Minneapolis Knows How to Resist This State Violence

In 2020, local and state officials condemned the actions of Officer Derek Chauvin, but many, including Mayor Jacob Frey, were more cautious in critiquing the police department or policing more broadly. Now, in 2026, local and state officials are directly calling out the authorities. Frey described Noem’s claims as “bullshit,” while Minnesota Governor Tim Walz decried the administration’s “propaganda.”

At a press conference Wednesday night, Mayor Frey, flanked by law enforcement leaders, told ICE forcefully: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” This message has been repeated across the local political spectrum, from Frey’s allies to his opponents, in a surprising repudiation of Minnesota nice. Frey himself repeated it—sans curse word—in a New York Times op-ed on Thursday.

Of course, it’s easier for local and state officials to condemn federal agencies than to condemn their own. And the political logic of Homeland Security raids is quite different from that of local police actions—no mayor in America is likely to tell their police department to “get the fuck out.” But it’s hard to imagine residents’ preparations for ICE patrols, the intensity of politicians’ rebukes, or the public appetite for the call to “abolish ICE” without the muscle-building political struggles in the summer of 2020 and organizers’ continual insistence that law enforcement lies about police violence.