Dear Minneapolis,

Words have escaped me since the beginning of the new year. I keep looking at the news and wondering if everyone else is seeing what I’m seeing. I have to fight the urge to ask every person I pass by in the street if they see what I see. I can’t even believe my own eyes anymore because surely this can’t be happening in the United States of America, right?

I’m not jealous of what you’re going through. While I can relate to being a target, I cannot relate to the unimaginable cruelty you are experiencing in your sweet city. I am, however, jealous of your community. The way you all have found a way to come together has been astonishing and heartwarming to watch. It makes me want to pack my bags and move to Minnesota immediately, but I can’t. I am bound to this place for a few more years, but where I have yet to find a community, I have found a surrogate in you.

You have each other’s backs in a way I’ve not witnessed before. The immediacy with which you respond to the terror in Minneapolis is nothing short of brilliant. It’s mind-blowing and something to be studied by every community about to be the next target of this insanely cruel production. That’s what it is to this administration, a production.

We know why you’re being targeted. The reasons are many. The Epstein files probably being one of them. Texas has one of the highest rates of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. followed closely by Florida and California. This isn’t new news.

So why Minneapolis?

Why Portland, Oregon?

Why Maine?

Because the cowards don’t shit where they eat. Like any average bully, they don’t pick on people their own size. They're not murdering the gun-toting cowboy in TX because they know better. Those are their comrades and voters, and they know you “Don’t mess with TX” especially in a red state with people who are better shots than they are. Texas will hit the target.  No, they’ll round up our black and brown friends, but I guarantee not one cowboy will be shot in TX. No one should be shot, but they know what they’re doing and who they can get away with murdering.

So they pick states that are smaller, historically blue, and in their sick, twisted, smooth-brained minds, conquerable so that they can set an example for what’s to come for the rest of us if we don’t comply. They want your voter rolls. They’re taking names and license plates and holding that data to manipulate, stalk, and employ their preconceived narrative when they kill you.  You’re not letting them, though. You’re looking them in their masks, with your phones and your fear, and understanding that what you are doing is at the very least dangerous, and at worst, deadly to you. Bravo Minneapolis. I am in awe of you.

With the absence of any law, order, protection, or due process, you are watching your neighbors be murdered in the street while the law enforcement who was sworn to protect you is locking arms with murderers. With the absence of any help from elected officials or the rest of the country, you are holding the line. Day and night, I watch you film, hold candlelight vigils, honk your horns, lock your doors, blow your whistles, march, shelter your neighbors, and barricade your streets using your bodies and anything you can find to protect people, places, and evidence, all while you watch people being beaten and murdered.

You have seen things in the last month that you will never be able to unsee. You have heard gunshots and screams that you will never be able to unhear. You and your children have seen so much violence the trauma might linger forever. I hope, for your sake, that you know we see you and in spite of all of this violence, hope you can also remember the strength and courage your city showed when the devil came to town. You didn’t back down, and at great risk to yourselves and your families, you continue to amaze the rest of us.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti should still be alive. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were just doing what all of you are doing every day, and they paid the ultimate price. Did they know they would be shot 3 and 10 times by people who would call them names and clap while they ended another person’s life? Probably not. I think it’s hard for anyone in the U.S. to grapple with that level of inhumane cruelty and depravity at the hands of a federal agent and then watch them get away with it. You know the consequences now, and look at you. Still there. Still holding the line. Minneapolis, please write a handbook on how you’ve done it. Other states across the country are going to need it, and only you know how to do it.

We know you're exhausted. We know you haven't slept since early January. Please know someone in Kansas isn't sleeping well either because her heart bleeds for you, and the blood spilled by thugs at the expense of two good people who will never live another day, while the officers who murdered them are relocated for their safety. There aren’t words to describe the agony that must cause Renee and Alex’s families.

Know that there are people and cities all over the country that are bearing witness to your pain, your sacrifice, and your strength. Know that I am in my living room, feverishly sharing your videos and watching the news again, so that I can do what I can from my living room. If I could come to Minneapolis, I would be there in a second, but I can’t right now. I can only hope, in my small little corner of Kansas, that you know I am heartsick and exhausted with you.

I learned last night there’s going to be a regime change and Tom Homan is now in charge of the terror operation that is ICE. A regime change is still a regime, and I know you understand that, and that’s why you’re staying vigilant. You’ve seen this movie before. As I write this, there is a shooting in AZ involving a federal agent. I guess they needed to make a point since it’s now out in the open that democratic states are being targeted. Time will tell, it always does. So for now, it’s just another headline in the hourly ‘Breaking News” cycle that has become normal to our eyes and ears when this is anything but fucking normal. I can only hope another innocent person wasn’t killed today by Trump. It is Trump. It always has been. Everything starts at the top and trickles down. Trump is ICE.

There is no coincidence with this regime or this administration. They are watching every word we write and listening to every word we speak, and responding accordingly. The federal government is now the biggest threat to our safety. How fucking terrifying is that? I’m sorry you had to be the first, but you will not be the last. They are coming for us all. Please keep sharing what you know. We are going to need all the help and wisdom we can get because just because ICE isn’t killing people here yet, they are, in fact, here. They are everywhere.

Stay safe. Stay together. Stay warm. Stay furious. Keep recording. We’ll keep sharing.

Oh yeah, and go fuck yourself ICE. I hope those images and sounds haunt you in your dreams, but they won’t, because you’re a bunch of soulless nobodies with guns who clap when you get another kill and call a dead woman and fucking bitch. Trump must be so proud.

With love and rage,

Sabrina from Kansas