Trump and U.S. government have declared war on Minneapolis, says former mayor

A former mayor of Minneapolis says people in his city are coming together against what he sees as an attack from the U.S. federal government.

“The federal government has declared war on the city of Minneapolis, and they’ve done it in a very brutal way,” said R. T. Rybak, who was mayor of Minneapolis from 2002-2014.

“They’ve killed two people … and the brutal tactics are random, illegal,” he told The Current’s Matt Galloway. 

On Saturday, U.S. federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minneapolis. The killing came less than three weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good in her car, in a residential neighbourhood in the city.

Ryback spoke to Galloway about how people in Minneapolis are responding to the federal government’s immigration crackdown, and what he wants to see from the rest of the country. Here is part of their conversation. 

How would you describe what it has been like in Minneapolis over the last few weeks? 

I’d like to not be dramatic about it, but the fact of the matter is, it does feel very much like being in an occupied city. There are two exceptions to that … the fact that Minnesotans are incredibly united, especially those of us in Minneapolis. And along with the incredible amount of volunteering, life is going on. We are going to work and doing things, most of us. 

But I think the real thing is you go into a coffee shop and there are diapers and personal supplies that neighbours are coming to deliver. There over in the other corner is a group that’s strategizing how to use their signal channel to track ICE. And it’s a city in resistance, which is, I think, beyond what I could have ever imagined.

But I also am incredibly moved by how people in this town have said there is no way, ever, ever, that we will be broken. We’re Minnesotans, we’re like Canadians. We survived tough winters and we are in it. 

In the face of that, what was your response when you learned that ICE had killed another resident of your city? 

I think we’ve been beyond words for a while, but I think I went very quickly to incredible rage, certainly at the president, but also at those who are supporting him and those who are staying quiet. 

My son is the same age, has a beard, lives ten blocks from that site, you personalize it — and then you realize I’m a white guy. So it’s much, much worse [for others] because the hardest part of this is these vigilantes are driving around and seemingly looking just for people of colour. I call them vigilantes because they’re masked, no ID. How do we know? I mean, I guess they’re from ICE, but you don’t know. 

You mentioned the resistance. Can you just describe what that, I’ll use your word again, what the resistance looks like? What have you seen from your community in response to this? 

What you really see is something that you didn’t see for most of this year in the United States. A lot of people were sitting on the couch waiting for someone to save us. What’s happened here is that pretty much everybody understands they have some role. 

It means that now as the dawn comes, we’ll have parents getting ready to walk their kids to the bus stop or school … most are going to work. However, there are people hiding in their houses. And so tens of thousands of [meals] are being delivered. 

And then everywhere I go, there’s a conversation about what’s the next step? And it’s now gotten very tactical. I think we all recognize how deeply, deeply wrong this is. The question is, am I the one to deliver meals or this or that? Or am I that guy I just passed a few minutes ago on the street corner on a cold morning, just holding up a sign for ICE to get out. He had a word on there that started with ‘F’ as well. Everybody realizes they can do something and a lot of people are. 

What would you want to see from the rest of the country? Donald Trump was elected on, in part, hardline immigration policies, this mass deportation policy. But to your point, what is unfolding right now, the polling shows, is wildly unpopular. What would you want to see from the rest of the country, in light of what’s happening in your town right now? 

I want the rest of the country to get their elected officials to stand up. I would say, you know, we have these great senators here. They are Democrats. They are doing good work. But when you get into other states that supported him and have Republican senators, who are at best zombies and at worst collaborating on this. They need to recognize that this violates every single principle of what we are as Americans.

President Obama removed many, many immigrants from this country who were here illegally. But he used the law and I would like to see — it’s a low bar — for the Republican members of Congress to recognize that the law is being violated. But, you know, we’re getting phenomenal support from much of the country as well. 

In that Facebook post you wrote, “As the battered souls of Minneapolis are finding our common ground, we can help a nation in search of its values find its soul.” What does that mean, that you can help the nation find its soul? 

I would never wish this on any city, but I would say that [if] this had to happen in any city, it should be Minneapolis because we’ve stood up. We’ve not been violent, but we’ve said that this is a place where everybody belongs. Immigrants made this country. Immigrants are very much a part of this country, and Minneapolis has always stood for that. And it’s standing strong in the worst of situations.

And I believe from what I’m hearing around the country, people are seeing us in Minneapolis as a real inspiration for where this country needs to go. We turn to what we used to be, but we can be much better than that and I think Minneapolis is showing it.