On Tuesday this week, more than thirty heavily armed officers wearing FBI, ICE, ATF, and Minneapolis police badges descended on a Mexican restaurant on east Lake Street, supposedly for a “federal law enforcement operation” regarding a “criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering.” Many of the officers wore masks covering their faces up to their eyes. The more than 100 protesters were dispersed using “chemical irritants.” *

No one was arrested.

Every statement regarding this raid has been vague and confusing. What is not vague or confusing is the fact that across this country, fully masked people carrying massive guns are pulling non-white residents off the streets, arresting them, detaining them, and sending them to prisons in other countries against the direct orders of U.S. courts. That’s how you create a police state.

poem, from Salt
– Nayyirah Waheed

you broke the ocean in
half to be here
only to find nothing that wants you

​Click here for more information on Nayyirah Waheed.
alisonmcghee.com
My podcast: Words by Winter

*photo by Nicole Neri, Minnesota Reformer