We Kept Us Safe. They’re in Jail Now.
My days are clogged with pain, sorrow and also just straight up busyness. I am the host of a daily podcast during a time of utter crisis in the Twin Cities. These months will become part of the forever stories about our country. We had big name Kara Swisher on our podcast today and she mentioned the images from the Twin Cities carrying the same valence that the Kent State photos did in the anti-Vietnam War movement. That tracks but it’s hard to process. I’ve been hearing about Kent State my entire life.
One thing about the uprising of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. . .that entire time was surreal. COVID lockdown had already made the day to day surreal. There was less of a before to juxtapose the uprising to. The world was completely out of sorts before George Floyd was murdered on the street in Minneapolis. And the world remained completely out of sorts for months and months afterwards.
Given that prior to Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities there was a life that resembled normalcy. . .I’m not sure what will signal this end. I drop the kids off at school right now in a car because it’s too cold to walk. They have four or five adults in vests posted up around the school at start time EVERY DAY. We got volunteers on walkie-talkies at the two daycares closest to my houses. I am not asking you to let that sink in. I am asking me to let that sink in. Volunteer parents and community members are keeping our daycares and schools safe from highly paid and outfitted roving bands of dumbshits who couldn’t follow the law for a day if they tried to. EVERY SINGLE DAY I DRIVE BY AND THINK “what the fuck”.
Am I to believe that on the day that Tom Homan says that Operation Metro Surge has come to an end that these folks are going to pull their headphones off from the Signal audio conversations they are in and say “well that was weird, where do I send my check for federal taxes in April? Glad you’re done terrorizing my children for a spell!”
I can’t see it. What is the end of this? The end of this has to involve charges for leaders and agents. The agents who shot and killed Alex Pretti are now on leave. That is a very distant step from them being charged, but it is a change in their working conditions. Even in a world where you think that shooting is justified (population. . .three people), those agents shouldn’t be on the street for everyone’s safety.
I’m just gonna rail on this one thing and then tell you about the show we have on Saturday where all of our tips go to the Immigrant Law Center.
Schools. Daycares. We have volunteers posted up on the streets to keep our kids safe at school. Our kids walk by these people. Our kids are getting to know these people. Our kids are learning who keeps them safe. And they are learning it’s not the masked maniacs who are responsible for 66% of the homicides in Minneapolis in 2026. Our kids are wholesale learning a distrust of the federal government that was rare in my generation. It can’t all go back after that. You can’t think, “well, I had to protect my child’s school from safety every day for weeks on end and the threat was from my own federal government but you know. . .that’s okay.”
We aren’t going back. But we all said we weren’t going back in 2020 and in so many ways we want back. I don’t want to go back. I want people in jail cells for this. You can’t force people to protect their schools and their neighbors from roaming bands of thugs and then call it even.
I can play some baller bass for you on Saturday and donate all the money we make from tips to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. Big Trouble is a happy to be a break even pursuit and if we can send some money into what I hope is a huge pot of money for this organization we would love to do so. There are more efficient ways to raise money for the Immigrant Law Center, but if you want the healing power of music and also want to kick some money to a good cause it’s a pretty good Saturday. I hope you’ll come through and I hope it’s better on Saturday than it is now.
Please do give a listen to City Cast Twin Cities’s podcast. I think we are doing an awesome job.
Please check out standwithminnesota.com and send some money around to people/orgs in need.
We’ll get through this and we’ll put some people in jail.