Dear Minneapolis: <\/p>\n
We are sorry for what you are going through. We get it<\/a>. <\/p>\n One day you\u2019re living in a vibrant, multicultural city that, yeah, has its problems but is also pretty great. The next day, the president is calling you terrorists and insurrectionists<\/a> and threatening to turn the U.S. military on you and your kids. <\/p>\n Been there<\/a>. <\/p>\n First off, thanks for standing up for Lady Liberty. The old gal had a rough year in 2025, and 2026 isn\u2019t promising to be any better. She needs all the friends she can get, and the Twin Cities folks are true blue. And I\u2019m not talking Democrat or Republican, because we\u2019re past that. <\/p>\n It\u2019s come down to deciding what kind of American you are. The kind who believes in the Constitution, rule of law and due process, or the kind who believes in strongmen, rule of the rich<\/a> and armed authorities who will disappear you if you make them mad, citizen or not. <\/p>\n Minneapolitans have proven they\u2019re on the righteous side of that divide. <\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing \u2014 you\u2019ve got to keep these protests peaceful. Being the entertainment capital of the world, we won\u2019t deny that it\u2019s riveting to watch video<\/a> after video<\/a> of ICE officers slipping on, well, ice like some klutzy Keystone Kops<\/a> short. And the passion with which protesters are turning out, risking their own safety to protect strangers, is inspiring. <\/p>\n But don\u2019t take the bait. Don\u2019t cross the line. Don\u2019t use physical violence, whether it\u2019s throwing a water bottle or something more. President Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act<\/a>, just like he did in Los Angeles<\/a> before sending in the National Guard using a lesser authority. Even that turned out to be legally problematic, but he did it anyway. <\/p>\n \u201cMinnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement,\u201d Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche wrote on social media after Trump\u2019s post. \u201cIt\u2019s disgusting. Walz and Frey – I\u2019m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It\u2019s a promise.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever means necessary<\/a>. <\/p>\n This administration is salivating to invoke martial law. They bring it up every chance they get. Although the Insurrection Act has been used before \u2014 by President George H.W. Bush in Los Angeles<\/a> in 1992 after the Rodney King beating \u2014 this is different. <\/p>\n Too many other guardrails of democracy have been demolished. Too much power has already been consolidated into the hands of one man. <\/p>\n If it happens, if the military is turned against citizens, a boundary will be broken that can\u2019t be easily restored. We will likely then have military in streets of multiple American cities ahead of the November elections, which can only make this fragile turn at the ballot box more precarious. <\/p>\n Los Angeles in 2025 was the test case on how far Trump could go, and it seems it wasn\u2019t far enough. Just like in Minneapolis, we had some folks who used violence \u2014 even though the vast majority of protesters were peaceful. Because Los Angeles is and has always been a city of activists \u2014 like Minneapolis \u2014 there were plenty of leaders willing and able to step forward and ensure that protesters policed themselves. <\/p>\n The result of that restraint was that at the end of the day, not even the so-called \u201cjournalists\u201d of the right-wing propaganda machine could come up with enough shock-and-awe videos to convince the rest of America that the place was out of control. <\/p>\n Now the Trump machine is trying it with you, Minnesota. It\u2019s not by chance that this trouble has landed on your doorstep. After the killing of George Floyd, Minneapolis showed it wasn\u2019t afraid to show up for justice. No one ever doubted \u2014 Trump especially \u2014 that sending immigration full-force into your city would stir up trouble. <\/p>\n Gov. Tim Walz said it himself on Thursday in his own social media post<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can \u2014 we must \u2014 speak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully. We cannot fan the flames of chaos. That\u2019s what he wants,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n But also, please keep filming<\/a>, please keep fighting. Thursday was also Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s actual birthday. In 1959, King made a little-known appearance<\/a> on Minneapolis TV. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m of the opinion that it is possible for one to stand firmly and courageously against an evil system, and yet not use violence to stand up against it,\u201d he said then. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is possible to love the individual who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does.\u201d <\/p>\n Someone described Minneapolis the other day as having the inclusivity and quirkiness of San Francisco but with the attitude of the Bronx \u2014 a fearsome combination. <\/p>\n Don\u2019t let Trump exploit it. <\/p>\n In solidarity,
California<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Minneapolis: We are sorry for what you are going through. We get it. One day you\u2019re living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69074,7,9,8,217,69075,6195,721,63,23112,47556,69073,69072,11276,20460,2429,1519],"class_list":["post-135315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bait","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-day","tag-direct-result","tag-kind","tag-law","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-memo","tag-minneapolis","tag-multicultural-city","tag-physical-violence","tag-protester","tag-rule","tag-thursday","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}