This may be obvious to someone who’s actually been there, but it does seem to me that it’s a bit peculiar that what promises to be a watershed moment for all this ICE nonsense and Trump’s second term, as well as what was a huge deal in his first term with the George Floyd murder both took place in Minneapolis. Minneapolis itself isn’t that big and is fairly diverse as things go. And it’s a reliably blue city in a reliably blue state.
I’d have expected racial trouble somewhere red, with a white majority, and small racial minorities.
So is there any especially horrible mojo in Minneapolis, some kind of perfect storm of conditions and demographics, or is this just coincidence?
To state the obvious, MPLS is a reliably Democrat-voting state that provided part of the ticket challenging Trump in 2024. So Republicans as well as Trump himself have personal and partisan grievances.
As an ICE/anti-immigration bugbear, MPLS is a “sanctuary city” with a notable Somali population, so it’s ripe to be punished by Trump and his fascist goons. The right-wing fever swamps have been ginning themselves up into a frenzy over supposed Somali-perpetrated daycare fraud for the past few weeks. Not just in MPLS but some other cities as well. This will be the pretext for an ICE invasion.
Just for my own pet theory, I remain convinced that Trump is trying to provoke a response that he can color as insurrection/rebellion so he can declare “This state is effectively attempting to secede from the Union, and folks, you know what was done last time that happened, Minnesota helped Sherman do some very nasty things against state’s rights, and now they’re going to feel the other side of it.”
I really do believe someone has this endgame in mind, to provoke all the reliable blue or wobbly purple states to a point where he can strip them of votes and representation before the election, so all the southern states can cackle about the Civil War shoe being on the other foot.
It has been targeted for harassment by the administration as have other blue cities. When something like this happens, it feeds the narrative to red staters that cities are hell holes.
A purely anecdotal observation from nearly 10 years ago. I was traveling with some friends attending an event in the twin cities, mostly just outside of downtown Minneapolis. I remember being very favorably impressed at at how “nice” it was, with a nice mix of modern and older quaintness, and all very clean. A nice light rail system, lots of young college age people out and about. We stopped and had lunch at this awesome Mediterranean/middle eastern run deli-restaurant.
IIRC these were just pre-maga times and though most of us really took a shine to the area, one guy, who I know pretty much lost his shit after Obama was elected and went hard right, was practically snarling and growling every time any of us expressed like for the area. I do remember him spouting ( along with a litany of his “librul” bashing ) that “this whole place looks like it’s crawling with Bernie Sanders voters”.
We have the additional “problem” of having active non-white communities and some of those folks have been elected to office. Then there’s the fact that Tim Walz had the temerity to run against Trump and say mean things about him; an unforgivable action worthy of constant retribution, apparently.
I spent three winters in the MSP area back in my university days, for a co-op program with Northwest Airlines. It’s a nice place, despite the long and brutal winters.
I live 30 miles from the Minnesota border and have relatives that live in the Twin Cities area. If you take away the Twin Cites metropolitan area, Duluth, and Rochester it is very red state. In rural areas (unless a government building) you will see many more “old” state flags than the new one.
As to why Minneapolis? Well… ongoing abuse/embezzlement/ misappropriation of government funds buy a certain ethnic group that, even though very blatant and out in the open, the current governor (and his administration) for years refused to acknowledge there was a problem and buried their heads in the sand as not to “upset” this group as they would need to admit that their refugee plan was not as successful as they hoped and would not admit to it’s failings.
So if the State government wasn’t going to do something about it, then the Federal government. will. I can’t think of any of my relatives (mostly Democrat) who is against ICE in this situation.
Yes, sad situation involving ICE and a death. But if you are stupid enough to prevent law enforcement from doing their job (whether you agree or not) and attempt to run one over, well they paid the price.
For the record, I’m asking why both the George Floyd murder would happen there, and this additional shooting of Renee Good as well. Why Minneapolis for both? They would seem unrelated, so I’m wondering if there’s any common thread between them that relates to the city/county/state that would make that area more prone to this sort of thing?
That’s even true in Texas- the bigger cities are bright blue, and the hinterlands are bright red. I think that’s a nationwide phenomenon and has been for a while.
George Floyd having happened there might be a partial explanation: people there may be more primed for (appropriate, IMHO, just to be clear) outrage. No idea how to test this theory!
Federal charges against groups accused of fraud were issued by the Biden Administration in 2022, part of a long series of fraud accusations.
What revived this was a viral video made by Nick Shirley. He took a camera to Somali child care centers and claimed that because none of them would let him in - an unannounced male adult with no legal purpose - they weren’t actually running any programs at all. The video went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Minneapolis was already hated by Trump because of the massive Floyd protests. Somalis were already demonized by Trump - remember “they’re eating the cats and dogs”? He seized the opportunity to rile his base and dominate headlines, and sent 2000 ICE troops into Minneapolis. To do what? Stop fraud? No other possible reason other than stirring racial hate is an answer.
Some flare-up was sure to come; Trump was counting on protesters rising up against the move. He must have assumed that he could use another Floyd case to justify the use of troops in more blue cities. That got undercut in the most visible way.
Minneapolis is not special but the two incidents are not mere statistical coincidence. One was the cause of the other in an indirect way.
That’s also true of California. The rural central valley is Trump country. Remember Paradise?. The vote there in 2016, before the fire, was 60% for el donald.
