Minneapolis Riots, a Color Revolution with a Twist, Coordinated but Mostly Domestic
Having graduated from a military university, I can say that the Minnesota protests are following a “color revolution” playbook rather than representing organic civil unrest. The term refers to non-violent or semi-violent uprisings often backed by external actors to overthrow governments, as seen in Ukraine or Georgia.
One odd twist is that usually a color revolution is kicked off by a significant government scandal, which is the last straw for the people who then revolt against the government. But in Minnesota, the scandal is that the Minnesota government is accused of being complicit in billions of stolen taxpayer dollars, and the revolution is against the federal government, which wants to investigate the fraud.
The rioters are extremely useful in helping a handful of guilty people maintain power and get rich. Two of them have given their lives for this cause now, and many have been injured, but somehow they still believe that ICE deportations are so important to them that they have to continue to riot.
Another aspect of a color revolution is the propaganda, generally emanating from outside of the country where the unrest is taking place. In this case, anti-ICE and anti-Trump social media, along with mainstream media, have convinced much of the population that the federal government is wrong for wanting to enforce immigration law and to investigate fraud.
Whether by design, collusion, or some explainable feedback loop, mainstream media is amplifying the same messages and wording as anti-ICE and anti-Trump social media. They are also intentionally distorting media stories, putting out a bad narrative, which is then picked up by social media, fueling the protests. Media told us a five-year-old boy was kidnapped by ICE and used as bait; they said Renee Good and Nurse Pretti were minding their own business when ICE attacked them.
The media told us that Abrigo Garcia was a Maryland man; they claimed that ICE broke into a man’s house and dragged him out in his underwear; and they have even claimed that citizens have been deported. Each of these narratives and the associated stories was either a gross distortion of the facts or, in some cases, an outright lie. The outrage these false stories spurred has already contributed to this ongoing chaos and violence as well as two deaths.
The typical pattern begins by provoking chaos, deploying legal observers as shields, and laundering radical activism through nonprofit organizations. The term “legal observer” has suddenly entered the vocabulary of the Minnesota protests, with Renee Good and Nurse Pretti being referred to as legal observers, a label that ignores the fact that they were actively interfering with ICE operations. While liberals claim that these and other activists were merely exercising First Amendment rights and the right to film, it is clear from the videos that in both instances the so-called legal observers were participants, not observers.