G Certainly the people of Minneapolis and those around the world who care have hoped that Renee Nicole Good was the last citizen to die in the streets of the once peaceful city. But the hope was naive from the start. There was something inevitable about the murder of Adam Pretti.
The resistance in Minneapolis and other US cities has shown that many people are not prepared to accept ICE’s reign of terror. With courage and creativity, the honest people of the USA are standing up to Trump’s henchmen – accepting enormous personal risks.
The other side has made it clear that it not only condones the death of innocent civilians, but is prepared to provoke it. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s response to Good’s death was not to step back, but to vilify the victim and send in more violent mercenaries.
The fact that someone like Adam Pretti, an apparently peace-loving nurse, walking around Minneapolis with a gun speaks volumes. People feel defenseless and have the feeling that they have to defend themselves. Conditions like the Wild West. Like even him Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “Our police could stand up to ICE. But we don’t have the manpower or the weapons.” There is no longer any power to order.
Conditions like the Wild West
Anarchy and the rule of the strongest reign on the streets of Minneapolis. And that’s ICE at the moment. Whether the National Guard, which Governor Tim Walz has now activated, could do anything against ICE is as questionable as the question of whether they want to. Loyalties are divided among all security forces, from the military to the police. If shots are fired again in Minneapolis or elsewhere in the next few days, it is impossible to predict what situation will develop.
Verbal political disputes as conflict resolution, a core feature of a civil society, have had their day. The talk from senators in Washington is toothless and basically doesn’t interest anyone anymore. Governors and mayors are left alone with their limited resources. Naked violence has replaced political discourse. Nobody can predict where the journey will go from now on. What seems certain is that there will be no happy ending.
Minneapolis is just one stage. Trump has shown that he wants to bring one democratic city after another to its knees. In recent days there have been reports of ICE reinforcements in Maine and Massachusetts. America has fallen into a spiral from which there is no good way out. Nothing is certain anymore. Everything is possible.