Reflections on Call to Minneapolis, January 23, 2026

I spent Friday in Minneapolis. I prayed at the site of Renee Good’s murder. I prayed at the George Floyd Memorial. I marched with 40,000 plus people in -10-degree weather (-22 with windchill). I spent the morning with a good friend who is a Disciples of Christ pastor and one of the active faith community organizers.

But let me start with Thursday. I arrived in Minneapolis Thursday evening. I intentionally stayed in Eden Prairie (outer ring suburb). Even there, the effects of the occupation were evident – empty shelves, mostly likely due to lack of workers not lack of inventory. Particularly jarring was the sight of the Walmart checkout lands with totally bare shelves – no gum or candy, no air fresheners, lighters, lip balm, and other random impulse buys. I’d never seen that before – even stores days away from closing still had impulse buys at the register.

The front desk assistant at my hotel told me things were so tense. People were afraid to come to work, including some of their staff. She was confused and dismayed by ICE’s kidnapping of a little boy on Wednesday so they could use him as bait to get his mother to come out of the house so they could detain her along with the boy’s father. A family who were here legally, doing everything “the right way” and now the boy and his father were in detention in Texas. “People are scared,” she said, “people are angry.”

Friday morning, my friend took me and two of her houseguests (also there for the march) to see the Renee Good murder site, and the George Floyd Memorial. We drove past a school a few blocks from her house. “this is the school where [husband] and I patrol.” They are there to make sure kids get to the bus stop safely. She is worried about the school bus drivers as most of them are Somali. She fears ICE with target the bus garage where all the district busses are parked.

Ten minutes later we were at the Renee Good memorial. Just a normal moderate-income neighborhood. It was a solemn moment standing where she was murdered. A few blocks away, I stood at the George Floyd Memorial, It’s also in a small neighborhood business district. The only difference with a similar neighborhood in Brookings is that the houses are closer together and the residents are more ethnically diverse.

My friend told us about the days immediately following the George Floyd murder. She was there, as clergy, to support the neighborhood. I could see the exhaustion, anger, and pain in her expressing as she told of blocking off the area, supporting a neighborhood in shock and pain. She is fierce, my friend, passionate about the injustice and racism she has witnessed. I remember going to dinner with her in one of the ethnic restaurant districts in June 2016. While we were eating, a police officer stopped a car just outside the restaurant and made the Hispanic occupants get out of the car. Immediately, she had her phone out, explaining, “After Jamar Clark, we’ve started filming any police interactions with people of color.” Two weeks later, Philando Castille was killed, on a street I travelled regularly during my doctorate intensive classes. The following summer, I visited his memorial on one of my many drives on that street.

Back to my experience. Thursday morning, a large group, including clergy from all faith traditions, protested ICE presence at the airport. Clergy, sporting stoles and other religious insignia, knelt and prayed. One at a time, one hundred clergy were lifted to their feet, handcuffed and led to a bus and taken to Hennepin County Jail for processing. They were given a citation and released. Some of the police thanked them for taking a stand (as reported by one of the clergy who was arrested).

Friday afternoon, I joined Episcopal Clergy from all over the US for a time of prayer before walking to the March. Minneapolis Bishop Craig Loya, Washington Bishop Mariann Budde, and Iowa Bishop Betsey Monnot spoke, blessed the gathered clergy, and prayed. Then we were off to the march.

By the time we arrived at the Commons, it was already packed. Around 2:30 the march began. There were so many people, so many signs. My favorites were “Anarchist supporting the Constitution,” and “We tossed tea in the harbor for less than this.” My own sign said, “Resisting fascism is holy work” and “so bad even the introverts are here!”

Around 3pm, we were finally able to begin to march. And there were still thousands of people behind us. While marching, Mother Lauren repeatedly checked on a friend who was not responding. We later found he was in the group arrested and released.

We marched from the Commons to the Target Center, approximately 4.7 miles (including the walk from Gethsemane Episcopal Church. We were separated from the other Episcopal clergy, but it didn’t matter. Here we were all friends, all family, all united in our dismay of the state of our country and the abuses of ICE. There were volunteers handing out handwarmers, cars at intersections honking in support. The skybridges were full of families, with their own anti-Ice signs, clapping us on. At one point a man walked through with a box of tissues for so we could wipe noses running from the cold (a kindness I was extremely grateful for). A person (or two) in a large lumbering bear costume, who stopped to roar beside us. Another person dressed at a loon (Minnesota’s state bird). We did not see any ICE presence during the march. Rumor was they were going door to door, hoping that the observers and protesters would be at the march.

Because of the extreme cold, the city offered the Target Center for a rally at the end of the march. By the time we got there, it was already at capacity. The rally, which was supposed to start at 3pm and end by 5pm, didn’t even start until 5pm – it took that long to process all 22,000 people through center security! And that was only half or less of all those who marched. The news reports all mention “thousands” marched. Sure, like 30 to 50 thousand (we guessed 40,000 based on how many people standing outside of Target Center, and how many people arrived after we did). Mainstream media is downplaying the size of the event, having been thoroughly cowed by the administration. It was a peaceful protest, joyful yet determined.

Today (Saturday), ICE striked back. Less than a mile away from where Renee Good was murdered,  in a similarly ethnic neighborhood, Alex Pretti was filming ICE interactions and stepped in to help defend a woman. He was tear gassed twice, pinned down, pistol whipped and shot multiple times. I’ve seen the videos from various witnesses. He was holding a cell phone, never pulled a gun. An innocent man was murdered by the government.

Minneapolis has a history of law enforcement violence against minorities. The difference is that the pre-ICE police related deaths happened on average one time a year. And there were investigations after each event. Some of the officers were charged. That doesn’t make those deaths any less tragic or less unwarranted. But this – this is different. There have been two ICE-related deaths, and so many reports of ICE brutality in just a few weeks, with no accountability, no investigation, no remorse. Truth has been spun; no truth has been obliterated. Official versions of the incidents exonerate ICE and demonize their victims - this in spite of videos that clearly show ICE escalating situations and reacting with excessive violence.

ICE is out of control, and it is by design. We are no longer waiting for democracy to fall. Fascism has taken over. No one is safe from its reach. Pastor Martin Niemöller’s poem rings too true. He wrote from experience: he was a staunchly antisemitic Nazi supporter. He thought his privilege would protect him, and it did. Until he spoke out against Nazi control of the churches. He wrote his famous, “First They Came” while imprisoned in a concentration camp.

Let’s not wait till there’s no one left to speak out. It’s time to speak up, to show up, to stand up, To witness atrocity and proclaim truth.