The Trump administration is sending increasing numbers of ICE agents - many of whom are untrained new recruits while the DHS makes recruitment ads targeting white supremacists - into Minneapolis and having them raid schools, churches, workplaces, and homes without warrants to arrest people based on things like the color of their skin, accents, and perceived political leanings (in addition to snatching people directly off the street or their vehicles). The community in Minneapolis has responded by organizing neighborhood watches that coordinate to track the location of ICE agents and warn people of their approach (often by blowing whistles), while also showing up to film them. Many are sheltering immigrant families in their homes to protect them from ICE. Local officials have been urging Minnesotans to stay peaceful while ICE and DHS have been using increasingly aggressive tactics, and several people have already been shot and killed by ICE agents, which the Trump administration has been lying about despite there being video with multiple angles of the incidents.

People - including state and local officials - have speculated that Trump is attempting to provoke a violent backlash to use as justification for invoking the insurrection act, which would allow Trump to send in the military (of which he has already put troops on standby) and put the state under direct federal control. As a result they are continuing to urge people to remain peaceful even as ICE agents are becoming increasingly violent. There is also a leaked letter that Pam Bondi (US Attorney General) sent to Tim Walz (Governor of Minnesota) offering to consider pulling ICE out of the state in exchange for repealing sanctuary policies as well as turning over the state's voter rolls and social welfare records.

Short answer: The administration is trying to start a civil war, the state is trying not to give them what they want, and the people are becoming increasingly organized. This is the closest we have been to civil war since, well, the lead-up to the first one, but if it were to break out today it would look very different (probably more like a larger scale version of Ireland's 'troubles').

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 0 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What's the point of a civil war? To try and "weed out" the non-believers?

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So Trump can invoke the Insurrection Act and/or martial law, which puts him s step closer to totalitarian control of the country. It would also weaken the country greatly, leading to societal and economic collapse and chaos, potentially even collapse as a world superpower, opening the door for Russia or some other dictatorship that Trump is friendly with to fill the power vacuum.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago

More importantly, he thinks Martial Law would allow him to "suspend" elections until peace is restored, and since he controls the peace, that will never happen. We will have constant manufactured street battles so that we can remain under Martial Law.

It's all about avoiding the Midterms, which is likely to be a bloodbath, and the Dems will take at least one chamber, giving them investigative committees, with subpoena and arrest powers. Imagine EVERY Congressional committee going after MAGA corruption and malfeasance in their field?

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 days ago

To consolidate power. As ineffectual as the Democrats are they remain a barrier to Trump and his backers' autocratic ambitions. He wants his coalition to stay in power more or less indefinitely, and to do that he needs to take control of state and local elections. That's why he's targeting blue states like MN and demanding voter rolls. He will make baseless claims of voter fraud and use that as justification to throw out votes, allowing Republicans to win a state that has voted Democrat every election since 1976.

He doesn't necessarily want a civil war, he wants an excuse to bring the boot of the US military down on his political enemies to suppress their vote and he isn't expecting a fair fight, he expects people to roll over and surrender.

[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The feds are trying. Minneapolis isn't taking the bait.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

You know why they refuse to leave? Because the government wants the data for all voters so they can use it to manipulate the elections, and Waltz is refusing to give it to them.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 4 days ago

Basically yes.