ANOTHER LOVE LETTER TO CHIEF O’HARA
BY ED FELIEN
Congratulations,_Chief O’Hara.
The report by the City Auditor found that you did not violate the city ordinance that prohibited you from providing assistance to immigration agents when you led officers from the MPD to Lake and Bloomington on June 3.
A federal judge had signed a search warrant that authorized federal agents from the FBI, IRS, DEA and ICE to search the Las Cuatros Milpas restaurant for information about Francisco Estrada-Deltaro. He owns 80% of the restaurant, and he is connected to a storage unit in Burnsville that was found to contain 900 pounds of methamphetamine.
Normally, if federal agents want to serve a search warrant to gather evidence, they will coordinate with local officials and, without much fuss or fanfare, show up and gather the papers they need.
But this was quite different. This was meant as a dramatic show of force to strike fear and intimidation in the Phillips/Powderhorn inner city neighborhood. The invasion was led by a Bearcat armored personnel carrier followed by men marching in mismatched uniforms, some bearing ICE patches on their shoulder. It was excessive force meant to terrorize the Latin community around Lake and Bloomington. They came like an occupying army.
The response from the community was swift and unequivocal. Hundreds of residents showed up to protect our neighbors who might be taken by ICE without due process in violation of their civil rights. Among them were State Senator Omar Fateh, Council Members Jason Chavez and Aisha Chughtai and Park Board candidate Adam Schneider. They were heroically facing an armed military to defend our constitutional right to due process.
The Bearcat
The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, did not show up.
The Auditor’s report said the one problem with the event was a lack of communication. And whose responsibility was that?
The Mayor was just about the only person who knew what the feds were planning to do. He could have intervened earlier. He could have denounced the military intimidation before it began.
Silence is consent.
Frey swore an oath to “support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution and Laws of the State of Minnesota, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Minneapolis.”
He was AWOL on June 3.
As I have written before, I thought you, Chief O’Hara, behaved admirably and courageously. You interposed your body between the protesters and the military company. I appreciate that your action was in part to warn the demonstrators not to do anything violent or foolish. But I am bold enough to assume that you believed it was also your duty to stop ICE from arresting someone without cause or due process. You were there not just to protect the military from us, but you were also there to protect us from being deprived of our Constitutional rights.
You serve the law.
But what we saw on June 3 was just a curtain teaser—an overture to draw attention to the stage before the real music begins.
Trump was testing the water.
As of this writing, he has armed National Guard troops occupying the streets of Washington, D. C. He is threatening to send troops to New York City and Chicago.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “The guard is not needed. This is not the role of our military. The brave men and women who signed up to serve our country did not sign up to occupy American cities.”
Governor Pritzker of Illinois said, “There is no emergency that warrants the President of the United States federalizing the National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders. Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he’s causing families. We’ll continue to follow the law, stand up for the sovereignty of our state, and protect Illinoisans.”
What’s Trump’s plan? What’s his ultimate objective?
In his dreams, Donald Trump sees an agent provocateur deliberately starting something that would justify the National Guard shutting down the entire town. Hitler used the Reichstag Fire as his justification for military martial law in Germany. If Trump’s horrific incident happened in late October or in the first days of November, then elections would have to be cancelled, and Eric Adams would remain Mayor of New York and Jacob Frey would remain Mayor of Minneapolis.
The success of Trump’s plan depends on the cooperation of the local police.
Eric Adams was a Captain in the NYPD. He knows the boys in blue and how they operate. And he’s indebted to Trump for keeping him out of prison.
The police departments in Chicago and Minneapolis are strongly influenced by City Heat, a White Nationalist motorcycle gang of cops. Bob Kroll, the leader of the Twin Cities branch of City Heat, was also head of the Minneapolis cops’ union.
Now would be a good time to take seriously the purging of racist murderers in the MPD. Are the cops who killed Amir Locke and Terrance Franklin still with the force? Are they in charge of training new recruits?
We need to know where everybody stands.
