Olivia of Troye - A Weekend of Hope, and a Minnesota Hit List
“Love, not hate. That’s what makes America great!” From San Francisco’s Ocean Beach human banner to marchers splashing through New York City rain to my amazing community of Alexandria, Virginia, the June 14 No Kings Day protests turned the country into one vast, jubilant shout against authoritarianism and repression. Organizers estimate more than five million people filled streets in some 2,000 locations, making it one of the largest single-day protests in U.S. history. Handmade signs mocked Trump’s birthday parade vanity, toddlers waved cardboard crowns with slashes through them, and conservatives for the Constitution signs made me proud. The right-wing media and Trump playbook was familiar: magnify isolated scuffles, ignore millions chanting non-violence.
Yet before dawn on Saturday, violence struck far from the parade route: in Minnesota, a gunman posing as law enforcement assassinated Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and critically wounded Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Investigators recovered a “manifesto” and a “hit list” of 45 officials, all Democrats, as well as businesses including Planned Parenthood clinics, eerily echoing similar extremist creeds and manifestos.
This wasn’t a random flare-up; it was meticulously planned. The suspect didn’t just act out in a moment of rage, he went to the homes of at least four different Minnesota politicians while carrying out the attack, and all signs point to an ideological attack, threaded through a movement that feeds on grievances.
Radicalization and extremist ideology are fueling a growing wave of politically motivated violence. We need to call this what it is: domestic terrorism. Today, the most significant threats inside the United States come from two categories identified by our own domestic law enforcement and homeland security agencies: Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism and Anti-Government/Anti-Authority Violent Extremism. That’s not a partisan claim; it’s the formal assessment shared by career professionals across the homeland and intelligence communities.
https://www.livingitwitholiviatroye.com/p/a-weekend-of-hope-and-a-minnesota