Chris, I’ve been examining closely what you wrote. Not because it shocked me, but because it clarified something many of us have been sensing and struggling to name.
Let me ask it the way I keep asking myself.
What are we actually being governed by right now?
Is it law.
Is it principle.
Or is it appearance.
Because what you’re describing isn’t confusion or mixed messaging. It’s choreography. It’s the careful staging of opposition while the machinery underneath keeps moving, uninterrupted and well supplied.
Here’s the part that won’t let me go. This isn’t unfolding in a place we’ve already written off. It’s happening in a blue environment. A city fluent in the right language. A city that knows how to sound like resistance while continuing to provide material support to harm.
So I have to ask another question.
When does appearance stop being cover and become the strategy itself?
Because what you document is a pattern that feels painfully familiar. Outrage delivered to cameras. Concern delivered to headlines. Reassurance delivered to the public. And then quietly, overtime approved. Perimeters held. Crowds cleared. Paths opened. Time bought.
That distance between what’s said and what’s done isn’t an accident. It’s functional. It produces calm when disruption’s needed. It teaches patience where interruption’s required. It convinces people that accountability’s coming so they can afford to wait. Meanwhile the violence continues on schedule.
Here’s the truth your piece forces us to confront.
Blue doesn’t mean safe.
Blue doesn’t mean aligned.
Blue doesn’t mean immune.
It often just means the performance is more polished.
We’ve trained ourselves to read politics by tone instead of outcome. By posture instead of consequence. By statements instead of arrests. That’s the trap. And once you see it, you can’t unsee how much energy gets spent defending the appearance of restraint while bodies keep falling.
So I ask the question that keeps pressing.
If officials have jurisdiction and evidence and authority and still do nothing, what exactly are they governing?
Not justice.
Not safety.
Not law.
They’re governing perception.
And perception buys time. It diffuses anger. It turns urgency into process. It convinces people someone else is handling it. That isn’t neutrality. That’s intervention on behalf of the existing order.
What you’re naming, and naming without flinching, is that the real divide right now isn’t federal versus state or left versus right. It’s appearance versus action. Language versus consequence. Officials who understand that sounding opposed is often enough, and people who can’t afford that illusion because the harm’s already at their door.
Which brings me to the question that matters most.
What happens when people stop trusting appearances altogether?
The answer’s already visible. They stop waiting. They stop asking permission. They stop confusing calm with safety. They begin doing the work institutions have abandoned.
That isn’t chaos. It’s legitimacy migrating away from offices and into streets, kitchens, carpools, and cold nights where people decide not to sacrifice their neighbors to preserve someone else’s image.
Your work matters because it refuses to let appearance stand in for truth. It insists on inspection. And right now, inspection isn’t cynicism. It’s survival.
We don’t get the luxury of believing words anymore. We have to watch hands. We have to follow money. We have to count arrests. We have to notice who’s protected and who’s left bleeding while statements are drafted.
A great addition to Chris’s piece. When you explain the ruse of what we’re being fed, it’s eye opening. You are spot on that blue states aren’t safe from the madness just managed differently. Well said Dino.
At the risk of sounding like <them> (shudder!), Chris’s piece plus your added thoughts brought up another round of questions & observationsI have read online and keep trying to shrug off: the whole 2024 election thing, all the swing states, the bragging remarks about a Muskrat’s gift for those “beautiful” machines/computers, fake counties, zero votes for Harris in some, and ZERO demands for any hand counts… In light of both this article and Dino’s additional observations, those <unasked> (by Dems in power & Harris) election questions are suddenly even harder to ignore! What a yucky feeling…
I agree. Even Kamala’s or DNC’s non-reaction to bomb threats, missing votes, machines breaking down and ballots being moved. Plus decades since all swing states went to one candidate, and ETA data showing tabulator manipulation. Not a word from media, it was a COUP!, where were the F—k-n Dems? It was planned.
While trying to deal with Trumps Gestapo in our cities, his theft of Georgia’s Democratic stronghold, Fulton County’s 24 election ballots, indicates a definite need to inquire what his intentions are as that information is protected by law.
Why should we be surprised that local law-enforcement isn’t doing a damn thing. These guys are all cut from the same cloth and will not turn against each other — “The blue wall of silence.“
You nailed it. They’re gaslighting us with feigned political outrage and rhetoric that sounds like resistance, indignation and calls for restraint and accountability to buy time to establish a white nationalist theocratic mass surveillance technocracy in place. Fucking criminals!
Thank you Dino, I’m always happy read your reactions to the news. You always break things down for me. Thank you. I feel you have proven yourself to be calm and measured before stating your point. Thank you. I trust your reasoning and your judgement.
My heartfelt gratitude goes to the people of MN. If it wasn’t for them we would all be under martial law.
I’d like Senator Amy Klobuchar and Gov Walz to address MN law enforcement standing with ICE and the AG and DA’s outright lies and what are they doing to stop them!
Not only do the people of MN deserve an answer but the rest of the country does also.
Klobuchar and Walz have always been on the side of the cops and their tactics. People are naieve and/or not from Minneapolis or weren't here during the George Floyd uprising, which was a riot entirely created by the cops of the 3rd precinct. Klobuchar and Walz are happy with what the cops are and are not doing.
In the 1980s, after the Oklahoma bombing, there was an article in Atlantic magazine about the infiltration of military and police departments with radical right actors. There have been many similar incidents reported/recovered since then. Is it possible that our nation has been suffering from collective amnesia all these decades? Was it thinking the Constitution was inviolable? Could it have been the relentless right-wing juggernaut that twisted meaning and understanding? Hm-m-m-m. What could it have been? Perhaps some mistaken idea that the minds of humans be innoculated against propaganda masquerading as “alternative truths? I wonder . . .
In the 1980s, after the Oklahoma bombing, there was an article in Atlantic magazine about the infiltration of military and police departments with radical right actors. There have been many similar incidents reported/recovered since then. Is it possible that our nation has been suffering from collective amnesia all these decades? Was it thinking the Constitution was inviolable? Could it have been the relentless right-wing juggernaut that twisted meaning and understanding? Hm-m-m-m. What could it have been? Perhaps some mistaken idea that the minds of humans be innoculated against propaganda masquerading as “alternative truths”? I wonder . . .
Weaponization of state police forces didn’t happen to protect citizens. We have turned a blind eye to all of this and here it is. Add on the Is*hell surveillance tools.
Oh wait for the quadcopters from Ga*za to appear here on our soil. Drones that hunt you down and kill you.
Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good and fled the scene. No statement, no securing evidence, no following the protocols that protect officers in use-of-force investigations. You brought up Chauvin. Chauvin stayed. Chauvin followed procedure. Chauvin had a stronger legal defense than Ross does, and he was still convicted. Ross ran.
On the evidence question: Moriarty does not need DHS cooperation. The shooting was captured on multiple videos, including Ross's own cellphone footage. Thomas Warrick, former DHS deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy, reviewed that footage and concluded deadly force was not required. He said it doesn't look like anybody had hostile intent. Andy Noel, a Minneapolis civil rights attorney, called it a disproportionate use of force. Emmanuel Mauleón, a University of Minnesota law professor, called it egregious and reckless conduct and noted that Ross's fellow officer had to jump back to avoid being shot by his own colleague firing wildly. CNN's 3D reconstruction shows Good's vehicle turning away from Ross as he fired. Twelve federal prosecutors, including former acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, resigned over DOJ's refusal to investigate.
The evidence is on video. Witness testimony is available. Expert analysis is on the public record.
Prosecutors also have discretion on charges. Manslaughter is a slam dunk and the max charge can be pursued. No one is demanding Moriarty swing for first-degree murder and risk acquittal. She can charge what the evidence supports and secure a conviction. Choosing not to charge anything is a decision, not a constraint.
Twenty-three days. Video evidence. Expert testimony. A shooter who fled. Zero charges. That is not an investigation. That is a choice.
You have laid out in very clear and precise details of the complicity of elected officials in the scheme of ICE’s crimes. It is horrific that constituents assume those who represent us will do so with our best interests at the core of their actions and decisions. They clearly do not. I know many, many people say wait until midterms when we take back our country and I do hope that happens. But IMO, I don’t think we can wait that long. I believe we are in dire straits now, at this moment, because as the orange turd feels boxed in and losing his grip on power, he is going to step up tactics to another degree. We think it’s bad now, worse things are just around the corner. I appreciate your in depth explanation of what’s happening in Minneapolis.
Midterms won't do shit, you said it yourself: "it's horrific that constituents assume those who represent us will do so with our best interests at the core of their actions and decisions."
People need to die.
Period.
They're not going to walk away from their PAC donors and lobbyists and coffers and stock exchange insider trading willingly. They need to be pulled out by their grey hair, and then bleed for the message to all presently and in future generations. Nobody ever said revolution is easy.
I hear your passion and anger. I feel that same disgust for those that care more for their own comfort, bank accounts and power as opposed to being a servant to others and this country. I also agree that there will probably be more deaths, unfortunately, before this ship gets righted. I don’t advocate that elected officials be willfully executed but I don’t see how any of this is resolved peacefully as I try to play out the next few months in my mind. You’re correct that revolution is never easy.
Lol I use voice dictation a lot bc dyslexia, and 15 years in kitchens turned f- into a connotation that rarely means anger 😅
The reason I talk about this a lot isn't out of anger or angst or spite. I've been saying it for years because I've seen the writing on the wall.
These people haven't given us any other option, because they've all been consumed by greed and made deals with the people they've allowed to grow to power. All these oligarchs, they wouldn't be what they are without the US's complicit behavior bc of funneling money into their pockets, and they take advantage of every source they can hoard it from now, from public funding to PACs and special interest groups and the stock exchange (which we created) and their coffers. How would they maintain their lifestyles if they have any of this up? It's blatantly obvious that that's their concern when they vote against their own interests when smashing the very healthcare programs they would need, were they not enriched by other means.
⁂
These people won't *𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺* give up seats and they've made the changes necessary to turn being a 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 into a fkng career. We should not have newr-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 making policy decisions from the top-down at federal and even state levels. NO-body else in the WORLD has this going on. There's zero reason for someone with Silly Putty for a fucking face to be in office when they feel most comfortable in a realm where women and "coloreds" have no rights; white men had full advantage and praise in every aspect because they just came back from war as heroes; killing people and committing war crimes while blindly serving the government's interests in horrendous, imperialist foreign policy is commendable; machismo is the only accepted way to behave and think and anyone else is a pussy and gay; oh by the way gay people were staying in the closet; and they can imagine-pretend that mortgages and food and utilities and a new car can still be paid for by a job selling fucking VCRs because the government worked to their advantage, so anyone unable to create this situation is lazy and a loser and deserves the situation they're in.
⁂
The only choice we've been left if they won't get out of their fucking seats is to use the rights the founders very specifically wrote into law for this exact situation—and bear arms to make the solropriate changes.
⁂
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." — Lincoln
I absolutely agree with a lot of what you say. I’m angry too that elected officials are slaves to the deep pockets of donors and PACs. Of course it’s all made possible by laws THEY wrote and passed. It’s like asking the fox to guard the henhouse. Nobody is going to turn down that legislation when they get to reap the benefits.
Well okay, there is some anger about the situation but I don't just jump right to "kill everyone!" when I'm angry or supremely frustrated with something. 😄
"A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."
I read about the act save to do with voting (sorry I am in Australia) but I think they are going to try make you all to produce birth certificates and married women who have changed their name to her husband will find it hard to prove. They want to limit who can vote. Looks like they want women to lose their vote.
Carmel, I have thought ever since the beginning of the orange turd’s term last January that he and his minions seem determined to take women’s rights and status back to the 60s. I was in middle and high school during that time and I remember very well how women were viewed. It’s a travesty that this old white guy with orange makeup wants to relegate women to the back burner. We’ve struggled too much (while still needing to press on as there is more work to do) to allow that to happen. It’s not talked about much but I’m 74 and have seen this before. I’m retired but that doesn’t stop me from speaking up. Thanks for noticing that issue.
You are my age and to think that people fought so hard to get where they are today, just so some lying rapist takes this and so many others rights away from the younger generation is atrocious! I am so sorry for what your country is experiencing right now with Shitler in charge. He has destroyed America. Makes me love my country even more right now 💙
More than a few Democrats in this country are complicit in this slow-rolling coup. If we're going to stop this, it's up to 'we the people' to do it. We can't trust most of our elected officials.
"Patience in the face of atrocity is not just morally repugnant cowardice. It is a permanently losing strategy."
Today is the day. Always. Moriarty and O'Hara must be put into a position in which resigning is the most favorable choice for both of them. We are the only ones capable of making those conditions.
Damn straight with that quote. The window is closed, the authoritarians are in the building. Once you give them judicial power it's over. The only ways out are war (killing them) or surviving the 30-50 year reign.
Let’s be absolutely clear: a federal badge is not a license to break state law.
When ICE or Border Patrol agents assault people, unlawfully detain residents, destroy property, or ignore state authority, and no one gets arrested, that is not “cooperation.”
That is political cowardice dressed up as deference.
If any other armed group operated this way inside a state’s borders, law enforcement would act immediately. The idea that federal agents get a free pass creates a two-tier justice system — one for the powerful, and one for everyone else.
That is the opposite of law and order.
States are not helpless spectators. Governors, attorneys general, prosecutors, and state police swear an oath to uphold their laws and protect their residents.
That oath does not come with an asterisk that says “unless the person breaking the law works for Washington.”
Failure to enforce state criminal law against federal agents who violate it sends a chilling message: that armed officers can operate with impunity as long as their uniforms say “federal.” That destroys trust, escalates conflict, and puts communities at risk.
If federal agencies refuse to police their own, states must.
Investigate. Charge. Arrest when the evidence supports it. Let the courts decide — not political pressure, not agency loyalty, not fear of headlines.
And if state and local law enforcement are obstructed, threatened, or overwhelmed while carrying out lawful duties, governors have every right to deploy additional state-controlled resources, including the National Guard in a lawful support role, to ensure public safety and the enforcement of state law.
That is not rebellion. That is a state doing its job.
This is not about politics.
It is about whether laws apply to everyone or only to the powerless.
No badge should grant immunity.
No agency should be above accountability.
And no state should stand down while its own laws are being broken in plain sight.
I've not seen one in the videos I've seen and checked for one. A few times I've seen 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 that resemble badges, but those can literally be purchased for cosplay and Halloween on Amazon or wherever. I have no faith that they're real.
These people are literally referred to as "agents" and no other "agents" in Law Enforcement or any ops have badges & numbers for the public. They're usually in suits, but these racists are just thugs 𝘧𝘰𝘳 the suits.
Like, not denying that it's plausible, just that I've not seen any in full or even metal to verify their appearance as looking real so I'm on the side of "do they though?"
New York state is looking at banning local law from working with ICE. I listened to governor Kathy Hochul introducing the bill. I wonder what Christopher thinks of that?
I'd love to see Gov. Hochul make that happen. My only concern is that if we take months to do simple things like mask bans then in that time they'll just respond with 10 different tactics. Fascism is agile and institutionalism slow. It's an inherent structural vulnerability that authoritarians are able to exploit.
I want to write an article to introduce you, if you don't mind. I am curious as to what (if any) particular meaning you give to "existentialist republic"?
We could discuss that, definitely. I chose that publication title because existentialism, logotherapy, and absurdism have saved my life since Nov 2024. DM and we could do a call or something 👍
Yes, I would love to draw a clear line, just like the 10th amendment seems to stand for, between federal and state (and local). God bless the powers of the states.
Video of the police protecting the federal agents is what needs to be circulated if that is happening on the streets. Thank you for this reporting and we appreciate your being there in person. These bullies will not stop until there is significant pushback.
I remember reading something by a woman-I THINK it may have been the police report after she witnessed & recorded Alex Pretti’s murder but so many posts I don’t trust my brain to correctly source the reference- but your piEce explains why a woman who was RIGHT THERE when Alex Pretti was murdered referred to the MPD at least 2, if not 3 times, just standing there and she kept asking, “WHY WON’T YOU LOOK AT US???!! LOOK AT US!!!!”
Your piece explains why the MPD could not LOOK the citizens in the eyes after they had SWORN OATHS TO PROTECT THEM!!! God bless the people of Minneapolis who are protecting their own communities because the people PAID and sworn to protect them will not!!
EXCELLENT article Christopher Armitage! I read your substack to keep myself motivated and moving forward. I love the perspective you bring to every piece you write. This article in particular spoke to me loudly this morning in North Carolina. Along with a big ass cup of coffee that has notes of dark cocoa and caramelized sugar. Thank you for your fearless writing! Big battles ahead!
Excellent journalism, Christopher! We all need to spread the word about the inaction of local law enforcement. We also need to place irate calls to Mary Moriarity‘s office.
Clearly the Police are supporting ICE. They train at the same facilities using the same tactics. They are both militarized. Any surprise they support one another?
As for the lying, no surprise there either. It’s used by this regime as a cover up and a stall tactic. Believe no one. Base your decisions off of the evidence of your own eyes and ears.
ICE trains? They only get six weeks of training. It’s pretty obvious in the way that they behave in the streets.
I 100% agree with you though. I spent six years working with justice involved women as a social worker, and I saw parole officers, sheriffs and police officers always side with each other even when they know they are wrong. Teaming. And it goes deeper than that. They will align with control and power.
Chris, I’ve been examining closely what you wrote. Not because it shocked me, but because it clarified something many of us have been sensing and struggling to name.
Let me ask it the way I keep asking myself.
What are we actually being governed by right now?
Is it law.
Is it principle.
Or is it appearance.
Because what you’re describing isn’t confusion or mixed messaging. It’s choreography. It’s the careful staging of opposition while the machinery underneath keeps moving, uninterrupted and well supplied.
Here’s the part that won’t let me go. This isn’t unfolding in a place we’ve already written off. It’s happening in a blue environment. A city fluent in the right language. A city that knows how to sound like resistance while continuing to provide material support to harm.
So I have to ask another question.
When does appearance stop being cover and become the strategy itself?
Because what you document is a pattern that feels painfully familiar. Outrage delivered to cameras. Concern delivered to headlines. Reassurance delivered to the public. And then quietly, overtime approved. Perimeters held. Crowds cleared. Paths opened. Time bought.
That distance between what’s said and what’s done isn’t an accident. It’s functional. It produces calm when disruption’s needed. It teaches patience where interruption’s required. It convinces people that accountability’s coming so they can afford to wait. Meanwhile the violence continues on schedule.
Here’s the truth your piece forces us to confront.
Blue doesn’t mean safe.
Blue doesn’t mean aligned.
Blue doesn’t mean immune.
It often just means the performance is more polished.
We’ve trained ourselves to read politics by tone instead of outcome. By posture instead of consequence. By statements instead of arrests. That’s the trap. And once you see it, you can’t unsee how much energy gets spent defending the appearance of restraint while bodies keep falling.
So I ask the question that keeps pressing.
If officials have jurisdiction and evidence and authority and still do nothing, what exactly are they governing?
Not justice.
Not safety.
Not law.
They’re governing perception.
And perception buys time. It diffuses anger. It turns urgency into process. It convinces people someone else is handling it. That isn’t neutrality. That’s intervention on behalf of the existing order.
What you’re naming, and naming without flinching, is that the real divide right now isn’t federal versus state or left versus right. It’s appearance versus action. Language versus consequence. Officials who understand that sounding opposed is often enough, and people who can’t afford that illusion because the harm’s already at their door.
Which brings me to the question that matters most.
What happens when people stop trusting appearances altogether?
The answer’s already visible. They stop waiting. They stop asking permission. They stop confusing calm with safety. They begin doing the work institutions have abandoned.
That isn’t chaos. It’s legitimacy migrating away from offices and into streets, kitchens, carpools, and cold nights where people decide not to sacrifice their neighbors to preserve someone else’s image.
Your work matters because it refuses to let appearance stand in for truth. It insists on inspection. And right now, inspection isn’t cynicism. It’s survival.
We don’t get the luxury of believing words anymore. We have to watch hands. We have to follow money. We have to count arrests. We have to notice who’s protected and who’s left bleeding while statements are drafted.
That isn’t radical. It’s simply paying attention.
And thank you for doing it out loud.
A great addition to Chris’s piece. When you explain the ruse of what we’re being fed, it’s eye opening. You are spot on that blue states aren’t safe from the madness just managed differently. Well said Dino.
Thank you…as heartbreaking as it is.
At the risk of sounding like <them> (shudder!), Chris’s piece plus your added thoughts brought up another round of questions & observationsI have read online and keep trying to shrug off: the whole 2024 election thing, all the swing states, the bragging remarks about a Muskrat’s gift for those “beautiful” machines/computers, fake counties, zero votes for Harris in some, and ZERO demands for any hand counts… In light of both this article and Dino’s additional observations, those <unasked> (by Dems in power & Harris) election questions are suddenly even harder to ignore! What a yucky feeling…
I agree. Even Kamala’s or DNC’s non-reaction to bomb threats, missing votes, machines breaking down and ballots being moved. Plus decades since all swing states went to one candidate, and ETA data showing tabulator manipulation. Not a word from media, it was a COUP!, where were the F—k-n Dems? It was planned.
While trying to deal with Trumps Gestapo in our cities, his theft of Georgia’s Democratic stronghold, Fulton County’s 24 election ballots, indicates a definite need to inquire what his intentions are as that information is protected by law.
Why should we be surprised that local law-enforcement isn’t doing a damn thing. These guys are all cut from the same cloth and will not turn against each other — “The blue wall of silence.“
As you're aware,I'm sure, police always fall in with Fascism.
This 👆
You nailed it. They’re gaslighting us with feigned political outrage and rhetoric that sounds like resistance, indignation and calls for restraint and accountability to buy time to establish a white nationalist theocratic mass surveillance technocracy in place. Fucking criminals!
Thank you Dino, I’m always happy read your reactions to the news. You always break things down for me. Thank you. I feel you have proven yourself to be calm and measured before stating your point. Thank you. I trust your reasoning and your judgement.
Thank you Dino, so well replied
Thanks. Very well written.
My heartfelt gratitude goes to the people of MN. If it wasn’t for them we would all be under martial law.
I’d like Senator Amy Klobuchar and Gov Walz to address MN law enforcement standing with ICE and the AG and DA’s outright lies and what are they doing to stop them!
Not only do the people of MN deserve an answer but the rest of the country does also.
Klobuchar and Walz have always been on the side of the cops and their tactics. People are naieve and/or not from Minneapolis or weren't here during the George Floyd uprising, which was a riot entirely created by the cops of the 3rd precinct. Klobuchar and Walz are happy with what the cops are and are not doing.
Walz the whimp. Career cancelation is required.
In the 1980s, after the Oklahoma bombing, there was an article in Atlantic magazine about the infiltration of military and police departments with radical right actors. There have been many similar incidents reported/recovered since then. Is it possible that our nation has been suffering from collective amnesia all these decades? Was it thinking the Constitution was inviolable? Could it have been the relentless right-wing juggernaut that twisted meaning and understanding? Hm-m-m-m. What could it have been? Perhaps some mistaken idea that the minds of humans be innoculated against propaganda masquerading as “alternative truths? I wonder . . .
In the 1980s, after the Oklahoma bombing, there was an article in Atlantic magazine about the infiltration of military and police departments with radical right actors. There have been many similar incidents reported/recovered since then. Is it possible that our nation has been suffering from collective amnesia all these decades? Was it thinking the Constitution was inviolable? Could it have been the relentless right-wing juggernaut that twisted meaning and understanding? Hm-m-m-m. What could it have been? Perhaps some mistaken idea that the minds of humans be innoculated against propaganda masquerading as “alternative truths”? I wonder . . .
Weaponization of state police forces didn’t happen to protect citizens. We have turned a blind eye to all of this and here it is. Add on the Is*hell surveillance tools.
Oh wait for the quadcopters from Ga*za to appear here on our soil. Drones that hunt you down and kill you.
Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good and fled the scene. No statement, no securing evidence, no following the protocols that protect officers in use-of-force investigations. You brought up Chauvin. Chauvin stayed. Chauvin followed procedure. Chauvin had a stronger legal defense than Ross does, and he was still convicted. Ross ran.
On the evidence question: Moriarty does not need DHS cooperation. The shooting was captured on multiple videos, including Ross's own cellphone footage. Thomas Warrick, former DHS deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy, reviewed that footage and concluded deadly force was not required. He said it doesn't look like anybody had hostile intent. Andy Noel, a Minneapolis civil rights attorney, called it a disproportionate use of force. Emmanuel Mauleón, a University of Minnesota law professor, called it egregious and reckless conduct and noted that Ross's fellow officer had to jump back to avoid being shot by his own colleague firing wildly. CNN's 3D reconstruction shows Good's vehicle turning away from Ross as he fired. Twelve federal prosecutors, including former acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, resigned over DOJ's refusal to investigate.
The evidence is on video. Witness testimony is available. Expert analysis is on the public record.
Prosecutors also have discretion on charges. Manslaughter is a slam dunk and the max charge can be pursued. No one is demanding Moriarty swing for first-degree murder and risk acquittal. She can charge what the evidence supports and secure a conviction. Choosing not to charge anything is a decision, not a constraint.
Twenty-three days. Video evidence. Expert testimony. A shooter who fled. Zero charges. That is not an investigation. That is a choice.
You have laid out in very clear and precise details of the complicity of elected officials in the scheme of ICE’s crimes. It is horrific that constituents assume those who represent us will do so with our best interests at the core of their actions and decisions. They clearly do not. I know many, many people say wait until midterms when we take back our country and I do hope that happens. But IMO, I don’t think we can wait that long. I believe we are in dire straits now, at this moment, because as the orange turd feels boxed in and losing his grip on power, he is going to step up tactics to another degree. We think it’s bad now, worse things are just around the corner. I appreciate your in depth explanation of what’s happening in Minneapolis.
Midterms won't do shit, you said it yourself: "it's horrific that constituents assume those who represent us will do so with our best interests at the core of their actions and decisions."
People need to die.
Period.
They're not going to walk away from their PAC donors and lobbyists and coffers and stock exchange insider trading willingly. They need to be pulled out by their grey hair, and then bleed for the message to all presently and in future generations. Nobody ever said revolution is easy.
I hear your passion and anger. I feel that same disgust for those that care more for their own comfort, bank accounts and power as opposed to being a servant to others and this country. I also agree that there will probably be more deaths, unfortunately, before this ship gets righted. I don’t advocate that elected officials be willfully executed but I don’t see how any of this is resolved peacefully as I try to play out the next few months in my mind. You’re correct that revolution is never easy.
Lol I use voice dictation a lot bc dyslexia, and 15 years in kitchens turned f- into a connotation that rarely means anger 😅
The reason I talk about this a lot isn't out of anger or angst or spite. I've been saying it for years because I've seen the writing on the wall.
These people haven't given us any other option, because they've all been consumed by greed and made deals with the people they've allowed to grow to power. All these oligarchs, they wouldn't be what they are without the US's complicit behavior bc of funneling money into their pockets, and they take advantage of every source they can hoard it from now, from public funding to PACs and special interest groups and the stock exchange (which we created) and their coffers. How would they maintain their lifestyles if they have any of this up? It's blatantly obvious that that's their concern when they vote against their own interests when smashing the very healthcare programs they would need, were they not enriched by other means.
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These people won't *𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺* give up seats and they've made the changes necessary to turn being a 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 into a fkng career. We should not have newr-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 making policy decisions from the top-down at federal and even state levels. NO-body else in the WORLD has this going on. There's zero reason for someone with Silly Putty for a fucking face to be in office when they feel most comfortable in a realm where women and "coloreds" have no rights; white men had full advantage and praise in every aspect because they just came back from war as heroes; killing people and committing war crimes while blindly serving the government's interests in horrendous, imperialist foreign policy is commendable; machismo is the only accepted way to behave and think and anyone else is a pussy and gay; oh by the way gay people were staying in the closet; and they can imagine-pretend that mortgages and food and utilities and a new car can still be paid for by a job selling fucking VCRs because the government worked to their advantage, so anyone unable to create this situation is lazy and a loser and deserves the situation they're in.
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The only choice we've been left if they won't get out of their fucking seats is to use the rights the founders very specifically wrote into law for this exact situation—and bear arms to make the solropriate changes.
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"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." — Lincoln
I absolutely agree with a lot of what you say. I’m angry too that elected officials are slaves to the deep pockets of donors and PACs. Of course it’s all made possible by laws THEY wrote and passed. It’s like asking the fox to guard the henhouse. Nobody is going to turn down that legislation when they get to reap the benefits.
𝙀𝙭𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙡𝙮𝙮𝙮𝙮. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Fox guarding the hen house is the perfect snalogy
Well okay, there is some anger about the situation but I don't just jump right to "kill everyone!" when I'm angry or supremely frustrated with something. 😄
🙂
"A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."
- George Orwell
I read about the act save to do with voting (sorry I am in Australia) but I think they are going to try make you all to produce birth certificates and married women who have changed their name to her husband will find it hard to prove. They want to limit who can vote. Looks like they want women to lose their vote.
Carmel, I have thought ever since the beginning of the orange turd’s term last January that he and his minions seem determined to take women’s rights and status back to the 60s. I was in middle and high school during that time and I remember very well how women were viewed. It’s a travesty that this old white guy with orange makeup wants to relegate women to the back burner. We’ve struggled too much (while still needing to press on as there is more work to do) to allow that to happen. It’s not talked about much but I’m 74 and have seen this before. I’m retired but that doesn’t stop me from speaking up. Thanks for noticing that issue.
You are my age and to think that people fought so hard to get where they are today, just so some lying rapist takes this and so many others rights away from the younger generation is atrocious! I am so sorry for what your country is experiencing right now with Shitler in charge. He has destroyed America. Makes me love my country even more right now 💙
Don't forget "pedophile" and "sex trafficker" and "embezzler" and "88 times felon." 🫠
More than a few Democrats in this country are complicit in this slow-rolling coup. If we're going to stop this, it's up to 'we the people' to do it. We can't trust most of our elected officials.
"Patience in the face of atrocity is not just morally repugnant cowardice. It is a permanently losing strategy."
Today is the day. Always. Moriarty and O'Hara must be put into a position in which resigning is the most favorable choice for both of them. We are the only ones capable of making those conditions.
Damn straight with that quote. The window is closed, the authoritarians are in the building. Once you give them judicial power it's over. The only ways out are war (killing them) or surviving the 30-50 year reign.
Let’s be absolutely clear: a federal badge is not a license to break state law.
When ICE or Border Patrol agents assault people, unlawfully detain residents, destroy property, or ignore state authority, and no one gets arrested, that is not “cooperation.”
That is political cowardice dressed up as deference.
If any other armed group operated this way inside a state’s borders, law enforcement would act immediately. The idea that federal agents get a free pass creates a two-tier justice system — one for the powerful, and one for everyone else.
That is the opposite of law and order.
States are not helpless spectators. Governors, attorneys general, prosecutors, and state police swear an oath to uphold their laws and protect their residents.
That oath does not come with an asterisk that says “unless the person breaking the law works for Washington.”
Failure to enforce state criminal law against federal agents who violate it sends a chilling message: that armed officers can operate with impunity as long as their uniforms say “federal.” That destroys trust, escalates conflict, and puts communities at risk.
If federal agencies refuse to police their own, states must.
Investigate. Charge. Arrest when the evidence supports it. Let the courts decide — not political pressure, not agency loyalty, not fear of headlines.
And if state and local law enforcement are obstructed, threatened, or overwhelmed while carrying out lawful duties, governors have every right to deploy additional state-controlled resources, including the National Guard in a lawful support role, to ensure public safety and the enforcement of state law.
That is not rebellion. That is a state doing its job.
This is not about politics.
It is about whether laws apply to everyone or only to the powerless.
No badge should grant immunity.
No agency should be above accountability.
And no state should stand down while its own laws are being broken in plain sight.
The people must be supported
ICE doesn't wear badges because they aren't real law enforcement. They're ideology enforcement for ethnic purging and always have been.
Ethnic purging yes - they do wear badges, but are cover up so you can’t read them
You can't actually believe that if you've never seen one?
They are there but have bands across the numbers
I've not seen one in the videos I've seen and checked for one. A few times I've seen 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 that resemble badges, but those can literally be purchased for cosplay and Halloween on Amazon or wherever. I have no faith that they're real.
These people are literally referred to as "agents" and no other "agents" in Law Enforcement or any ops have badges & numbers for the public. They're usually in suits, but these racists are just thugs 𝘧𝘰𝘳 the suits.
They are indeed trumps private military of thugs
Like, not denying that it's plausible, just that I've not seen any in full or even metal to verify their appearance as looking real so I'm on the side of "do they though?"
New York state is looking at banning local law from working with ICE. I listened to governor Kathy Hochul introducing the bill. I wonder what Christopher thinks of that?
I'd love to see Gov. Hochul make that happen. My only concern is that if we take months to do simple things like mask bans then in that time they'll just respond with 10 different tactics. Fascism is agile and institutionalism slow. It's an inherent structural vulnerability that authoritarians are able to exploit.
I want to write an article to introduce you, if you don't mind. I am curious as to what (if any) particular meaning you give to "existentialist republic"?
We could discuss that, definitely. I chose that publication title because existentialism, logotherapy, and absurdism have saved my life since Nov 2024. DM and we could do a call or something 👍
Don’t know about Christopher, but I think she should I’m for it
Yes, I would love to draw a clear line, just like the 10th amendment seems to stand for, between federal and state (and local). God bless the powers of the states.
Hell we pay em'
We and you would think we could fire them
Video of the police protecting the federal agents is what needs to be circulated if that is happening on the streets. Thank you for this reporting and we appreciate your being there in person. These bullies will not stop until there is significant pushback.
This 👆 Christopher – Do you have any videos you could share?
Definitely, putting together a compilation video 👍
I remember reading something by a woman-I THINK it may have been the police report after she witnessed & recorded Alex Pretti’s murder but so many posts I don’t trust my brain to correctly source the reference- but your piEce explains why a woman who was RIGHT THERE when Alex Pretti was murdered referred to the MPD at least 2, if not 3 times, just standing there and she kept asking, “WHY WON’T YOU LOOK AT US???!! LOOK AT US!!!!”
Your piece explains why the MPD could not LOOK the citizens in the eyes after they had SWORN OATHS TO PROTECT THEM!!! God bless the people of Minneapolis who are protecting their own communities because the people PAID and sworn to protect them will not!!
Thank you for this eye opening piece.
Her name is Stella Carlson, the “lady in the pink jacket.” Here’s a link to another interview she did, this time with MN Public Radio: https://youtu.be/4ngzYbVn4I4?si=52IkTz3htRDWlCNN
Nothing's changed apparently since the Floyd murder. A lot of fluffy talk is all
EXCELLENT article Christopher Armitage! I read your substack to keep myself motivated and moving forward. I love the perspective you bring to every piece you write. This article in particular spoke to me loudly this morning in North Carolina. Along with a big ass cup of coffee that has notes of dark cocoa and caramelized sugar. Thank you for your fearless writing! Big battles ahead!
Shared on Tim Walz's Facebook page with phone number to call Mary's office. thank you for this. It is ridiculous to watch this unfold.
Compliance may buy temporary protection, but the poem always ends the same way.
…and then they came for me…
Excellent journalism, Christopher! We all need to spread the word about the inaction of local law enforcement. We also need to place irate calls to Mary Moriarity‘s office.
Clearly the Police are supporting ICE. They train at the same facilities using the same tactics. They are both militarized. Any surprise they support one another?
As for the lying, no surprise there either. It’s used by this regime as a cover up and a stall tactic. Believe no one. Base your decisions off of the evidence of your own eyes and ears.
🇺🇸RIP
ICE trains? They only get six weeks of training. It’s pretty obvious in the way that they behave in the streets.
I 100% agree with you though. I spent six years working with justice involved women as a social worker, and I saw parole officers, sheriffs and police officers always side with each other even when they know they are wrong. Teaming. And it goes deeper than that. They will align with control and power.
They also lie on police reports. This is nothing new. The victims have no voice. Internal investigations are a joke.
This is horrifying, especially since it is obvious that a majority of Minnesotans expect and deserve arrests in this case!
Christopher
As always, your reporting is impeccable and so necessary to really understand what we are fighting for