Mastodawn

https://hachyderm.io/@rationaldoge/115720217781645898

Paul Cantrell Dec 14

This happened when the temperature (actual air temperature, not “feels like”) was around -4°F / -20°C.

Just to be clear.

Bruce MacDonald (@[email protected])

Feven Gerezgiher writes, 'State Rep. Alex Falconer, DFL-Eden Prairie, joined demonstrators around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. He said it was “reprehensible” and “immoral” for ICE to strand workers on a roof. '“These are people here building a house in the frigid Minnesota weather for other people to live in. These aren't dangerous people. They're trying to make a buck in this economy,” he said. “I just can't fathom how we got to this point as a society.”' https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/12/13/ice-agents-corner-chanhassen-construction-workers-amid-frigid-temperatures #uspol #Minnesota #UncheckedAggression

Hachyderm.io

Here’s a condensed version of a letter I sent to the Star Tribune last week.

I know that the editorial staff was considering publishing it, because they contacted me about it. Ultimately, however, they opted not to.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I am pleased to report that, unlike the Star Tribune, local residents are very much stepping up to meet the moment.

News spreads like wildfire via private messages from neighbor to neighbor, and there’s •so• much that’s no making the news:

Person abducted on this block. Convoy of ICE vehicles spotted on this street. Observer shoved by ICE. Person abducted on that block. Observer threatened with a weapon by ICE.

ALL DAY EVERY DAY

And also, again and again — people need to know this! — I get these messages too:

ICE started to gather, but dispersed when too many observers showed up.

ICE vehicle headed back to base after being tailed in circles for an hour.

ICE started abducting someone, but let them go as the gathered crowd got larger and larger.

These people •really• do not want to be observed. Typical bullies: they cosplay tough guys, they waggle their gear around, but they •behave• like they’re afraid.

Feeling helpless? Don’t. All of this resistance makes a real and concrete difference. Honestly, the fact that this huge chunk of local residents is giving a visible, sustained “HELL NO” all the time is basically the •only• thing holding them back at this point — but it •is• making a difference.

If there were a sense of blanket permission, a sense that nobody is watching and nobody cares, a sense that there will never be consequences…we’d be in a whole different circle of hell right now.

Local community groups? Busting their asses, but they live and die on volunteer support. Legal system? Too slow, too compromised. City, county, state elected officials? Grasping for something they can do. Local police? Useless or worse than useless, of course.

BUT…all the above are formed by, shaped by, and constrained by popular sentiment. An active, defiant citizenry changes how all these institutions behave. Police know, politicians know, and yes, even judges know: they can only stray so far from what people will tolerate.

This active resistance? Hell yeah, it matters. It’s the short-term •and• the long-term.

Some of the little things that don’t make the news really get under my skin.

ICE agents blow through stop signs, speed, drive recklessly.

They take off their license plates (illegally), cover their license plates (illegally), •swap• license plates (illegally). We’ve seen the same vehicle show up with different plates on different days There are photos circulating of the •same• license plate number on multiple ICE vehicles side by side.

Paul Cantrell

Illegal. Completely illegal. But everyone agrees: nobody’s allowed to stop ICE from breaking state and local laws, only issue citations afterwards.

To mismarked vehicles. With masked drivers who refuse to identify themselves. How do you cite •that•?!

ICE eats at restaurants I know and love, nice comfy meal before going back out there and destroying more lives.

It’s weird how much this enrages me. I hope the restaurant staff knows who they’re serving. I hope ICE knows they know. I hope ICE officers eat with nagging doubts about food safety.

I heard a rumor — this one not well-substantiated — that they ate at a restaurant and then come back and raided it the next day.

ICE assaulting a pregnant woman.

Covering their license plates with fake spray-on snow to hide the numbers.

Getting pelted with snowballs by the crowd and responding with pepper spray — which only increased the snowballs.

Just this afternoon’s local news.

Video of the snowballs (CW: person being assaulted, dragged)
(UPDATE: video attached in case FB blocks; source URL is https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1ZaUBtkGCZ/)

https://mastodon.social/@wesdym/115731049092776077

A request for everyone: please don’t be this person. We’re going through a miserable time here in MSP, and reply guy snot does not make it better.

A •lot• of replies I got are about what is illegal, or should be illegal, or must be illegal, and…yeah, we know, believe me, we know. If what you’re offering is commiseration — as with most replies — I welcome that wholeheartedly! This sucks, and it’s nice to hear people say, “Yeah, that sucks.”

But please don’t come into my mentions to argue. Wrong time, wrong target.

The thing this reply guy doesn’t get, the thing that’s so crucial to this moment, is that being correct about the law counts for absolute diddly shit in the moment. The law is slow. The law comes later…if ever. With these people on our streets right now, the only thing that matters in the moment is what people believe: what they believe the law is, what they believe is safe, what they believe they can get away with, what they believe they are capable of doing.

The law is slow. The law catches up later. Belief is •now•.

If anybody knows how to convince city leaders and police chiefs that they •can• enforce traffic laws against ICE, or convince ICE officers that they will be prosecuted for their actions, or convince everyone that ICE officers who do not provide proof of identity can legally be treated as unknown assailants and kidnappers, or convince judges that Minneapolis / St. Paul is not “the border,” or…or…or…undo any of these nonsense beliefs, please do that! But it’s the •convincing•, not the being correct, that matters there.

Right now, belief — legally correct or not, morally sound or not — is keeping an authoritarian bubble inflated. Belief.

You can yell that it’s wrong, you can be correct, and…you’ll be yelling into the wind.

•Belief• is what’s creating MSP’s current reality.

https://infosec.exchange/@mathaetaes/115731104851949153

This is a really good question from @mathaetaes. The first thing I keep telling everyone in other cities who wonders how they can help, what they can do:

Get organized NOW. Meet your neighbors NOW. Get your neighbors set up with secure messaging NOW. Form multiple hyper-local neighborhood social groups NOW. Organize a block picnic or community craft night or repair workshop or whatever NOW. Get contact info for the human beings who physically show up for neighborhood events NOW.

Form all those local connections ASAP, so that they’re there when you need them. The hardest lines of communication to establish will be the ones with the people closest to you. If you get local lines open in advance, you’ll be in a far, far better place.

Mathaetaes (@[email protected])

@[email protected] I hear stories about this happening, but I'd love to see a lessons learned / what works, what doesn't. They'll be leaving your town and going to the next soon enough, and the faster the next town can organize, the faster they'll be able to counter.

Infosec Exchange

Local connections first. Then: eyes out for local groups who are doing observer trainings, giving out whistles, giving our “know your rights” cards, that sort of thing. Whatever they’re doing, join in.

@mathaetaes

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/12/17/couple-pleads-not-guilty-as-attorneys-clash-with-feds-over-hsi-agent-encounter

Paul Cantrell Dec 17

Oh, wow, worth reading the details of this one. It’s wild! And…it’s heartening!

Judge frees couple charged with 'kidnapping' immigration agent as defense challenges government's account

Attorneys for a couple charged with driving to a police station with an HSI agent in their car dispute the government’s account of the incident. A judge released both from jail pending trial.

MPR News

🏳️‍🌈 Bri 🌞🚴🌱✨Dec 17

@inthehands This whole thing was so close to a tragic ending and I'm really grateful those two made it out unharmed.

"“On the 911 call, Bamigboye said ICE is trying to get him,” Behar countered, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “How would he know that unless they had identified themselves as agents?”"

Gee, white men in masks with guns trying to abduct you, how could one possibly guess ICE? 🤬

https://share.google/aimode/UZKLxMVTL3GDkh7LX

Has Walz not done a Pritzker yet?

(Googles.... I guess not really. Huh.)

That's too bad. 🙁

@tarheel
Walz has made some similar efforts. However, the power and reach of state & local gov seems to be limited legally, and even more severely so in practice: they already do a bunch of illegal stuff with impunity, so it’s not clear how much it helps to make even more things illegal.

P.S. That Google AI text is pretty hilarious. (Is “Pritzker license plate” a special kind of license plate, it assumes we’re asking, like a “Veteran’s plate” or something?)

@tarheel
The important different between MN and IL is that our state senate is essentially deadlocked right now, so they’re simply not going to pass anything bold this term. Walz can say what we wants — and he’s been raising what ruckus he can, rattling Noem’s cage etc. — but we’re not going to see any useful new laws to reign in ICE this term. Alas.

Yeah, that's how I searched, just a bunch of terms jumbled. Didn't feel like pretending to be a "prompt engineer."

I had the impression Pritzker gave a fire and thunder speech, which Walz doesn't seem to have done, unfortunately.

Cory Dransfeldt

Dec 16

@inthehands our local sheriff has taken it upon himself to cooperate with ICE up to the legal limit of what he’s allowed to under SB 54 in California. My town (Camarillo) also contracts out police services to said sheriff. When volunteers call in violations on ICE’s part to the local police, they’re ignored. When ICE does the reverse, multiple deputies show up immediately.

cognitively accessible math Dec 16

@inthehands RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT.

cognitively accessible math Dec 16

@inthehands (tho' the point is that BEING RIGHT is not the point. IT's saving people's asses.)

Esteban Küber

Dec 16

@inthehands they don't need to be right. They don't even need to believe they are right. They just need to believe that it won't matter.

@inthehands 🙀😿

@inthehands
Reminds me of that bit in Game of Thrones where Varys was asking Tyrion where power came from. The ultimate conclusion: from where people believed it to be

Bryan L. Fordham Dec 16

@inthehands Wait, so he replies to you, then tells you to "go be smug on someone else's timeline?"

Uh...

@Bfordham
Yeah, it was a particularly sad interaction.

Bryan L. Fordham Dec 16

@inthehands I mean getting upset with you, OK.

But yelling "Get out!" and you're like, "Dude *you're* in *my* house" kinda takes the wind right out of em, doesn't it?

Oof, the double-down.

emeritrix Dec 17

Sympathies and sorry this Dym guy is intruding on your timeline.

LukefromDC Dec 15

@inthehands ICE is lucky those snowballs were not "iced"so to speak

Nazani Dec 16

@inthehands I'm sure they have a special hatred for women with potential anchor babies.

Loops 🍑

Dec 20

@inthehands literally brownshirts

Martin Vermeer FCD Dec 15

@inthehands I assume they eat with their masks off 📷

OGJester has moved Dec 15

@inthehands I would be disappointed in all involved if ICE agents were able to eat any restaurant food anywhere that wasn’t drenched in spit from the staff.

Avner Dec 16

@inthehands that kind of thing is pretty much the inspiration for this zine https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/39103

Who Shares the Restroom Code with ICE Agents?

In May 2017, five ICE officers sat for breakfast at Sava’s restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After eating, they handcuffed and detained three kitchen staff...

Microcosm Publishing

Jigme Datse Dec 16

@inthehands The staff, the owners have the right to refuse... They should be refusing. Especially if it's not just 'random officers' but actually a group of them as an ICE "food break". Fucking hell...

WesDym Dec 16

@inthehands They're free to turn them away, refuse to serve them. Or kick them out (though usually without charging).

I worked in food service for many years. Don't fuck with people who make stuff you're going to put in your body.

ICE is playing a very dangerous game, and I wonder if they're aware of it. Most of them seem like dumb thugs to me. I would bet they're not savvy enough to recognize themselves as SA.

David J. Atkinson Dec 15

@inthehands If #ICE personnel refuse to identify themselves to local or state police, the police should at least collect photos, as well as retinal scans and fingerprints if possible. AFIK, these are not considered protected private information requiring a warrant to collect. The devices are less expensive than the weapons police carry. I predict more than a few thugs with a history of trouble with the law will turn up. They will also be easier to find and prosecute after these troubles pass.

LukefromDC Dec 15

@meltedcheese @inthehands Best place to fingerprint and photograph ICE is at booking, end of shift...

Becca Dec 15

@inthehands aiding traitors is treason for people who've sworn the oath

failing to stop them is then treason also

Cassandrich Dec 15

@inthehands Police should be under orders to treat them exactly the same way they'd treat activists doing those things.

Cassandrich Dec 15

@inthehands Or for that matter, armed kidnappers associated with drug trafficking or other organized crime.

Chris Johnson Dec 15

@dalias @inthehands Exactly!

sauc3 Dec 16

@dalias @inthehands

Could you imagine how berserk the police would go if activists tried a quarter of what ICE has done? Even a tenth?

#WhatYouAllowIsWhatWillContinue!

Kevin Karhan

Dec 16

@sauc3 @dalias @inthehands I wished the #AmericanGestapo would get castle'd...

Remember:

Judges should be handing out subpoenas for the identities of these ICE kidnappers and bring them into, at the very least, the Grand Jury for investigation.

LukefromDC Dec 15

@inthehands You don't cite them, you take them off the road. Cops should treat members of the ICE gang the same way they would treat members of any other gang showing fake or no license plates, running stop signs and red lights, refusing to identify themselves and masking their faces while armed.

Problem is, the ICE gang and the cop gang are often but chapters of the same gang, so none of this happens

WesDym Dec 16

@inthehands I don't believe that's true, though I admit I'm not sure what the margin is. States may not interfere with federal agents doing their jobs, within the law. But local cops could stop and arrest an ICE agent for drunk driving, for example, even if they're on duty. That's not interfering with the performance of their duty, because drunk driving is not part of their remit, and it's a public safety issue requiring immediate responce.

@wesdym
Correct or not, the legal advice that cities are receiving is that doing anything that “obstructs” a federal LE operation — even doing a drunk driving check — would place the cop and the city in legal jeopardy. If you want to argue with that, take it up with the various lawyers who are dispensing that advice, because it is the •advice• — not the actual reality of the law, whatever it may be — that determines what happens on the ground.