having NGO-or-other ties...as I simply don't see how they survive financially).
After the enforcement action concluded, there was much self-congratulatory talk and articles of "how ICE affected Chicago". But suddenly all the stories of people being apprehended ended. No follow up. Were they all let go? What happened to them?
The point being, the hysteria is clearly being manufactured by parties that want illegal immigration. There are plenty of plausible motivating interests (e.g., cheap labor, cheap votes, etc.).
What is clear is that video can be used to highlight a particular case and suggest an extrapolation that is not accurate.
There is a massive effort underway to address the egregious violations committed by the OBiden administration. This is a huge undertaking, is full of risk for the agents involved, and will almost certainly involve mistakes.
Everything involves mistakes and failures. A real question is, what is tolerable? And by tolerable I don't mean that anyone likes it. But these considerations are routine -- in product safety and elsewhere.
My point is that obsessing on particular examples can be inappropriate and inaccurate. Of the apparently-now-millions of interactions of ICE agents performing their job, how many have been mistakes?
In a quasi-Hegelian sense (I think the attribution is accurate) what we are dealing with is essentially a matter of quantity (scale) also being pertinent to quality: namely, isolated incidents of mistakes or of people being asked for identification are putatively not the same as being in a "police state".
It's a rotten situation, I'll certainly give you that, but it was one that was purposefully created by the OBiden administration. Where's the outrage over the original crime? The original crime (i.e., by the OBiden administration) is what created the environment we find ourselves in.
There is no way to know what's going on just by watching a video.
What video?
You don't want to argue this one. The video does not show the officers in a very good light. Grabbing the kid because he didn't have ID on him? Not a good look.
I'm sure there's some logic to the "can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs," but when someone points out one of the ugly examples of eggs breaking, don't argue the point.
I asked him a simple question, which he didn’t answer.
“Was it a legal arrest or detention? If it was, then it is immaterial what you pretend to think about it.”
We don’t know from the video whether it was lawful or not, and we all know by now we can’t depend on the media for any truths, such as whether he was detained for no ID, or for some other reason.
If you care to answer it, go ahead.
I admit it looks bad, but we only got one side of the story here. It would have been more interesting and humane if the reporter would have knocked on the door and asked, then if he did have proper documentation, show it to ICE and give the kid a ride back home.
I don’t this this reporter is interested in seeking truth.
Showing identification to ICE has been proven to not help. ICE agents have been captured on video time and again saying "That ID looks fake!" before hauling folks away. That's why ICE agents now slap the phones out of people's hands whenever they are close enough to record the agents' voices.
You might be the dumbest person alive
> I have absolutely seen vehicles left on the street in a way that inadvertently has this effect [of blocking agents]
Wait, how does Ford Fischer know whether leaving the vehicles was intentional or "inadvertent"?
Did he interview the empty cars, or is he making an assumption?
Is Ford reporting facts, or just sharing his opinion? The *fact* is the vehicles were abandoned; the absent drivers' motivations are guessed at by Ford.
And strictly speaking, of course it's not inadvertent: every vehicle left blocking the street was left because the driver parked it there and got out, not because some act of God teleported the driver away.
The cars were left, either to intentionally block the street, or...
...because the driver felt rushing to the protest was more important than finding a safe and legal place to park.
Which is the arrogance of the Left that's behind all of this: the Left thinks that laws can be flouted in the name of "Social Justice". According to the law-nullification Left, "undocumented migrants" can illegally enter the United States, because that's the greater good, Federal law enforcement can be impeded or even attacked, because illegal immigrants shouldn't be deported, and so of course cars can be parked blocking streets in order to not waste protest time finding parking. Or, to block law enforcement.
The protesters think they're above the law, because they believe their cause is just, even as they flout the laws supported by a majority of Americans and passed by a democratically elected Congress.
It's pure tantrum-throwing arrogance: "I'm a protester on a holy mission, I can abandon my car anywhere that's convenient!"
Critical thinking- how refreshing!😉
FF "For protesters and agents, this is a chaotic environment, but one they’ve elected to end up in."
Interesting use of the words "elected to end up in"
The ICE agents are there because they have a job to do. They cannot do it if they are not there. The protesters on the other hand do not have to be there. They choose to be there. I get it that FF and Matt want to be as neutral as possible. To not take a side in this dispute. But that can be done while still being more honest about who is acting and who is reacting, without say who they believe is right or wrong. It should be allowable, without taking a side, for both Matt and FF to clarify that one group is enforcing federal law and one group is interfering with the execution of federal law. They seem to both go to extremes to avoid this important fact.
They also choose to ignore the main point: the stupendous levels of fraud that has been committed by the same people that are being arrested.
And those criminals are now being defended by the protesters .
Neutrality to a degree of absurdity
"one group is enforcing federal law..." Um, no, ICE is violating the rights of Americans on a regular basis by: 1) hauling citizens away on the pretext that their IDs are fake when their IDs are in fact real, 2) blocking traffic and then busting the windows of drivers who honk or get caught in the roadblock and then hauling those drivers out of their cars, 3) denying lawyers access to detainees, 4) performing unreasonable searches and seizures and 5) attempting to shut down peaceful protests.
"The ICE agents are there because they have a job to do... The protesters on the other hand do not have to be there..." Um, no, the Minneapolis protestors live there. The ICE agents do not. The ICE agents do not have to be roaming neighborhoods lobbing tear gas and flash bang grenades at protestors while terrorizing every person of color who crosses their path.
Protesting against government overreach is how America was founded. What ICE is doing is overreach. What the protestors are doing is in the proud tradition of the founders of the United States.
It seems your report differs markedly from others I have seen on the ground. You don’t even mention the protesters barging into the church and verbally assaulting the pastor and worshippers and you barely touched on Frey calling people to go out and put their bodies on the line. Further, the city is crawling with radical left wing organizations and experienced, professional activists like BLM. The twin cities have been completely taken over by revolutionaries. That is the reality.
Good grief. Nobody "broke into the church." The protestors walked into the church during a service when it was open to the public. Frey is not asking "people to go out and put their bodies on the line." Frey specifically said folks who choose to protest should remain peaceful and request Minneapolis police to intervene if they witness ICE officers breaking the law. As for what the city is "crawling with" — it's crawling with ICE and Border Patrol agents. That is the reality.
Don Lemon went with these terrorists and he is being looked at for violations of several laws. Just because the doors weren't locked doesn't mean you have the right to walk in and take over. Can you go to a bar and grab the mic from the band and do your own thing? Can you go in a restaurant and enter the kitchen and mess with cooks??
Other than trespassing at the invitation of 40 or 50 FBI plants in the crowd, not much of anything. They were unarmed. Ashley Babbit, an unarmed military veteran, was shot and killed by a capital
Policeman. That was the biggest crime of the day. For that, he was promoted.
The Trump administration targets anyone who disagrees with it so the fact that Don Lemon is "being looked at for violations" is not surprising. Letitia James, Jerome Powell, James Comey, Mark Kelly, Lisa Cook, Sean Dunn, John Brennan, and Adam Schiff have also been "looked at".
As if the Biden admin didn't target 1000s of J6ers, hundreds of lawyers, moms at school board meetings, Catholics......the fact that Trump promised to drain the swamp meant yes, his admin would look at ACTUAL criminals. Fauci should be on that list too. And Lemon violated the KKK law, the FACE Act plus other federal laws if he used mail or other federal services conspiring to attack the church
They had to be “looked at” and thoroughly investigated. Comey, Brennan and Schiff committed high crimes and completely fabricated the Russiagate hoax as directed by Obama in their attempted coup to oust Trump. This is all available for public consumption in Gabbard’s declassified release of documents. James ran her campaign on indicting Trump in a public threatening run looking for a crime. She partnered with her boyfriend to involve him in the plot for which she was removed from her position and frankly, is a haughty, leftie lunatic.
Equal justice under the law. The FACE Act is relevant- Lemon et al should have known that.
Having a five cent whore for a mother really affected you
Don Lemon accompanied a bunch of loud-mouthed protesters into a house of worship during worship services, and proceeded to badger the minister, after the protesters disrupted services and terrified church members.
If Alex Jones led a bunch of Proud Boys into a black church during a worship service and started badgering the pastor, would you have the same reaction?
Disingenous comments like your's are the reason why Substack needs a dislike option. So other's don't have to waste time reading fallacious BS.
That church is private property and were holding a worship service open to anyone who wanted to join in their sermony. It was not open to the rioters who came in to distrupt and terrorize the members.
Talk about "disingenuous comments" — the protestors were hardly "rioters". They entered the church for a brief period of time, chanted "ICE out" and "Renee Good" and then left before the police even arrived.
They left 'before the police even arrived' because the police are slow walking everything involving the rioters.
Sure.
Nothing wrong with that.
Would you be so accepting if Tucker Carlson led a bunch of Oath Keepers into a black church service to chant something, before Tucker badgered the minister?
I highly doubt it.
Suck a tailpipe cunt
I second that. If you find somebody too annoying I was able to find a 'block' function accessible in the 'more actions' (...) menu on the poster's profile page and have used that for a few trolls that were infesting the comments on various substacks I read.
Yeah, this troll is just going to troll.
You two are such snowflakes. You're complaining about me entering your safe space? Seriously? Taibbi's substack comments are full of right wingers spouting nonsense all day long. I'm just bringing some balance to the conversation.
I’m sorry, what? They didn’t walk in to worship, they abused the invitation by disrespecting and disrupting those who were. Don’t normalize what has traditionally been considered safe havens. I would object with full force if ICE waltzed into my church and started arresting people.
Don’t normalize this.
Trump has said there are no safe havens anymore. On January 20, 2025 the Department of Homeland Security revoked guidance that limited ICE activity in and around churches, schools and hospitals.
https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/immigration/churches-schools-no-longer-off-limits-for-immigration-enforcement
Can you tell me if you'd support other criminals (murderers, drug dealers, wife beaters) to be given safe havens?
Die today in a woodchipper
Oh, I see.
So if ICE can go anywhere, then anti-ICE protesters can, too.
Uh huh.
Very logical.
So if my house is unlocked then you consider it open to the public, you can just waltz right in with your bullhorns?? This was private property. Don Lemon was a total a-hole, accusing the members of the church of being white supremacists.
Your house is not a church where members of the public are allowed in during services. The church has David Easterwood as its pastor. Easterwood is the field director for ICE in Minnesota. That's a huge conflict of interest and invites pushback which is exactly what's happening.
"pushback" = terrorizing children at a church service in order to score political points
The church is private property. My family, friends, and neighbors are welcome in my house, that doesn't mean leftist lunatics can enter and harass me. Is the pastor doing something illegal?
Entering a church and being an a-hole is not illegal.
Prohibiting members of a church from practicing their religion IS illegal.
Choke on a dick you pathetic cunt
You are an immature idiot.
"FF: From my perspective, this week has further entrenched my view that “paid protesters” is, for the most part, an absurd fantasy. Having watched the Signal chats used to track the activities of ICE, these are formed by people joining and volunteering as they can, most of whom don’t even appear to know each other, and the work is done out of sheer commitment.
I will caveat this by saying that of course, some demonstrations are led by coalitions that have non-profits attached to them, and so donations are clearly used for things like signage. However, their calls to demonstrate attract the public with absolutely zero, zilch, nada evidence that the participants are somehow financially incentivized to participate.
In 10 years of documenting activism, I’ve very rarely run into even a crumb of evidence of “paid protesters,” but I’ve heard the accusation thrown around constantly without evidence to discredit them."
LOL, absurd fantasy until they need "signage" or um, whatever. Yeah, this is credible.
Matt, is this the type of journalism that is now going to be had on Racket? I read enough douchebags everywhere else, please tell me it is a "NO!"
there's been a lot of things since Trump was elected in 2016 that sounded utterly absurd, but turned out to be true.
i don't watch Fox, but there was a protestor she interviewed, and she asked if she had a job. the protestor replied, "yes, i'm getting paid to protest"...in so many words.
i think what's more interesting is that you don't see any "people of color" who are actual citizens out there protesting. and i doubt any somalians or tren de aragua thugs held any midnight vigils for Renee Good....
instead, it's the most dangerous demographic in western civilization:
angry white liberal females.
i hate to even call them liberal as I am a classical liberal....whatever happened to them?
Right!
"Illiberal" really does seem to nail it. They're not "liberal" in any sense that I remember.
I went to grad school in Minnesota. Land of the Protest-Industrial Complex.
I arrived quite liberal (in the traditional sense) but left pretty conservative.
I still hold many traditional liberal views: I'd love to have a great educational system that provided a solid, quality education for "free" [sic: nothing is "free" of course, someone pays for it] as the social benefits are significant.
But the obsessive, self-hating is unhealthy.
While in Minnesota, I came up with a theory as to the source of the self-loathing.
Namely, I grew up in Chicago where the city's immigrant and industrial history were palpable.
When I got to Minnesota in the 1980's, the city was still very racially homogeneous and prosperous. But most of the people (young people in particular) had no connection to the source of this comfort. Most had never worked in a factory nor ever would and never worked on a farm or mill or mine nor ever would.
I'm no Marxist -- certainly in terms of economic theory -- but Marx was an insightful analyst.
Specifically, I think his theory of alienation can be used to explain a lot of what we see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation
Namely, these "kids" have no idea where their comfort comes from, no idea as to the source or history that resulted in their comfortable existence.
Then, they are "told" about all the evils of "whiteness", "capitalism" and every other catch-all category and, being young and lazy and excitable (which many are, I'm certainly imperfect), they fall for this, wanting to be "cool" and part of the "in crowd".
So these forces have worked to create the modern illiberal.
Thank you for this post. Spot on
There are plenty of receipts out there from numerous sources showing these people are being paid. The absurd part is this "reporter" said he "had not seen it" and then goes on to say it is "signage." It makes it the most riduculous that he says it is something that is meant to be seen.
yes, exactly. it would be a lot more work to chase down that thread than ask people on the ground.
Where are these "receipts out there"? Post links to the "numerous sources" you claim exist.
They will be found, and you will look like a fool. But that's your MO anyway.
Her actual words to Laura Ingraham were "Yes, I'm getting paid right now". So the 'fantasy' of these people NOT getting paid is purely laughable. This 'journalist' reporting for Matt is, in fact, laughable as well.
Another consideration to the whole " paid" argument is the coordination , efficiency and "training" that seems to be evident.
Hysterical! Did it ever occur to you that the protestor was being sarcastic?
You are probably one of the few who believe that comment was sarcastic. These fools aren't intelligent enough to be sarcastic. But they are hysterical...in more ways than one.
Uh huh.
*eyeroll*
Check out the videos from the Sunday church service disruption. Lots of people of color. Main organizer woman was with BLM and used to be the local president of the NAACP.
Yup. I saw that. Sorta what I was alluding to in my first comment.
Projection and irony are tightly correlated....Indeed....
As long as you don't refer to them as "ladies" because "ladies" they are not....
Good distinction.
The left becomes the roaming gang of Nazis they warned about, again.
"This and other retarded news at 5."
I’m keeping subscription for now to hear Walter. But for Matt, I am probably in minority, so who cares.
Agreed! I am doing the same. My subscription just ended , going MTM for now. Matt thinks his bias doesn't show but it does( IMO) he also doesn't do thorough research , vetting of topics. I feel like I am hearing a MSNOW story.
For now I will be here for Walter and see how it goes.
Butt hurt alert
I have posted much the same on other content...
But Matt didn't write this.
Yes but that’s his substack and mass media excuse.
I find that Matt has been slipping into the leftwing delusions too frequently. Things in Racket News stories are becoming too slanted for my taste.
"Too slanted for my taste"? You mean not slanted to the right enough.
Slanted as in factual, right or left doesn't matter. If a subject matter is not fully researched, and presented as truth then it becomes propaganda -ish.
Slanted as in biased.
I appreciate the gut check Matt provides- I trust him. I hope he reads the comments and takes in the gut checks his own subscribers provide.
I have been a subscriber here for a long time, and contributed many comments and resources. I never fully trusted Matt, as I sensed he did not grasp what is going on under the surface of these scenarios. He does not understand or even think of the psychology here.
I tried to educate him. But it has not worked. He is becoming more blatantly leftwing. And the topics he writes about are becoming too limited for my tastes. I am off to greener pastures.
Yes, I know that one lady admitted to Laura Ingaham, on camera, that she was paid.
I saw another one admit to an independent journalist that she was being paid, when he asked whether these protesters didn't have jobs to go to.
"the type of journalism that is now going to be had on Racket?" -- Ford Fischer has been reporting for Racket for years.
I think Mr. Fischer has gotten in front of his headlights. Protesters financial arrangements are not observable, and where they exist they are likely not readily disclosed in interviews.
His comments suggest a point of view, not facts.
As I write this (4:30 pm, 1/17/26) the air temperature in Minneapolis is 2 degrees F with windchill of -15 degrees F. Anyone out protesting is getting paid.
I grew up in northern Iowa not far from the Minnesota border, and I wouldn't use the weather as evidence. Yeah, it's cold but it's always cold during the winter there and anybody who has lived there for awhile is used to being out in it.
Locals would be unfazed so I don’t think that’s a good indication. Interviewees actually stating “Yes, I am being paid right now,” otoh, are.
A benign view of the protest activities no? Calling them watchers? Where are they watching from? A lot of crowd control semi-violent defensive tactics by ICE repeatedly noted. What’s prompting that? Not my experience that law enforcement over reaches in the physicality department. The absence of any mention of weaponized chaos by the “watchers”? it’s evident that Ford is trying hard to come across as an unbiased observer. But he slips up far too many times in this one article alone to leave any doubt he’s anything but unbiased. Reading all the comments it’s also apparent he’s not fooling anyone.
I find him totally biased for the left. And Matt is leaning too far in that direction these days also.
I see that perspective about Matt. It’s not easy for some seeing the effects of strictly enforcing immigration laws left unenforced for years but I think the welfare of the country absolutely has to come first. Period. It’s come to that. This is the result of unfettered mass migration of maybe 8 million people or more over the past 4 years or more and absolutely no cooperation by local law enforcement which results in the only strategy available to the feds. Go out into the neighborhoods in force. And maybe they are going after anyone they can find now. I doubt that but even if true, the country is at stake here. It has to come first. Blaming the feds for the chaos involved in that and in long time undocumented aliens getting picked up makes no sense to me.
The very extreme long-term damage caused by all the post-war years of "liberal progressiveness" was meant to destroy the West. And it has come very close.
So now....it is going to take extreme measures to correct it. And I do not find this work by ICE agents as extreme as it could become. They are showing admirable restraint in what could easily be pushed into war-zone scenarios.
So, you like and agree with the coverage Fischer has contributed when it's benefited your side, but claim he's "biased" when it benefits the other side. Got it.
What makes you think I've ever agreed or disagreed with Fischer in the past?
Speaking of leftwing activism, I suppose it goes without saying that the crazed masses of Pro-Hamas supporters were nowhere to be seen when Iranians took to the streets with amazing courage to throw out the Ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard.
Silence from all of the "But it's GENOCIDE!" people. Neither did the mobs of Western feminists speak up. It they hadn't given themselves away already about their true motivations, the Iranian Uprising and the ensuing Western leftwing complacency certainly did it.
Oops....the protesting Iranians had the wrong narrative, it seems. It was never actually about human rights.
The Western Left can only be roused when their narrative has an opening for a white-savior protagonist, where the heroic white ally helps the poor brown oppressed defeat those OTHER evil whites on their road to justice and liberation.
BLM, Hamas, migrants etc all follow this template: the innocent BIPOC is menaced by a white colonialist oppressor, who must be defeated by a coalition led by white allies blessed with superior levels of empathy and "critical consciousness". It is entirely an intra-Western performance designed to "raise awareness" of the activist class, who have no sense of identity or life purpose except BEING SEEN cosplaying the role of either the Underground Railroad, French Resistance or Civil Rights marcher.
If a country or event is a civil dispute between POCs or other people with high oppression scores, there's no place for their script and starring role and thus they have no interest. The narrative is so crucial that they even had to invent a "white" Israel, while the real Israel is multiracial and at least half Sephardic, not to mention the thousands of Ethiopians and 20% Arab citizentry.
But why let reality interfere with such a rich, fulfilling fantasy life?
Mamdani’s new equity czar had some interesting comments regarding white liberal women and their special type of racism.
“ Atta-Mensah appeared to take notice and hid her own social media past — which included retweeting or replying to at least three separate posts complaining about liberal white women, including one where she responded to somebody who wrote “we don’t talk about white liberal racism enough.”
“Facts! It would need to be a series of loooooonnnnnnnggggg conversations” Atta-Mensah replied.
She also reposted part of a thread from a post reading,”Who’s not police but FEELS like police to you?
“white women at nonprofit organizations,” read a reply Atta-Mensah reposted in September 2024”
https://nypost.com/2026/01/18/us-news/mamdani-chief-equity-officer-disparaged-liberal-white-women-in-now-deleted-x-posts-tax-them-to-the-white-meat/
But what she leaves out is how this is like S&M for AWFLs and how much they get off on being lashed with the whip of racial retribution by a black woman—especially by one named Afua Atta-Mensah, that's just a delicious cherry on top.
This crusade by guilt-ridden Western bourgeois women is meant to perform atonement, seek redemption and display how much more righteous they are than their political enemies. If they have to be verbally abused by a POC, it only provides a frisson of radical joy.
Their entire project is a post-religious psychodrama to find all the meaning, community and confessions of sin/guilt that religions provide. The Church of Social Justice is Christianity with Jesus replaced by a rotating cast of victimized POCs, who each get their turn on the cross. And the pews are packed!
My mother would have sneered that liberal women yell and carry on like Fishwives. Which was her way of saying that this is very low and vulgar behaviour.
I have to agree with her there.
NIMBY racism.......
Amen to that, CP. Well said.
Thanks!
If paid protestors is a fantasy, how does this company exist? https://crowdsondemand.com/protests-rallies-and-advocacy/
I knew personally of activist organizers in Canadian cities over the past 20 years or so rounding up the local homeless and offering them $50 and a hot meal for pretending to be a protestor. It was common knowledge. The homeless guy who would regularly hit you up for "spare change" on the way to work would be the same guy you would see holding the "sign of the day" the next week in whatever protest came around.
I don't buy the perspective in this article on that point. I find Matt is leaning too far leftwing.
Yes to your last statement...why I thought that he was in his 30s, not his 50s....
There are hundreds of them.
This entire situation could end if the mayor & governor would allow ICE into the jails to transfer custody of persons under arrest who are found to be illegal aliens.
I don't give a damn if the goofball mayor and Gov. Elmer Fudd don't like the law. Too damned bad if they don't like the law.
As another commenter ("Art") said, I'm skeptical that there's widespread support for the anti-government demonstrations.
The recent church invasion is absolutely beyond belief. I could only think of my elderly father, sitting at Mass, while the church was invaded by these obnoxious people. Not to mention the little kids huddled with their parents.
And Don Lemon? He's as much a grifter as the fraudsters.
Paid protestors - provide them with organization, food, signs. You don't need to stick a $20 in someone's pocket if you're amping them up to blame everyone else for all of their problems. Just keep filling their heads with Trump fascist no one is illegal sloganeering and make 'em a sandwich. These automatons will do the rest.
Oh, and pay no attention to the theft occurring in your own community. The stupidity of rioters can never been overstated.
"Many people are afraid to go outside, fearing interaction with ICE regardless of immigration status or any kind of related conflict."
And no one is afraid of the protestors?
Ford is correct. It's obvious that the protesters aren't being paid. If they were being paid, there would be more of them.
All of my following commentary is directed at Ford, not Matt.
1. Y'all are like the new Paparazzi.
2. Which one is it, Ford?
- People are too scared of being rounded up by ICE that they aren't going outside for any reason, not even to dine at a restaurant.
OR
- This kid that got stopped and picked up just happened to be recklessly walking around with papers that were in his house?
My opinion... People are reasonably afraid to go outside - some are afraid of ICE and some are afraid of getting boxed in by the chaos. It's more than likely that the kid didn't have papers on him because he doesn't have papers.
If you want to say protesters are lower in numbers because of the freezing temperatures, fine. Just admit that might also be the reason people aren't going to restaurants.
3. I've followed Ford's channel and videos for at least 5 years if not more. What I despise more than anything is a person who actually CLAIMS to be unbiased, but in truth is lying about it. That's my opinion of Ford. I was way more libertarian in my views toward police 5 years ago. Even when the GF protests started, I believed law enforcement or 'black bloc' provocateurs were responsible. It was gradually chipped away by the Left's lunacy. When Charlie was assassinated, there was nothing left.
4. Unless I missed the article, I have no doubt Matt will cover the Don Lemon trespassing incident, and the 6 incidents I've seen over the weekend of mostly Minneapolis residents being stalked and attacked by what normal people would refer to as Lunatics, which are unfortunately their fellow neighbors. Even a group of engineers couldn't venture out for lunch on a Friday without being screamed at and accused of being undercover ICE agents. Maybe THAT's why restaurants are hurting? Whatever Minneapolis suffers over the next weeks and months, they brought it on themselves.