Lead Balloon Ep. 66 - Cracks in the ICE: Legal Observers in Minneapolis Use the First Amendment to Swing Public Opinion About Immigration Crackdown

How should regular citizens with smartphones stand up for the Constitution?

Since the government shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, something has changed in the national conversation about the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.

And the primary reason it’s happening is not a brilliant PR campaign, Pulitzer-winning journalism, or organized political strategy.

It’s because of regular folks with camera phones documenting what’s actually happening on the streets of Minneapolis and other cities that have been occupied by ICE.

By simply recording and sharing, they have publicly and irrefutably contradicted the Trump Administration’s blatant lies.

And now, many people who did not want to pay attention to the issue are paying attention.

Some folks who supported the aggressive immigration enforcement now don’t.

And citizens who were not comfortable questioning the administration’s lies... question them now.

Whether you want to call them “Legal Observers,” “Constitutional Observers,” or "regular folks" who record what’s happening, the impact is profound.

So in this episode, we discuss why these brave Minnesotans with camera phones are such a potent force in the current political environment with Scott Libin, a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism.

And, we speak with a former law enforcement leader in the Midwest who says more people need to pick up their smartphones and serve as "legal observers." Dave Mahoney served as Dane County, Wisconsin Sheriff from 2007 to 2021, and shared an interesting encounter with Dusty in 2011 that cemented both of their appreciations for the First Amendment right to document the government's actions.

For those who are interested in serving as legal observers, Libin and Mahoney will even lay out some steps for enhancing your effectiveness and bolstering your safety.

Because every American has a role to play in protecting our constitutional rights.

Transcript:

Dusty Weis

Since the government shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, something has changed in the national conversation about the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.

And the reason it’s happening is NOT some brilliant PR campaign or a Pulitzer-winning journalist… it’s certainly not inspired leadership from the opposition.

It’s because of regular folks with camera phones documenting what’s actually happening on the streets, and contradicting the Trump Administration’s blatant lies.

Scott Libin

Saying these were acts of domestic terrorism, that this guy was an assassin… It feels like the government is saying, “Don’t believe what you see and hear. Believe what we tell you.” But people just don’t buy that. It’s just not what we see.

Dusty Weis

Because of a few brave Minnesotans with camera phones, many people who did not want to pay attention to the issue are paying attention now.

Some folks who supported the aggressive immigration enforcement now don’t.

And citizens who were not comfortable questioning the administration’s lies question them now.

Whether you want to call them “Legal Observers,” “Constitutional Observers,” or just regular folks who record what’s happening, the impact is profound.

And even some career law enforcement leaders say we need more of them.

Dave Mahoney

At a time like this, I would encourage citizens to be observers… simply to bear witness to what is occurring.

Dusty Weis

So as a show about how to win hearts and minds through strategic communication but more importantly as Americans… we need to talk about Legal Observers.

Why do they get through when it seems like no one changes their mind anymore?

What is a legal observer?

And how do regular people… not activists, but regular people… rein in a federal government that has gone too far?

We’ll talk to an expert in Minneapolis… and a retired Midwest Sheriff who believes in standing up for the constitution.

I’m Dusty Weis. From Podcamp Media, this is Lead Balloon, a podcast about important stories from the worlds of PR, marketing and branding, told by the well-meaning communications professionals who live them.

Dusty Weis

Thank you for tuning in.

I want to start this conversation by saying this is not a show about politics. It’s a show about the business of communication. But we have a bad habit, in the world of business, of trying to hide from matters of right and wrong. And I won’t hide from this one.

I can’t speak for any of my clients or my business associates, but what happened in Minneapolis is just wrong. And there are folks who try to make excuses for the Trump Administration and its immigration practices.

So before you say I’m biased about this, let’s level set a bit… using the constitution of the United States of America and the standard operating practices of law enforcement as a yardstick.

And when we do that, and we see that these ICE agents have been kicking down doors and pulling people out of cars without a warrant from a judge, that’s a violation of the 4th amendment.

These agents wear masks, which is a major departure from established practices… and frees them from accountability for their actions. They also, apparently, step in front of running cars. Which goes against every standard operating protocol at almost every law enforcement agency in the country.

And when we look at the raids themselves, they have repeatedly, erroneously swept up people who were not breaking the law. People who weren’t even here illegally.

Reuters reports more than 4,400 people have been jailed by the feds unlawfully in the last year. And these are facts. They’re documented.

ICE is making mistakes with no accountability for their actions, and it’s ruining good peoples’ lives.

That is a legitimate reason to protest, which is a right protected under the first amendment. As is the right to record agents’ activities. That promotes accountability.

And in any event, when there is a conflict between ICE and a member of the public, the penalty is NOT public execution. In the street. Without a trial, and with no oversight or accountability.

These are basic tenets of American society that most Americans agree upon.

But most Americans did not know… or did not want to acknowledge… how egregiously they were being violated… until January 7, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Scott Libin

And there were some ugly moments. There was a lot of use of chemical irritants and pushing and shoving and some seemingly random arrests and detentions.

But without question, it was the killing of Renee Good that got the attention of the world for something we'd really rather not be known for.

Dusty Weis

Scott Libin is a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism, with 40 years’ experience as a journalist and newsroom leader. He’s lived in the Minneapolis community for decades.

Scott Libin

We've been through this before with the murder of George Floyd.

These are not the names we want to be known for. We reminisce fondly about the days when the only thing people knew about Minnesota was that it's cold there.

Now it's George Floyd, it's Renee Good, it's Alex Pretti. But those too are now names in the history books, right?

Dusty Weis

Minneapolis was not the first city to be targeted by ICE for what they very crassly called “enhanced enforcement.” Why was it that you think that the average American was maybe not fully informed about what was happening on the ground in those cities or maybe choosing to be willfully ignorant of what that enhanced enforcement entailed?

Scott Libin

Well, because I think it's partly what you said. We weren't the first, and it wasn't that different at first from what we'd seen in other cities, which didn't make it a trivial matter.

Those are the times we live in, right? Stories that would have dominated the news for weeks or months at a time, we've already forgotten because other stuff keeps happening.

News as we have traditionally defined it, is not what it once was to a lot of people. We don't seem to have the same sort of shared vocabulary.

Journalism is built on a series of values and practices and not everybody buys into that anymore. They will say, you know, I trust this source because I know what they're saying is true. And implicit in that is I never really have to confront opposing opinion when I get all my news from this one place, because I know what to expect, and therefore I consider them to be honest and credible. That's really dangerous, I think.

Dusty Weis

I also think that there is a significant part of the population who doesn't consider themselves right wing or left wing and as the acrimony between the right wing and the left wing news sources and the people who follow them has reached a fever pitch, I feel like there are people who have just tuned out of anything that has any sort of whiff of controversy to it.

Because I think that at the end of the day, there are people who are tired and busy and don't have the time to spend as much time as you and I do monitoring news, evaluating our sources, evaluating their motivations for saying what they're going to do.

And when a political movement decides that they are just going to bald-faced lie about something that's happening on the ground, regular people give up on even trying to know what's true.

Because knowing and understanding the truth takes time and effort. And to them, having two sides declaring with conviction that the other side is lying makes the truth unknowable. And it allows them to write off matters of true and false as politics.

Because at the end of the day saying, “I'm not interested in truth” is not something that's socially acceptable, but saying “I'm not interested in politics” is. People do that all the time.

Scott Libin

I hear that a lot and I don't believe it. To say you're not interested in politics means you don't care what's done with your tax dollars. You don't care what's done in your name.

You don't care about the future of the country. I don't think people really mean that. I think they mean what you're describing.

I think they feel news fatigue. They practice news avoidance. That's a real thing now. People are consciously avoiding the news because it's too stressful for them. And it is a direct function, in part, of this profusion of sources we have.

And so a certain number of people, many of them in that middle that you described, go, “I just can't deal with it. I'm not going to pay attention until I have to, until it comes to my community.”

Dusty Weis

Well, and I think that's what really strikes me about what happened in January of this year because there's been some interesting polling on this and it seems to be a sizable maybe five to ten percent of that middle, people who shifted in their perspectives of what was happening with ICE on the ground in Minneapolis following the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Why did they start paying attention?

Scott Libin

Well, I have to say video is a big part of that. I'm old enough to remember video of the Rodney King beating, which was in the early 1990s. I'm not particularly proud to say that at that time, if I hadn't seen that video, I don't think I would have believed what happened to him. I was privileged and naive enough to think that kind of thing doesn't happen. This is the 1990s. You know, you're not going to have four cops or however many it was, wailing on some guy. But we saw it.

By the time George Floyd was murdered, you know, a young woman named Darnella Frazier was standing on the corner with her phone and she recorded that at much closer proximity, obviously. It was far higher quality. But the significant difference was that she had the ability to disseminate it. And it was suddenly out there. It went to local media first. Actually, it went to Facebook first, I think. But everybody in the world eventually saw it.

Now, it isn't just one recording. There wasn't just one Darnella Frasier. Everybody out there on the streets had phones.

And so in each of these killings, we have different angles that can be examined forensically frame by frame, several different versions. It changes the perspective that people have.

Dusty Weis

Well, and I think that's really the second part of why these videos from the streets of Minneapolis are so powerful because one, they provide an unfiltered view.

And yeah, immediately after these videos came out, both sides ran out to try to apply their spin to it. But everybody had the opportunity to watch these videos, raw, unfiltered, without commentary and apply their own judgment to it.

And then two, they were able to see that these people were not domestic terrorists as they were branded by the administration.

Kristi Noem

This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a federal law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism.

Dusty Weis

They were not assassins as branded by the administration.

Gregory Bovino

This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.

Dusty Weis

That they were just regular people who were in their neighborhood going about their affairs, trying to hold accountable this—what they saw as an invading force in their neighborhoods—and that they were murdered for it.

Scott Libin

These videos are sort of a Rorschach test. You're going to see what you want to see. I think it's a little harder to see certain things and you do have to at some point, you know, acknowledge that it isn't much of an assassin who stands there and lets himself be shoved aside and sprayed and never touches the gun he's licensed to carry.

We had Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino, you know, coming out and saying these were acts of domestic terrorism, that this guy was an assassin who was trying to massacre as many agents as possible. And it does feel very Orwellian. It feels like the government saying, “Don't believe what you see in here, believe what we tell you.”

But people don't buy that. And I do think there's been a shift in public opinion because, you know, it used to be, you had a little snippet of video, it wasn't clear, it was one angle and the rationale was always, “Yeah, but you can't see what happened right before the video rolled.”

Yeah, but this time we did. We've got it in context. We can see what happened. We can see the look on Renee Good's face and hear her voice and see her smile as she says, “I'm not mad at you.” You know, “I'm okay, we're okay.” Last words.

And we can see her turning away from the agent who was in front of her car, had placed himself there.

And in the case of Alex Pretti, we can see the gun removed right before the agents fired 10 bullets into him.

It's a disconnect that people are having trouble rationalizing. And it is difficult for me to imagine how anybody can reconcile that with these claims that these were two domestic terrorists, assassins, you know, trying to kill people. It's just not what we see.

Dusty Weis

Catching the Trump administration lying so shamelessly about what happened seemed to break a spell that had held America in his thrall for an entire year. Border Patrol czar Gregory Bovino was replaced, the administration began a drawdown of the federal presence, and lawmakers from both parties made noises about reforms within ICE and Border Patrol.

Voter polling shows a massive swing in disapproval.

But in spite of the massive impact that legal observers had, Scott Libin says there’s no secret sauce to being one. You just pull out your phone… and press record.

Scott Libin

I don't know who coined the phrase “legal observer.” To my knowledge, it has no actual legal significance any more than the alternative, which is constitutional observer. We all, I think, want to consider ourselves to be constitutional. The implication there is we are exercising our constitutional rights.

And a legal observer, I interpret, to be someone who is staying within the bounds of the law and observing what's going on. They may be there to document the protests just as easily as they might be documenting the detentions and other immigration enforcement operations.

I think observer, as we've been using the term for the past couple of months, has come to mean somebody who's there in an activist role. So I think it's a subtle distinction.

Dusty Weis

Should it though? Should it be an activist or can anybody, can a soccer mom on her way to drop the kids off at school who sees something going on on a street corner and is maybe a little bit put off by what she sees, pull over and pull out the phone and record that? I don't think that's an act of activism.

Scott Libin

No, it's not. You're right. That's an act of observation. She is an observer. As they have been paired in this context, people who say they've had legal observer training or constitutional observer training, which I think is informally conducted by community groups, I tend to think they have more of an activist agenda. But you're right. The act of observing something is something any of us can practice.

Dusty Weis

And perhaps should in 2026.

Scott Libin

I think it is everybody's obligation to be observant at several levels.

Dusty Weis

And Scott Libin isn’t the only one who feels that way. In fact, one of my oldest, deepest connections in law enforcement says the exact same thing.

Dave Mahoney

I think the community needs to be involved… One, to bear witness because we can’t trust that the government is telling us the truth. And two, so that our government is hearing our voices, is hearing our grievances.

Dusty Weis

So coming up after the break, we speak to a retired Midwest Sheriff… for a cop’s take on the First Amendment right to hold law enforcement accountable.

And HIS advice on how to stay safe and be effective… as a legal observer in your own community.

That’s all coming up in a minute here on Lead Balloon.

Dusty Weis

This is Lead Balloon and I’m Dusty Weis.

15 years ago… almost to the day, I got a Facebook direct message from my local Sheriff, Dave Mahoney, telling me not to worry about going to jail…

I know that sounds a little strange out of context, so here’s some context.

It was February, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. I was a news reporter covering the State Capitol. And the entire world was watching as massive protests broke out over then-Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to GUT public worker unions.

It wasn’t just what they did, but how they did it… Wisconsin Republicans in 2011 decided that the constitutional and legal guidelines incumbent upon them were… inconvenient? And decided to subvert or even ignore them in pursuit of their policy goals… Does that sound familiar?

And this was the top news story in the country for WEEKS.

Democrats fled the state to block a vote on the proposal.

Wisconsin Senate President

I would ask that five senators stand to acknowledge a call of the house.

Dusty Archived Reporting Footage

The rarely-used measure sends the state patrol out to round up the absent senators.

Dusty Weis

A hundred thousand protestors marched on the Capitol, daily.

Dusty Archived Reporting Footage

Packing up against the door and pounding on the windows. Members of the Capitol Police force are reinforcing the windows with tape.

Dusty Weis

The reverend Jesse Jackson showed up. (Rest in Peace)

Jesse Jackson

When we march in Madison Wisconsin, we win.

Dusty Weis

In the driving snow, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine played a set.

Tom Morello

It is wicked cold up here, people!

Dusty Weis

And hundreds of activists occupied the state Capitol with blankets and sleeping bags for weeks, vowing they would sooner be arrested then abandon their protest.

Activist

We've said from the beginning that we're going to stay here until we kill the bill. And we're still here.

Dusty Weis

It was an absolute powder keg,

Activist

Please help your neighbors to stay peaceful. We will do this together.

Dusty Weis

And I was in it EVERY DAY, bearing witness under the first amendment, fostering accountability, and reporting out to our listeners what was happening on the ground in THEIR state Capitol.

Dusty Archived Reporting Footage

I'm climbing through a window of the Capitol...

But in the middle of it, radio station management called me into a hurried meeting and laid down the policies and procedures for what would happen if I was arrested at the Capitol. The way they saw it, there was a realistic chance I would be arrested in the course of legally observing what was happening, doing my job, and they wanted me to know they wouldn’t just let me hang.

I appreciated that. But also as a 25-year-old of questionable maturity, I thought that was hilarious and posted about it on Facebook.

And that is when the duly elected Sheriff of Dane County Dave Mahoney slid into my DMs.

His message, more or less, “Don’t do anything to purpose to GET yourself arrested, but if you are arrested, just know that nobody’s going to be jailed for exercising their first amendment rights in this county.”

At the time, I found that reassuring. And 15 years later, in light of what’s happened in Minnesota and his retirement, I called him up, now retired, to ask why he felt compelled to reach out to me with that reassurance.

Dave Mahoney

All Americans have the right to assemble, to view their government, and to air grievances or their perspectives or opinions on how government is run. That's a guaranteed constitutional right.

You know, January 2nd of 2007, I raised my right hand the second time and swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. That didn't mean just when it was convenient, just when I wanted to express my message. I was there to protect the right to speak against my opinions, my views, and to hear the community talk about and air their grievances on how I did my job. That is your right.

Dusty Weis

It's not always easy to be an elected official. There are times when it's going to feel to you like there's probably undue scrutiny or maybe your actions or the actions of your officers and deputies are not being portrayed fairly by the people who are observing you.

And yet you stand by the right of the public to observe and report about how law enforcement does their job, even if that makes your job maybe a little bit more difficult in the short term. Why is that?

Dave Mahoney

Well, that is my job. I must, as a government official, be transparent because the authority given to me comes from the public. That's my belief.

Dusty Weis

Like a lot of us, Sheriff Mahoney has watched with growing unease the acts that have been carried out in the name of “Law Enforcement” by the Trump administration.

And he says their attempts to shirk common accountability standards should concern every American.

Dave Mahoney

It has nothing to do with political parties. It has nothing to do with individuals. But what I have observed from the federal government, from this administration, there has been a total lack of transparency and a degradation of trust.

Dusty Weis

They've been caught in out and out lies several times.

Dave Mahoney

Absolutely. I can't trust that the words of our government, the administration, secretaries, and appointed officials will be accurate and truthful. And that, to me, is the most dangerous thing in society today.

Dusty Weis

So if the modern media can’t hold the feds accountable. If Congress can’t or won’t, Sheriff Mahoney says it’s up to every person in this country who still has a conscience.

You remember “If you see something say something?” This is “If you see something, record it.” And remember, this is coming from a local law enforcement leader!

Dave Mahoney

At a time like this, I would encourage citizens to be observers. It's a dangerous time. I think that as people are observing, as they are recording, whether it be on their phone or on a camera, I would just ask that they be careful because… on the other side, we've seen undue reckless behavior that has cost the lives of observers, not activists, not anarchists, common citizens who were present to observe their government in action and to voice their grievances for actions that they view to be unacceptable.

Dusty Weis

A lot has changed since I was a journalist, Sheriff Mahoney. I'm married now, I got three kids. And so if I see something that's going on in my neighborhood that I know isn't right, I want to do what's right. I want to observe and report, but I also want to get home to my kids at the end of the day.

So if you had thoughts and ideas and tips to make it safer to be an observer in a situation like that… certainly there's no way to guarantee safety, but to make it safer to improve the interaction of what is going to be a really uncomfortable situation to be in what would those be?

Dave Mahoney

To be mindful of your safety while at the same time being present to record and document the actions of our government.

Dusty Weis

What's an appropriate distance to stay away when there's an arrest taking place?

Dave Mahoney

I would say five to eight feet.

Dusty Weis

Five to eight feet. Certainly you want to be wary of any firearms that come out and what direction that they're pointed. As far as your demeanor, as far as what you say and do, what are some things that you should keep in mind?

Dave Mahoney

You know, based upon what we have seen, primarily in Minneapolis, it's a very aggressive behavior on the part of our government.

And so when recording, I would not be placing that camera in the face of a ICE agent. Because that, from what I have seen has been a precipitating action that's resulted in, at some times, homicidal action on the part of our government.

I think to follow direction… if a reporter or a citizen who's bearing witness is told to step back, I would step back. I would be compliant to the orders given.

We may disagree with how it's being portrayed to us or told to us, but in the safest position to follow those directions.

Dusty Weis

What if somebody tells me to put my phone away and stop recording or asks me to give them my phone so that they can delete a video that I took?

Dave Mahoney

Well, I wouldn't give them your phone. And if told to lower it, I would just follow up in not an aggressive state, but to state I have a constitutional right as a citizen to record our government. In as calm a voice as you can when confronted in that state.

Because again, they're dressed in what I call battle gear: helmets, shields, gas masks, armored clothing. And so it can be extremely scary for a common member of the community to confront an individual like that.

If it were me, I'd be there with my phone. And if told to lower my phone, I would state, “As a citizen of the United States, I have a constitutional right to record my government.”

Dusty Weis

We live in a time when tempers are running high, opinions are calcified and seem to be unchanging. What do you think the effect would be if we had more people out on the streets simply observing and reporting on what's going on right now with immigration enforcement in this country?

Dave Mahoney

I think it's imperative that our citizens get involved, simply to bear witness to what is occurring.

As we approach midterms, as we approach another election, Washington is paying attention. Some of our elected officials may be keeping quiet and not publicly speaking out against the administration. But I think the pressure is on them, as we've seen already with the former commander of the Border Patrol being removed from Minneapolis, the president himself speaking that maybe we need to be a little more soft.

The community's involvement is being noticed. And so me, myself, my opinion, I think the community needs to be involved. One, to bear witness because we can't trust the government telling us the truth. And two, so that our government sees that our community is engaged and they're hearing our voices, they're hearing our grievances.

And that's a right of every one of us as US citizens.

Dusty Weis

Sheriff Mahoney’s not alone in his call to calmly, civilly stand up for your first amendment rights. It’s one that law enforcement and elected leaders from across the country have reiterated…

Including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as pointed out by Scott Libin from the University of Minnesota.

Scott Libin

Our governor, you know, had, I think already said and has been saying since then, you know, when you see this stuff happening, record it. Don't interfere with police. No state leader here has ever encouraged or condoned anyone's interference with federal agents or any law enforcement. I've been listening for that. They've been very careful to say do not interfere, keep your distance, but record it. And as you know, lots of people did.

Dusty Weis

Do you think there will be a corresponding uptick in interest in, call it legal observing, calling it, pulling out a phone and recording what's happening on your street corner? But do you think more people in more cities will be interested after this? And do you think there will be an uptick in interest in legal observer training?

Scott Libin

I do. I think there'll be a net increase.

I think a lot of this training will focus on not just how do you shoot steady video, but also how do you protect yourself? What do you do if you get chemical irritants in your eyes, on your skin.

Anecdotally, I believe there has been an increase in interest.

I think there might logically also be a certain number of people who are unwilling to take that physical risk or are trying to keep their children perhaps from going out to the front lines and putting themselves at risk because it's dangerous.

You know, when you see the way somebody like Alex Pretti, or even survivors of encounters with these federal agents, when you see the violence they've encountered, you have to think about that. It's not just a matter of marching in solidarity, singing songs and feeling good. It gets scary out there.

Dusty Weis

Speaking myself as someone who’s been there, in the press of a hundred thousand justifiably pissed off citizens… Speaking as someone who’s tasted tear gas. Speaking as someone who’s been put in a submission hold by a stressed out State Trooper having a bad day.

It is scary to bear witness for your fellow citizens and stand up for your first amendment rights.

It’s also the most effective tool that we have at this moment to make this a country where government thugs do NOT routinely violate the constitution and murder people in the street.

Because, until we have to reckon with the CONSEQUENCES of the government we put in place, most of us… it seems… would just as soon pretend like it’s not happening.

Scott Libin

It's going to be a while before Minnesota recovers from this. There are a lot of people who've been afraid to go to work, children who haven't been going to school. And that is not just people in the country illegally, but people who are just afraid they might be mistaken for undocumented immigrants.

And they have good reason to believe that because obviously a lot of people have been swept up who've done nothing wrong, including American citizens, some of whom didn't survive.

So it's going to take us a while to recover from this.

It's also important, I think, to understand that, the scenes you've seen of what look like battlegrounds in the streets of Minneapolis don't represent Minnesota more broadly, in the same sense that despite what the president said, Minneapolis did not burn to the ground after the murder of George Floyd. You know, it's still a vibrant city, as is St. Paul, the entire metro, and there's a lot more to Minnesota than that.

But this has been an unprecedented and difficult time. I hope nobody, no other city has to go through what we've endured. But I hope, too, that to the extent that these federal agents leave here and head into some other community, that people there will be better prepared and maybe to be a really sunny optimist, maybe the agents themselves and the administration that sends them in will have learned something too.

Dusty Weis

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll say this. I'm typically, as a Wisconsinite, loathe to heap praise on the fine people of Minnesota. It's nothing personal. It's just a border rivalry. But Minnesota didn't ask for this. Minnesota didn't deserve this. And the way that the people of the Twin Cities and beyond have conducted themselves during this whole episode has been nothing short of brave. Proud to call you guys fellow Midwesterners and...

I really, really hope that there is a sunny side that we can take away from all of this and that maybe this marks a turning point for the better. But that is another chapter to be written. Certainly, I think it starts with more people being willing to pick up their camera phone and just document when they see something that doesn't feel right to them.

Everybody has a moral compass inside of them and certainly when most folks watched that video of Alex Pretti or Renee Good, their moral compass pointed to something that maybe made them a little bit uncomfortable. And for some folks, that was maybe something that they hadn't felt before.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you once again, Scott Libin from the University of Minnesota for joining us here on the Lead Balloon Podcast.

Scott Libin

Thank you for the invitation. Enjoyed the conversation.

Dusty Weis

Thank you for tuning in. Thanks as well to Sheriff Mahoney.

And lastly, I just want to acknowledge that it’s okay to be scared to speak out right now.

Even just recently here, we see reporting that Google, Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and Instagram have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security.

Because DHS wants to know the identities of people who are criticizing immigration enforcement efforts or organizing protests.

That’s creepy. That would make anyone scared to speak out.

I’m scared to speak out. This administration has demonstrated not just a willingness, but an EAGERNESS to PUNISH people who disagree with them.

That’s not always a bullet in the back. It can be done with criminal or immigration prosecutions. It can be blacklists and professional ostracization.

I have to hope I’m too much of a small fry to attract their notice, because it could hurt my business. It could hurt people I love.

But I can’t stay quiet. This has gone too far.

And they can’t. Punish. Everybody. If everybody speaks up.

So speak up. Get active. Be an observer. Have a hard talk with your friends and family who won’t acknowledge the truth of what this is.

Don’t get into stupid Facebook fights.

Have a conversation that starts with acknowledging our shared values and our shared reality.

Remind them that, even if they supported it in the past, it’s okay to acknowledge that it’s now gone too far. It’s never too late to do what’s right.

Stand up to this madness… with whatever you’ve got.

And Make American Decent Again.

Lead Balloon is produced by Podcamp Media at our studios in the heart of beautiful downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. PodcampMedia.com. I did all the writing, research and editing for this one.

Until the next time, folks, thanks for listening. I'm Dusty Weis.