Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Minnesota Pride Goes National
OK, so this sprawling dispatch from New York Times Opinion columnist Lydia Polgreen doesn't hit inspirational notes up top. That's where we hear quotes like “well, we’re fucking close to civil war" from Minneapolis Park Board Commissioner Dan Engelhart and "this is tyranny” from Minnesota AG Keith Ellison.
But as Polgreen attempts to answer why President Trump is targeting Minnesota, of all places, inspiring threads emerge. Consider Jesse Fee, a 17-year-old high schooler who marched to the State Capitol in opposition to ICE.
“ICE might not break into my house and try to take one of my family members, because we’re all white,” Fee tells the Times. “But I’m not going to not care just because it’s not going to happen to me. That’s irresponsible, that’s disrespectful, and it’s sinful, honestly.”
Concludes Polgreen...
For all their military gear and unchecked power, the federal agents flooding this city, like the president ultimately commanding them, seem unprepared for what they are facing here. Like the agent who slipped on ice, they have misjudged the ground beneath their feet: a state full of ordinary people — real estate agents, high school students, solar energy consultants — who’ve decided that watching their neighbors being dragged away is an intolerable sin.
Growing List of Businesses Plan to Close for Friday's "Day of Truth and Freedom"
It’s being billed as the Day of Truth and Freedom because terms like “general strike” and “work stoppage” have very specific legal meanings. But… c’mon: Labor, faith, and community leaders are urging all Minnesotans to avoid work, school, and shopping this Friday to protest Operation Metro Surge. (Labor Notes has a deep-dive on the nuts/bolts of the strike-like initiative.)
Bring Me the News has been keeping track of participating businesses and groups, all of which you can peruse via this mega-thread. You'll see bars, restaurants, bike shops, coffee shops, weed shops, music shops... it's, yes, an inspiring display of solidarity. You won't find Racket on BMTN's roundup, but lord knows we're not clocking in Friday. Our upcoming episode of RacketCast, due out Thursday, will feature two local labor leaders discussing the need for this gut punch to capital.
Still Dealing With Murderous Federal Government All These Years Later, Native Folks Fight Back
The American Indian Movement emerged out of Minneapolis in 1968 with a goal of "counter[ing] overzealous municipal policing." Now AIM patrols have reformed to protect people along Franklin Avenue—aka the city's American Indian Cultural Corridor—from overzealous ICE goons, ICT reports.
Crow Bellecourt, son of the late AIM co-founder Clyde, says close to 100 Indigenous patrollers are on the streets to protect community members. “We’re running from seven in the morning to seven in the evening,” he says. “And even more. We still have some patrollers going out until like 11 or 12 at night.”
They're very needed: Tribal leaders are still searching for three of the four Oglala Sioux Tribe members who were detained by ICE earlier this month, Bring Me the News reports. “It’s really scary here,” says Mary LaGarde, executive director of Franklin Avenue's Minneapolis American Indian Center. “We woke up and we had all these ICE agents everywhere,” Bellecourt adds.
Here's activist/historian Heather Bruegl to ICT...
One of the first acts that AIM did when they were forming was patrolling the streets and making sure that if their community members were stopped or pulled over by the police, that their rights were being followed, like, you know, "Hey, you have the right to this, you have the right to that." And we see that now happening again [because] people’s rights are being violated. We see Indigenous folks, tribal members being detained. It’s important that groups like AIM and other groups are coming out again, working in community and making sure that we’re protecting each other.
Loser Chased Outta Town
Jake Lang, a pardoned J6 rioter who now posts far-right bullshit online, arrived over the weekend in Minneapolis to burn a Qur’an outside City Hall and lead a MAGA rally. Barely anybody wanted to join him.
Instead, Lang was met with snowballs, Super Soakers, and water balloons as hundreds of counter-protesters performed the spiritual equivalent of tarring, feathering, and riding him outta town on rails. “We’re out here to show Nazis and ICE and DHS and MAGA you are not welcome in Minneapolis,” counter-protester Luke Rimington said, per AP News. “Stay out of our city, stay out of our state. Go home.”
Lang, who's seeking donations for... well, it's really unclear what for... claims he was "literally LYNCHED." Please (please!) enjoy video of the scene below courtesy of Mercado Media. Another conservative grifter/influencer, Nick Sortor, experienced a similar welcome.
