Time To Take Down The Networks Stoking Violence In Minneapolis and Elsewhere
Federal law makes it a crime to engage in a conspiracy to impede federal officers from performing their duties. That includes street violence. It also includes officials running "Sanctuary Cities".
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by Sam Faddis
January 29, 2026
Alex Pretti is dead. He was shot by a Border Patrol officer when he attempted to interfere in the arrest of another individual. An investigation is ongoing into the circumstances of his death. A final determination is pending regarding exactly what happened and whether or not the shooting was justified.
Meanwhile, I have a different question.
Why are we allowing the networks training, directing and supporting individuals like Pretti to continue to exist? There has been ample documentation for a long time now showing the scope of the operations of groups like ICE Watch. This is not protest. This is a very large, highly organized effort to obstruct justice and interfere with federal law enforcement officers in the conduct of their duties.
Here is one excerpt from an article on the anarchist site Crimethinc. It describes, in the words of the anarchist writer, what is actually happening on the street in Minneapolis every day.
“…The fight here is defined by those who push the envelope. People use their cars and bodies to block agents and de-arrest targeted people. They throw snowballs and rocks; they kick back canisters of tear gas. They cover cars and agents with paint and break the windows of their cars. “
This does not happen spontaneously. The people attacking ICE agents are trained. They are plugged into a system that surveils ICE operations 24/7. They are vectored into areas by a central communications structure and directed to prevent federal law enforcement officers from arresting individuals who have broken the law.
All of this is illegal. A whole raft of federal statutes prohibit individuals from obstructing federal officers performing legal arrests.
18 U.S.C. § 111 — assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers
This statute has been invoked frequently around the country. If you block ICE agents, shove them, or in any other fashion use force or threats against federal personnel during ICE operations, you are breaking the law. This statute specifically criminalizes forcible interference with federal officers performing official duties and penalizes offenses variably depending on whether bodily injury or a deadly weapon is involved.
Obstruction-of-justice statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 1501 et seq.) and related provisions
A number of additional statutes collectively identified in Chapter 73 of Title 18 cover interference with legal processes, and the White House and DOJ have pointed to these laws when warning that municipal noncooperation or “sanctuary” policies constitute criminal obstruction.
Title 8 offenses: harboring, transporting, and other immigration-specific impediments (8 U.S.C. § 1324 et seq.)
Title 8 supplies criminal tools aimed specifically at those who harbor, transport, or facilitate the evasion of immigration enforcement: 8 U.S.C. § 1324 makes it a crime to bring in, harbor, or assist illegal immigrants.
But here is the kicker. It is not just those useful idiots on the street fighting with ICE officers who are engaged in criminal activity. Federal law also makes it a crime to engage in a conspiracy to impede federal officers from performing their duties. So, if you are the guy training people to go out and target ICE operations and interfere with ICE agents’ lawful activities, you are guilty of a crime. If you are the person vectoring teams of ICE Watch personnel into an area for the purpose of preventing the arrest of an illegal alien, you are guilty of a crime.
In fact, if you are performing any function inside this operation that can reasonably be inferred to be related to a criminal purpose — interfering with federal law enforcement operations — you are guilty of committing a crime. You can be arrested. You can be sent to prison.
So, why do these organizations continue to operate with impunity all around the country? Why are ICE agents left to deal with trained teams of individuals whose express purpose is to prevent the enforcement of federal law? Why are we allowing this situation to continue to escalate on our streets?
As we have reported before, these groups are highly organized and sophisticated. We should not allow organizations like ICE Watch to continue to operate. The leaders of such groups should be in jail. Those performing any function reasonably colorable as part of a conspiracy to obstruct federal officers in the performance of their duties should be in jail. The computers, cellphones, and other equipment used as part of the conspiracy should be seized. All bank accounts connected to this criminal conspiracy should be seized.
The answer to the escalating violence on our streets is not to continue to force law enforcement officers to perform their functions in the face of intense, organized resistance directed by criminal conspiracies. That can only mean one thing: more people getting killed or injured, more violence on our streets. Let’s focus on the people directing and organizing all this. Time to take down the networks stoking the violence.
— Sam Faddis is Senior Editor of AND Magazine, where this essay originally appeared. A retired CIA operations officer, he is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for the American Future, and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger.
Spot on. Conspiracy and actions to destroy the elected Trump administration, whether by election fraud, politically biased judicial lawfare, or violence through surrogate networks is tyranny. It’s far beyond the time when the gloves of restraint must come off and for the DOJ to arrest the schemers, the violent, and their financer’s. It is a maximum WTF moment for America and for Trump to follow up now with indictments and arrests.
Yes “why” is the question. Why is this allowed to continue, and for how long / until what happens. I have guesses. Anyone else?