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Minneapolis Whistles Warn the Nation
Around these parts we're big fans of Alex Baumhardt, the ex-MPR News reporter who's now senior reporter for the Oregon Capital Chronicle, a sister site to the Minnesota Reformer. Why are we bringing up this non-local industry observation? Because for one week OCC traded Baumhardt to TMR. (Side note: Newsrooms should swap journalists like sports teams swap players—typing speed would be 40-yard dashes, scoops would be home runs... you get the idea.)
Back now in Oregon, Baumhardt just filed this (optimistic!) warning after (metaphorically) parachuting into a state that’s experiencing the largest immigration crackdown in U.S. history. At first she worries that the brutal, months-long siege might've "irrevocably changed" her former home, leaving its residents "fearful, exhausted or completely disillusioned."
Sensing a hard and hopeful pivot?
She continues:
I was humbled by what I discovered instead: People across the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro exercising exemplary strength, organization and non-violent resistance, not just against the federal occupation, but primarily in service to the safety and survival of one another.
About every store, restaurant and coffee shop I visited had bowls of whistles for the taking, meant to be used at a moment’s notice to warn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are near. Businesses posted notices about the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures on their doors and signs ensuring immigrants who entered their buildings would be kept safe. Neighbors patrolled parking lots and side streets to keep watch for ICE agents, especially near ethnic shopping centers and areas with high numbers of immigrant residents.
With their whistles, Minnesotans haven’t just been warning their neighbors of imminent danger from the masked agents outside their doors. They’re signaling that they are a bellwether to follow if those masked agents come in numbers to other American cities, like Portland.
DHS 0-2 in High-Profile Abduction Cases
Say, you remember last week when a reckless car chase in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of St. Paul ended with a car T-boned, debris everywhere, and immigration thugs carting one Honduran man off? According to the Pioneer Press, U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard has ordered the man released.
This is the second high-profile DHS abduction that ended with an L for the feds. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank freed 18-year-old Junior de Jesus Herrera Berrios. If that name doesn’t sound familiar to you, you’re probably familiar with Herrera Berrios’s arrest—he was nabbed after a dramatic chase through the Hennepin County Government Center last week, with the county Sheriff’s Office running interference for the feds. Herrera Berrios had a court date “for a hearing on drug charges over allegedly driving a car with 57 pounds of methamphetamines,” the Strib reports.
A Frog a Day Keeps the Climate Despair At Bay
Let's hop into the weekend with this ribbeting report from Southwest Voices contributor Margie O’Loughlin, who caught up with Lynnhurst resident Bradley Scott Davis to talk about his Daily Frog Project.
Davis has painted a frog a day for more than 1,600 consecutive days. (We've heard of hundreds of beavers, but thousands of frogs?!) His goal is to highlight the fragility of our ecosystems; there are only 100ish species of frogs and toads native to North America, and many are vulnerable or at risk. “This is really woven into what I do in the studio—I want to magnify the point where nature and art intersect,” he says. During a recent show at the California Building in Northeast, for example, some of Davis's canvasses were installed on the floor, serving as "a reminder to walk more mindfully through life," O’Loughlin writes.
Frogs may be cold-blooded, but this story really warmed our mammalian hearts. And you simply must check out the paintings on Davis's website.
How to Help: Support Columbia Heights Families
While it's debatable whether or not ICE has been less active in the Twin Cities these days, its agents certainly have been leaving a trail of destruction in the suburbs. One such 'burb that's been hit particularly hard is Columbia Heights. This GoFundMe is trying to help out families who are in hiding, struggling to make rent, or unable to grocery shop due to agents in their neighborhood.
"To date we have given out over 300,000 in assistance for rent and food to families in our community," organizers write. "Because of the constant ice presence and hundreds of abductions in our city, including 8 children from our schools, many have gone months without leaving their homes or being able to work."
