Minneapolis Tensions Rise Amid ICE Surge and Protests (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: There's still a lot that we don't know at this time, but what I can tell you for certain is that this is not sustainable. This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in. And at the same time, we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order. And we're in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ice agents on the street to stand by their neighbors. We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another. Why are we put in this position? We're put in this position because we have approximately 600 police officers in Minneapolis, far fewer that are able to work at any given time. And there are approximately 3000 ice agents in the area. 3000. The 600 police officers that we have are charged on any given day with investigating crime, stopping homicides from taking place, preventing carjackings. That's the work of a police officer in a city. Meanwhile, we have ice agents throughout our city and throughout our state who, along with border control, are creating chaos. This is not the path that we should be on right now in America. Thankfully, there's another path. And I want to talk to everybody who's out there, even people who aren't living in Minneapolis right now. Maybe you just put your kids to bed. Maybe you're cleaning up the dishes. I'm sure you love your family. There's no doubt in my mind that you love your town. Imagine if that city or that town was suddenly invaded by thousands of federal agents that do not share the values that you hold dear. Imagine if your daily routines were disrupted. The local cafe that you eat at was shut down because they're scared that their own family might get torn apart. Imagine if schools shut down and suddenly parents got to figure out what to do for daycare. This is not creating safety. It's certainly not creating safety when a huge percentage of the shootings that have taken place so far this year in Minneapolis have been by ice. So let's be very clear. I've seen conduct from ice that is disgusting and is intolerable. If it were your city, it would be unacceptable there, too. And for anyone that is taking the bait tonight, stop. That is not helpful. Go home. We cannot counter Donald Trump's chaos with our own brand of chaos. And I have seen thousands of people throughout our city peacefully protesting for those that have peacefully protested. I applaud you for those that are taking the bait. You are not helping, and you are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city. You are not helping the people that call this place home.

[00:03:45] Speaker 2: Joining me now to talk about this is Jill Snyder, retired New York City police officer. Thanks so much for being with us. And first, I want to start with the details, which I think not everybody has heard, but this is what the Department of Homeland Security is saying. They say the officer who opened fire was actually attacked by two other people while they were trying to make an arrest. So the statement claimed that people essentially came out of their homes with a snow shovel and a broom, that there was a scuffle, and in the process of the struggle on the ground, this is when this shooting happened. First, just what's your reaction to what you're hearing and how it's being described?

[00:04:27] Speaker 3: Well, good morning, Lottie. And I'm hearing the same thing as you. I'm hearing that, well, a targeted stop was trying to happen. Other people got involved, people that were not initially at all involved in the stop. And that's a real serious problem with law enforcement. When you are trying to do your job, we do have other people. And I get it. Tensions are running very high. There's a lot of emotion involved right now, especially in Minneapolis. But when law enforcement is trying to do their job, bystanders should not get involved because that could make the situation more volatile.

[00:05:00] Speaker 2: I was wondering how you feel watching these protests. Here we are, five years after the protests over the death of George Floyd, and now local police, in a way, are in the middle, right? They have this massive surge of protesters and a massive surge of federal officers into the city who are very clearly operating on the defensive. What do you do in this situation?

[00:05:26] Speaker 3: This is a challenging situation for local law enforcement because obviously they have their own job to do. They are there to protect the city. They are there to protect their constituents. They're there to protect the community. You have federal agents in there doing a separate job. They have their own mission. They have their own objective. They are working very siloed right now. They're not working in collaboration. It doesn't seem like there's constant communication between the two entities. And sadly, regular citizens really don't understand the distinction between what the local police, Minneapolis police, and what federal agents, ICE, or whomever is in there. They don't get what the two are doing. So this is a real problem, and this is why you're seeing these protests. This is why you're seeing this anger and this tension from the community. So what I am urging the federal government to do is, I mean, if they're going to be operating in these local cities, they have to be working at least in some kind of partnership with the local police because local police are going to be the ones to deal with the community every day.

[00:06:27] Speaker 2: In the meantime, here is what the local police chief was saying of last night's protest.

[00:06:34] Speaker 4: It has absolutely become an unlawful assembly. There are individuals throwing fireworks at police officers, individuals throwing ice, rocks, other projectiles at police officers. It is well past the line and people need to leave.

[00:06:52] Speaker 2: We're hearing this message over and over again to the protesters themselves. I want to get your point of view of the crowd control or lack thereof, because we are actually all familiar with images of protests against law enforcement. And I remember, you know, the lineups or the barricades or just there seemed to be more structure than what we're looking at now.

[00:07:16] Speaker 3: Well, we used to have different deployment strategies when dealing with protesters. But after the George Floyd protests, a lot of agencies decide to they didn't establish that barrier line anymore like we used to have because there was actually lawsuits that impended from that. So I feel like Minneapolis is trying to deal with the situation in the most pleasant way possible. And that's like me trying to give it a good word. They're trying to not establish that barrier to where it seems we're going to cause you fear. We're going to cause you the feeling of uncertainty or unsafety. They're trying to do in a way that they seem like they're trying to work with the community. But at the same time, they're not establishing that defensive force, that law enforcement force and ice and the federal officers.

[00:08:02] Speaker 2: What should their position be? I mean, I don't know if they're just not cut out for crowd control, but what's their role in this?

[00:08:10] Speaker 3: Well, typically that is not their job at all. It's local law enforcement would deal with protests, would deal with any kind of assemblies of the public federal agents. That's not at all part of their job description. They are there for a certain mission. They are there for a certain what they have their target or their objective. But again, and this is why we've been talking about it for me and you have been on several times in the last couple of months talking about the difference in distinction. Local law enforcement has the escalation training. They have unlawful assembly training. They deal with protests regularly or large crowds, whereas federal agents, that's just not part of their job.

[00:08:47] Speaker 2: Okay, Jill Snyder, thank you so much for speaking with us.