Minnesota Feels Like an Authoritarian State
Because Fear Is the Point
Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!
In this newsletter, we discuss the ICE surge in Minnesota. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.
See you on the streets! ✊✊✊
Actions and Activities
(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)
Arvada
2/1: 11:00am - 12:30pm - Weekly Resistance Rally *Weather Permitting*
80th and Wadsworth in Arvada (Safeway)
Boulder
1/26: 3:45 - 5:00pm - Overpass Protest
Highway 36 & 88th
Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/iQUmi35XfgMHaG5E8
1/29: 12:00 - 1:00pm - Visibility Brigade - Overpass Protest
Foothills Pkwy & Sioux Pedestrian Overpass (Parking on Sioux Ave off of Thunderbird Dr.)
2/5: 12:00 - 1:00pm - Visibility Brigade - Overpass Protest
Foothills Pkwy & Sioux Pedestrian Overpass (Parking on Sioux Ave off of Thunderbird Dr.)
Broomfield
2/1: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!
Northwest Corner
West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
Broomfield, CO 80020
Fort Collins
1/27: 3:15 - 5:00pm - WEEKLY Corner Protest Tues/Thu
Corner of College & Drake
1/29: 3:15 - 5:00pm - WEEKLY Corner Protest Tues/Thu
Corner of College & Drake
2/3: 3:15 - 5:00pm - WEEKLY Corner Protest Tues/Thu
Corner of College & Drake
2/5: 3:15 - 5:00pm - WEEKLY Corner Protest Tues/Thu
Corner of College & Drake
Golden
1/29: 2:30 - 4:30pm - Standing For
Near the Buffalo Bill statue, Washington Ave & 10th St, Golden CO
2/5: 2:30 - 4:30pm - Standing For
Near the Buffalo Bill statue, Washington Ave & 10th St, Golden CO
Grand Junction
1/26: 5:30 - 7:00pm - Resistance & Snacks
SIGN UP FOR LOCATION: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/888938/
Littleton
1/27: 3:00 - 4:30pm - WE THE PEOPLE
South Broadway & Littleton Blvd
1/31: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Protest Against Tyranny
5700 S Broadway
Littleton, CO 80121
2/3: 3:00 - 4:30pm - WE THE PEOPLE
South Broadway & Littleton Blvd
2/7: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Protest Against Tyranny
5700 S Broadway
Littleton, CO 80121
Lone Tree
2/1: 1:00 - 3:00pm - Speak Now - "Good" Trouble
Park Meadows Dr and S Quebec St
8660 S Quebec St
Lone Tree, CO 80124
Louisville
1/26: 3:45 - 5:00pm - Overpass Protest
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iQUmi35XfgMHaG5E8
(Hwy 36 & 88th)
88th St Overpass on Hwy 36
2200 S 88th St
Louisville, CO 80027
2/2: 3:45 - 5:00pm - Overpass Protest
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iQUmi35XfgMHaG5E8
(Hwy 36 & 88th)
88th St Overpass on Hwy 36
2200 S 88th St
Louisville, CO 80027
Loveland
1/31: 10:00am - 12:00pm - Stand Up Loveland!
1440 N Lincoln Ave
2/7: 10:00am - 12:00pm - Stand Up Loveland!
1440 N Lincoln Ave
Northglenn
1/28: 3:00 - 4:30pm - Gabe Evans Pedestrian Bridge Protest
I-25 Pedestrian Bridge
281 W 104th Ave
Northglenn, CO 80234
Map of where we will protest (the pedestrian bridge over I-25 near Cinzetti’s): https://maps.app.goo.gl/cPPfGKSBYpWKwfYG8
1/30: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Protest at Gabe Evans’ Northglenn Office
Northglenn District Office
10701 Melody Dr
Northglenn, CO 80234
2/4: 3:00 - 4:30pm - Gabe Evans Pedestrian Bridge Protest
I-25 Pedestrian Bridge
281 W 104th Ave
Northglenn, CO 80234
Map of where we will protest (the pedestrian bridge over I-25 near Cinzetti’s): https://maps.app.goo.gl/cPPfGKSBYpWKwfYG8
2/6: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Protest at Gabe Evans’ Northglenn Office
Northglenn District Office
10701 Melody Dr
Northglenn, CO 80234
Pagosa Springs
1/31: 12:00 - 2:00pm - Weekly - Stand Up Saturday
The public Parking Lot on Hwy 160 next to the library
2/7: 12:00 - 2:00pm - Weekly - Stand Up Saturday
The public Parking Lot on Hwy 160 next to the library
Superior
1/31: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Stand Up! Speak Out!
2 S Marshall Rd
Superior, CO 80027
2/7: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Stand Up! Speak Out!
2 S Marshall Rd
Superior, CO 80027
Thornton
1/30: 3:15 - 5:15pm - FOURTH-FRIDAY FIGHT BACKS
Colorado Boulevard & East 112th Avenue
Thornton, CO 80233
2/6: 3:15 - 5:15pm - FOURTH-FRIDAY FIGHT BACKS
Colorado Boulevard & East 112th Avenue
Thornton, CO 80233
Minnesota Feels Like an Authoritarian State Because Fear Is the Point
If you’re a certain skin color in Minnesota right now, it probably feels like you’re living under an authoritarian crackdown.
Not “politics are ugly.” Not “times are tense.” I mean the specific feeling of being watched, hunted, and boxed in. The feeling that the government can flood your community with force, change the rules midstream, and then act like you’re the one being unreasonable for reacting like a human being.
And even if you’re not the one being targeted, you can still feel it. Because that’s what this kind of operation does. It turns public space into a threat environment. It turns everyday life into a series of calculations: Do I drive? Do I go to work? Do I pick up my kid? Do I help someone? Do I speak up? Do I film? Do I even look like I’m paying attention?
That isn’t “public safety.” That’s fear as policy.
Public safety has rules you can understand. It has limits that don’t disappear when authority gets annoyed. It has accountability you can point to.
What Minnesota is getting right now looks like the opposite: overwhelming federal presence, escalating tactics, and messaging that keeps trying to tell people not to believe their own eyes. Add the fact that an American citizen ended up dead during one of these operations and the word “normal” should not be allowed anywhere near this conversation.
Here’s the trap that makes this so dangerous.
People are being pushed into a brutal choice:
Stay quiet and watch neighbors get swallowed by the machine.
Or help, document, protest, intervene… and risk being treated as the problem.
That’s how you break a community. Not only with arrests, but with isolation. You make solidarity feel risky. You make decency feel like it comes with a price tag.
And then you add the rhetorical weapon: rename.
Helping becomes “obstruction.”
Obstruction becomes “rioting.”
Rioting becomes “insurrection.”
Once you can do those word swaps on demand, you can justify more force. You can justify wider arrests. You can justify escalating authority. You can build a pretext ladder and climb it.
That’s why the question “what if protests turn violent” matters, and not in the way people want it to.
Because violence doesn’t have to be widespread for the crackdown to expand. It only has to be filmable.
One thrown object. One fight. One person who came to cosplay revolution. One provocateur doing what provocateurs do. Then the whole story becomes “violent clashes,” and everything else gets erased: the fear in targeted communities, the collapsing trust, the overreach, the dead citizen, the people just trying to exist.
So, here’s the thing.
If you show up looking for a fight, you are helping the people you think you’re opposing.
If you can’t control yourself, you’re not resistance. You’re footage.
None of this means people should stay home and shut up. It means we need discipline that protects the people who are most exposed.
Support that doesn’t require hero fantasies.
Show up in crews, not alone. Have exit plans. Document calmly. Don’t get pulled into macho posturing with people in armor. Support legal defense. Protect local journalism. Pressure local and state officials to create friction and oversight. Check on vulnerable neighbors. Move resources where the harm is happening.
And refuse to let the country treat this as “normal enforcement,” because that phrase is doing a lot of work for the people escalating the situation.
A country founded on consent does not get to treat communities like occupied territory.
A country founded on liberty does not get to make solidarity feel punishable.
A country founded on law does not get to shrug and move on when an American ends up dead in the middle of a federal law enforcement operation.
If Minnesota is a test, the answer can’t be silence, and it can’t be spectacle.
It has to be steady, organized refusal. The kind that keeps people alive and keeps power from writing the story it wants.
Non-Protest Actions Bingo
The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!
1. Despite being the sites of many of the worst ICE raids, both Target and Home Depot remain silent on the issue, and frequently allow ICE thugs to use their parking lots as staging grounds. Please boycott these companies until they do better.
2. For more background on the 2026 funding bill for ICE, please see this article. Given what is currently going on in Minnesota and elsewhere, we cannot allow our representatives to hand ICE a blank check to continue their abuse of power.
3. The Indivisible calendar for Colorado is available here.
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