Minnesota resident Will Stancil is a lawyer, policy researcher, and onetime candidate for the state’s house of representatives who has long been a voluble progressive presence on X and Bluesky. Over the past week, Stancil has become a mainstay of citizen patrols, tracking ICE agents around the city in his Honda Fit and sharing his experiences with his 100,000-plus followers. On Friday, I spoke with Stancil about what he has witnessed over the past few days.
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Do the videos we’ve seen — of violent arrests, of agents deploying flash-bangs and tear gas on bystanders — capture the full extent of what’s happening?
No. In the private rapid-response channels, people will share many, many videos, and they don’t want to bring them public because they don’t want to be identified. People are worried. So there’s lots and lots more private stuff that is never circulating. The other thing is I think it’s really difficult to capture. The last few days have been calmer. But for the first week or so, it was really hard to convey the unrelenting pace of this stuff. I had a journalist come ride along — he just published an article about it. I had been talking about how crazy it was, and I could tell he was a little bit skeptical. He thought, Okay, maybe we’ll see an ICE car. In a two-hour ride, we chased four ICE convoys onto the highway, saw someone violently abducted alive in front of us, then saw a separate ICE convoy tear-gas a major commercial intersection for no reason at all. In two hours.
We have these rapid-response channels. I mean, I got to the point where — and this is very difficult to do — but I got to the point where I mute them or turn them off or leave them when I come home in the evening because getting the constant updates — as much as I want to be informed of my community, if I’m not out there and can’t do anything about it, I am a raw nerve all day and night. I come home and I just have to lie on the couch and just shut everything off and shut my brain off because you’ll go insane hearing about what all they’re doing.
Archived at https://archive.ph/fiwGH
And the child that caused all of this thinks he deserves a prize for bringing peace.
He deserves a fucken rope and a dirt nap. Fucken loathe young shitstain magas, at least the boomers have the material excuse of lead poisoning and several decades of constant propaganda.
War is peace.
Truth is lies
Better give this saint the peace prize and someone’s country.
This is what a US American civil war looks like.
It will officially be once Waltz orders the state national guard to defend the city from ICE. Which is why he doesn’t.
He is not going to do that. I like Walz but that isn’t going to happen.
Minnesotans are modest but hard as nails. Don’t bet against it.
When do we, though?
WhenOnce it’s clearly over already? Then, we can “bet against it”? When it doesn’t fucking matter anymore?Tough as nails that are currently getting hammered into silence, more like. 🤌🏼
(edited for clarity)
Minnesotans are out in the street daily. It is the democratic leadership I have no faith in.
Fair enough. 🥲
i don’t know what news you’re watching but minnesota is literally resisting harder than any other state short of maybe California
In what way is California resisting ICE harder than Minnesotans?
I’m not answering your question because I literally never even said that
Maybe not when their political career is on the line.
That’s what I don’t get. There will be no politics when this is over if we don’t fight. What career are people trying to save.
The same one corporate boardrooms do. The ones that can’t look past the next quarterly report, the one that sacrifices the middle class and the biosphere for safe profits. The same one that shortsightedly sacrifices the future for the status quo, the status quo that requires no loss other than the creeping one you can ignore.
The state national guard can become federalized in a moment if Trump says so. Don’t count on them being any help unless they’re willing to disobey orders.
I’ve been advocating for months now that blue states need to get their state guard going.
It’s like the national guard, but entirely run by the state. It cannot be federalized. The downside is that they often share membership with the national guard and often get their training through the national guard and federal military branches.
Yeah, there have been a few instances of that happening. Notably, it happened when the governor of Arkansas tried to use the national guard to bar black students from entering a (recently desegregated) white school in 1957. Eisenhower federalized the guard, and ordered them to protect the black students instead. And the governor was forced to watch as all of “his” troops (who were already on the ground and ready to work because the governor had called them in) about-faced and started following the POTUS’ orders instead of his. It backfired on the governor pretty spectacularly, because they wouldn’t have been in place to enforce the desegregation unless he had ordered them to be there in the first place.
And Walz isn’t dumb. He undoubtedly knows that story. He doesn’t want a repeat of that, where he calls in the guard, then has them turned against him.
Eisenhower, the last non-evil Republican president.
The US has never had a non-evil president from any party.
I just had a horrific thought that old tricky Dick Nixon may actually end up inheriting that title just because of how bad everyone after him has been. Like compared to Trump the war on Drugs ain’t fuck all, and compared to Bush jr Vietnam was practically a peace operation.
Not a war when only one side has weapons shooting and murdering
But, the “other side” is brandishing free speech, equal rights, fair wages, safe housing, and more! 😭😱
Radical equal rights! Selfish democracy!
What’s happening in our country is a political genocide. Us citizens that don’t agree with the administration are getting hounded by federal masked agents. I’m just glad in my relatively unpopulated and very dem area I have yet to see ice or any nonsense. The “city” I live in wouldn’t qualify for a small town in neighboring states so I get a bit shielded from all the crap going on, but I fear that means I can make no meaningful impact before it’s too late because by the time they come for small America there won’t be an America as we would like to know it.
It’s just a good start.
And yet, every time I talk to right wing people around here. They’re like “well this just happened because of the fraud. They can’t detain legal immigrants” as my list of people around me grows as citizens get detained and taken to Texas.
Wake the fuck up.
Those idiots will perpetually double down on their identification. They are like the people who were dying of covid and still claimed in the hospital that they didn’t have it. You could march them off to prison and they’d probably claim the police were secretly left wing something or others.
Are you guilty?’ said Winston.
’Of course I’m guilty!’ cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. ’You don’t think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?’ His frog-like face grew calmer, and even took on a slightly sanctimonious expression. ’Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,’ he said sententiously.
ICE just deployed in my Southern capital city - bluest areas only, of course - and the local business owners quietly formed a pact to refuse them service and we all started privately sharing info about them. Just to note that ICE will come to other cities and it’s important to know ahead of time what you’ll do, and if you plan on being near them, what lawyer you or your family might call - or have a canary pact with (if you don’t hear from me, I am missing).
If you’re white, help protect those who aren’t. Let them know immediately as you hear about ICE movement in your city. Make sure they aren’t blindly walking around neighborhoods where they might be kidnapped off the streets.
Form private networks and use them. Neighbors, affinity groups, whatever tools you have available, or can build now, are the tools you’ll use. Think ahead.
Sounds like good ol’ Austin behavior!
There’s no accountability and transparency in where these people are disappearing to
This is what they’re planning.
Why would a cremation company have a both at a border security expo? Holy shit
So what do we do? Flee?
TL;DR:
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Fight if you can
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Flee if you must
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But always resist
Connect with networks in your community. We need to rely on each others’ support to get through this, no matter how the situation develops
The person who replied to you said “Fight”, and they’re not wrong, but I want to emphasise that there are people whose personal circumstances mean that they feel they need to flee, and that is okay. You should not feel guilty if this is something you genuinely need to do.
If you need to flee, do so by relying on your community. Don’t do things along. Look for ways that you can resist while still keeping yourself safe, and use your community connections to support other people who need to flee. There are some people who are not as able to fight, but there are still ways they can contribute.
To give an example of the kind of thing I mean (albeit in a far less explosive context, because I’m not in the US), I am physically disabled and have a bunch of other factors that mean I am not safely able to attend most protests, even as a legal observer. However, there have been a few times where I have been on standby, parked near the police station overnight, waiting for people to be released. This is because UK police tend to make a lot of arrests at protests and either not charge you, or charge you at a later point. They tend to let people out in the middle of the night, and they often do not have resources to travel home, or easy ways to contact people for help. When people in my network find out which station arrested protesters have been taken to, we can coordinate to ensure that there’s definitely going to be someone there when they are let out.
Like I say, that’s an example from a very different political climate. Things on the ground where you are is changing so fast that I can’t possibly know what kind of support roles are both relatively safe, and useful right now. This is why it is crucial to connect with your communities. Figuring out what works is a work-in-progress, but I am confident that there are ways you can help contribute to the resistance efforts while also relying on your community to help you or your loved ones flee if you need to.
Things are awful, and it sucks. Nothing is safe right now, even fleeing. But we have a duty to do whatever we can to reduce the harm done to the people in our communities. At times like this, all we have is each other, so let’s look after each other.
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Fight.
Here are concrete steps we can take to combat the regime with our last non-violent pathways (the titles below expand if you click them).
Learn First Aid! ⛑️
The future us likely to be violent, and It extremely important to have the skills to be able to keep yourself and others alive if they get hurt. You can never have too many medics.
Tacticool Girlfriend provides a great introduction to building a personal first aid kit, called an IFAK, which can deal with things like bullet wounds and other serious bleeding wounds. I also want to emphasize her recommendation of only buying medical gear from reputable sources (not Amazon!), such as North American Rescue to avoid fakes that could cost you your life.
But you’ll need to learn how to use that equipment, too. The best resource for that is to take a local Stop The Bleed class, which are pretty widely available in most places. They may cost a small fee, but can also sometimes be free. Alternatively, if you cannot access a local class, this video by PrepMedic will give you a solid understanding of how to use Tourniquets and Gauze for wound packing.
Injuries are less harmful if they are tended to early. Learning first aid can help conserve resources when healthcare becomes unaffordable. Having several medics in case of harm by police is an extremely powerful morale booster during a protest that may become a police riot. When you become comfortable with the basics of first aid, riot medicine is the next suggested step.
Establish or join local Mutual Aid networks ✊
If you haven’t already, get to know your neighbors. Mutual aid is a willingness to support and grow your community. This can include informal networks through friends, tenant/renter organizations, solidarity groups, and industrial unions.
These are groups using direct action to solve each other’s problems. Building strong communities makes it difficult for fascism to take root. The actions of the government are going to hit every community hard, and the ones who build trust in each other and work together are most likely to survive. We’ve been building a list of resources in !inperson@slrpnk.net to help you on your way. Also check out this handy guide to find existing groups in your area.
This isn’t only for your own community protection. Your ability to organize today will change the political landscape tomorrow. When revolution occurs, the social organizations that show the greatest resilience through the regime are the ones typically calling the shots when the dust settles. When it comes to elections, get out the vote drives are useless if most of the voters are fascists. At some point, you have to do grassroots political education if you don’t want fascist candidates winning elections. Mutual aid networks are excellent forums not only for teaching each other good political ideas, but demonstrating them in practice.
Join a Union and Prepare for a General Strike! 💪
The most effective non-violent action we can take is preparing and organizing for a General Strike.
The country would be brought to its knees if suddenly deprived of profit and labor. That tactic was extremely effective in Chile in 2019, and had they not fallen for the trick of liberal reform, they would’ve had a successful revolution on their hands with virtually no bloodshed.
If you aren’t in a union (or even if you are, it’s worth dual-carding), consider joining the IWW to unionize your workplace (bonus: you’ll get higher wages, better benefits, and more time off if you succeed!) to strengthen a general strike if we manage to enact one, as most unions have a strike fund that can supplement your income during a general strike to make it more financially bearable (you should also save as much money as you can reasonably do, so it can also be used to keep yourself afloat during a strike).
And for our international friends, you should join one as well, as fascism is gaining momentum globally. If your country isn’t listed below, just contact the IWW directly in the link above, and they’ll help you set up a new local branch.
Adopt Security Culture and Digital Camouflage 🛡️
Sometimes benign seeming efforts can turn into unexpected personal data collecting traps. Like an obscure website for exchanging contact info with other students turning into a global ad-tech surveillance network (Facebook), or innocent seeming online personality tests being use to harvest character profiles. Even Etsy, Reddit, Tinder, and Duolingo are feeding information to US Government Agencies like ICE.
Security culture is commonly used to describe the general awareness of such potential traps and how it can affect groups or entire communities. This goes beyond mere individual privacy efforts, as without joint efforts these often fail to work.
Especially in activist circles, security culture is paramount. For opsec reasons not everyone in the group might be aware of what clandestine efforts others are involved in, but with a general security culture many potential data leaks can be avoided.
Movements are made by the volume of their participants, and the easier and less dangerous it is to participate, the more people will get involved. As more people get involved, individual involvement becomes even less dangerous, creating a virtuous cycle.
We’ll start it off with some General Advice:
- Mentally wall off personal uniquely identifying info from your online presence, actively build a habit of opsec so that withholding information is your default mental state
- Be careful about who you meet online
- Use different, unrelated usernames, passwords & emails for every account. And try not to connect to those accounts with your real IP address (use Tor or a VPN)
- Be mindful that anything done online leaves a trail
- agents provocateurs may seek to find patsies willing to perform an ill-advised illegal activity in order to legitimize police repression. If someone is trying to pressure you, especially if you don’t have a long and proven history with them, be extremely wary.
For a full guide on what encrypted communications platforms to use, and how to stay off the radar, read the Digital Camouflage section within the Monthly Meta post here (you’ll need to scroll down. I’d add it here, but it won’t fit in this comment).
Also, I strongly suggest reading Full Spectrum Resistance.
I am in a union it’s literally a white supremisist gang
Guessing the Teamsters? they’re known for having the highest percentage of MAGA members, the majority voted for Trump, and Sean O’Brien is a corrupt bootlicker through and through.
If you are a teamster, I’d suggest taking a look at Teamsters Mobilize, and trying to vote O’Brien out if you can. Richard Hooker looks promising.
The unions I linked to in my big comment are all explicitly leftist anticapitalist unions that wouldn’t tolerate the behavior found within the teamsters.
Where does this say that this tradeshow is DHS/Law Enforcement related?
I see no information beyond that of the company
Could be a funeral industry show for all we know?
Border Security Expo
Top of the page and bottom of the page. The site itself is a 3rd party site that manages convention programing. A few months ago, both the main BSE site and the programming site wiped the previous event off their sites to get ready for the next one(and no other possible reasons, right?), so I have to use Archive.org now. This is the same event that Kristi Noem was a keynote speaker at last April.
Here’s a login bypassed article talking about Matthews Environmental Solutions. https://archive.is/xDuxX
Here’s a reddit post that also mentions it. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1k5pmgt/border_security_expo_shows_off_illegal_immigrant/
People need to be paying very close attention to what this company is doing. There were also numerous construction companies showing off their ability to construct concentration camps. Of course, they were AI generated.
Aah I see in the footer. Thanks
We need more community defense classes
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I’ve been reading “Fighters in the Shadows” by Robert Gildea, it’s about the resistance in France during World War 2. It’s funny how big the tent can be when you’re fighting fascism. They had people from all across the political spectrum, urban and rural, French plus countless other nationalities, and they were pursuing a really wide spectrum of activities.
If you read Stancil’s feed these days he’s really doing the work, plus publicizing the issue. I don’t think it makes sense to prioritize social media grudges at the moment.
prioritize social media grudges at the moment.
One more way we keep ourselves divided and infinitely goatsied —but, at least we’re unified in the pounding. 🤢🤌🏼
Fair enough, haven’t been on there in a bit.
Voluble.
