Beyond Minneapolis
These freedom haters styled as anti-fascists
Arrive like clockwork at all ICE events
To foment anarchy. These venal “cashists,”
Procured by Soros, hate our country. Hence,
These social-justice warriors for hire
Are itching to disable law enforcement.
They brandish guns (what for if not to fire?)
And proudly reap the Democrats’ endorsement.
The savagery they bring charms liberal ears
Who wax romantic for the indefensible.
Compliance with the law yields boos and jeers.
They eulogize the reprehensible.
While in Iran a multitude is dead
With not one word of praise nor one tear shed.
Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Wimauma, Florida.
Brian, this sonnet really hits hard. It speaks some very unpalatable truths about the rioters in Minneapolis. The money behind this kayfabe performative bullshit is from Soros and some other well-heeled “philanthropists.”
A cadre of well-paid agitators are orchestrating and fomenting the disturbances, while a pack of clueless left-liberal sentimentalists just follow like sheep, hoping to fill their pathetically empty existence with excitement and virtue-signalling. And the fact that two of the sheep were killed is EXACTLY what the professionals behind all of this wanted and hoped for. Now they have martyrs whose names and faces they can put on posters for other riots in other cities.
Back in the 1920s and 30s, Communists were delighted when some of their number were killed in demonstrations or public disorders, especially if the victims were just liberals or fellow travelers. This only meant bigger riots and confrontations with the police, which is what the Communists wanted. It’s no different today with the Soros contingents.
And your sonnet concludes with a major punch. Right now, in Iran, literally thousands of pro-democracy, anti-theocratic demonstrators are being killed en masse in the streets by a government that REALLY doesn’t pull punches with its opposition! Where is the left-liberal outrage over that? Or does a terrorist-supporting theocratic government get a free pass for being an enemy of Trump, Israel, and the West as a whole?
The Left never attacks its friends.
Joe, I’m deeply grateful for your comment. I’m even more grateful for your insights, your common sense and your willingness to speak the truth boldly and clearly. I wrote this poem is a frenzied fury after reading a bunch of Facebook posts by liberals who are wringing their hands and clutching their pearls in horror at the “fascism” of ICE for daring to arrest criminals. Enough. I have had enough of the moral gaslighting. I have had enough of hearing people defend and martyr someone who shows up to interfere with the operations of law enforcement and does so armed and dangerous. What in hell do the liberals expect? It is sheer INSANITY to interfere with the operation of law enforcement and even more insane to threaten them either with or without a firearm. And yet we now live in an age where we reward the insance and punish those who play by the rules.
And all this to protect people who entered this country unlawfully as criminals and who have engaged in further criminal conduct. I don’t have words to express my disgust.
And all this at a time when the brave people of Iran are dying in the streets struggling to overthrow truly tyrannical overlords and the Democrats don’t give a damn. As you state clearly, since it doesn’t fit their ideological aim of harming Israel or harming Trump they get completely ignored. The bravest people right now on the planet get ignored.
And the leftists are comparing the illegal immigrants of Minnesota to Anne Frank. My soul hurts. I hate to flirt with misanthropy but the disgust and rage I feel for a huge segment of the population… Well, I’ve said enough.
Thank you, Joe. I am grateful for the light you shine on… well, everything.
Powerful sonnet, Brian. I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone could protest on behalf of criminal illegals, the cause du jour. The mindset is completely alien to me. They may as well be from another planet … no, make that a galaxy.
Thank you very much, Cheryl. I can’t understand this either. I was raised to respect the police, I was raised to respect law and order and my entire professional life has been in the service of making sure that law and order was maintained. And, of course, redress for wrongs go through the court system — not through riots on the streets and confronting police officers with guns. The entitlement of thinking that it’s okay to fight law enforcement in this way is breathtaking. I’d like to say “only in Minnesota” but I fear that would no longer be accurate.
The truth about the situation, clearly and concisely stated. The last line is especially strong, with so many of the syllables stressed, in order to stress the maddeningly ironic, concluding point.
Thank you so much, Cynthia. I appreciate your clear-eyed description of the situation and your praise of the poem. As for all those stresses.. I think my anger has become so pronounced it has seeped through into my poetry without my even being aware of it!
Bingo! Hypocrisy rules, and it will spread if not nipped in the bud. Minnesota is only a trial run for the inimical forces determined to assassinate domestic tranquility. Bring down the hammer, and lay low these infernal miscreants. Dare them to travel to Florida. What would Tarzan do?
Thank you for this comment, Kip — you made me smile. And that ain’t easy these days. I think you’re 100% right about Minnesota being a trial run. If they can get away with what they’ve been planning to get away with (illegal immigration, billions of dollars in fraud, the Islamization of a formerly Lutheran state, open insurrection) then they’ll export it to California, New York and elsewhere. (God forbid that they try this nonsense in Florida!)
Your mention of Tarzan (which I am presently reading!) has me really thinking. Burroughs must have been pretty disgruntled with the way civilization was going for him to create this “uncivilized” character who happens to have strong family values, integrity and no aptitude for the manipulations and disloyalties of the modern world. I think he’d turn his back on it all and go back to the jungle. Sounds good to me.
Or maybe Tarzan would don his loincloth and, armed only with his father’s hunting knife, wade into the mob slashing surgically.
Brilliant in several respects Brian, but let me just mention one: the final couplet is Shakespearean in its intensity. The linguistic key is in the word ‘multitude’, a polysyllabic Latinism that stands in stark contrast to the Anglo-Saxon monosyllablic final line. That has echoes of the ‘multitudinous seas incarnadine making … the green one red’. Love that kind of texture in the verse!
Thank you very much indeed, James! I generally find if I want to truly convey sincerity and emotion without the BS, I use Anglo-Saxon words. Too many Latin or French-derived words injects an intellectualism (and, frequently, a snobbishness) which may or may not serve the poem depending on the speaker and subject matter. Here, the speaker is me and my choice of “multitudes” was intended for its Biblical connotations. I remember Jesus feeding the multitudes with the loaves and fishes, and the great multitude of souls referenced in Revelation. To me, the brave people of Iran who are being martyred daily without the West bothering to report struck me as being worth a Biblical echo. Even as I write this sentence, my rage increases as I consider how the Media and our hapless leaders focus on the absurd events in Minneapolis rather than to focus on the monumentally important things happening in what we once called “Persia.”
Brian, as always you’re poemsmanship (is that a word?) is impeccable… with a clear-eyed message that indicts all the One-Worlders, woke billionaires, “community organizers”, virtue signalers, paid-for churches, charities, NGOs, profiteers and just plain old crooks. They all have different rationales, excuses and reasons for creating the divisions that plague us all, but money is the one they pray will cover a multitude of sins.
At least one of my sisters is trying to turn the “religious MAGA” into marchers for social justice. She sent this video to most of our family which explains how idiotic we all are:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT8sM08CYLB/?igsh=amZpYmx4b3o5c283
It is a short spiel from Pete Nunnally, a woke priest that is trying to convince everyone that Jesus was actually a social justice warrior. I did let everyone know that the King of this Earth, the son of the Almighty God, preached nothing of the sort…
Anyway, I have attached a link to your cri de coeur at the conclusion of that message board. Thanks Brian.
That video of Father Pete is a biopsy slide of what has happened to the earthly institutional “conciliar” Catholic Church. It is deliberately cutting its ties with Western culture, and aligning itself with our enemies.
“Religious MAGA” is going to be a problem. I can see now why Napoleon didn’t allow any chaplains to travel with the French armies.
The “biopsy slide” you mention, Joe, is right on point. The suicidal empathy that has poisoned the West virtually guarantees our destruction. I’m not saying that compassion is a per se a terrible thing, but in excess it’s toxic and codependent. It is the weakness in the soul that convinces a wife to stay with the man who is abusing her. It is the weakness in the soul that convinces a civilization that it is evil because it progressed beyond the Stone Age.
Hey Joe,
Pete, “The Wilderness Priest” is an Episcopalian priest… but, of course, the Episcopalian leadership has gone the way of the world just as the Catholics and pretty much every other “Christian” organization has.
It’s that whole God vs mammon thing…
Thank you so much, Mike, for the kind comments and for the deeply irritating link which is indeed eye-opening. It is so frustrating to see people who are purportedly religious give a pass to every and all form of heinous misbehavior. I don’t remember Jesus ever saying “Y’all are just great — perfect the way you are. Carry on and don’t mind me.” If Mankind was perfect, He would not have had a mission. I seem to remember Him saying “repent” and “prepare for the Kingdom to come” — get your spiritual house in order. Anarchy is not a spiritual value. What are His final words in Revelation? “Be zealous AND REPENT.” Clearly he does not dig evil. Nor does He seem to endorse riots.
Great summation of the lunacy. Minnesota seems to be the epicenter of so much craziness (Somali fraud, George Floyd and ICE protests) that it can’t be accidental. It is definitely an effort organized by external forces, but I can’t understand why Minnesota is more vulnerable than other states.
Thank you so much, Warren. I’ve been wondering the very same thing myself. I am absolutely convinced that Minnesota has been targeted as a “test-case” jurisdiction to see how much the enemies of the West can get away with. Out of the way, unassuming, off the radar, yet with a real urban center. If one is nefarious, it is a good place to foment the type of revolutionary actions you describe. The state did not just suddenly lurch from Michelle Bachman and the Mary Tyler Moore Show to anarchy in the streets and hatred of the West without some outside help.
Brian, the progression of the progressives has been astounding:
from Marx and the birth of class warfare, to the Russian revolution, to the rise of socialism and communism in America, to Solzhenitsyn’s witness and the entering of Soviet goals for America in the Congressional record, to the march through the institutions, to Liberation Theology, to anti-colonial movements, to the seminar-room radicals, to postmodern Marxism, to the politics of community organizers, to Minneapolis, and finally, to right next door.
Today, even Jesus is held up as a hero who wants to transform the world into a Marxian One World Paradise!
Here I am thinking that Jesus IS King… silly me…
Brian, with forensic eloquence, in a beautifully crafted Shakespearean sonnet, no less, you have captured the hypocritical political zeitgeist. The savage volta and stark and damning closing couplet gives the reader the whole picture and it is far from pretty. Brian, thank you for your poetry, your honesty, and your bravery – these traits when used in harmony are a formidable force.
I’m so very grateful for your comment, Susan. I chose a sonnet because I wanted a tone of barely-maintained civility so that when my disdain and rage erupt (savage and damning are wonderful descriptions) it is like an explosion. Explosions and burning things is something these mobs-for-hire on the left understand so well. Susan, I am deeply touched by your compliment regarding the character of my work. I’m learning how to be honest and brave from you and a small handful of other poets on this amazing poetry site.
Your sonnet just about sums things up, from what I know of the ICE situation. The anti-Ice actions are possibly the only time in my life that I have seen women demonstrating in favour of sex criminals. Not of course that all illegals are such, but the blue hair brigade doesn’t seem to care anyway. Well said Brian.
David, thank you so much for your comment. You must surely have the same type of progressive clowns in the UK — “the blue hair brigade” is a hilarious nickname for them. I had not thought of what you mention — women demonstrating in favor of sex criminals. That is absolutely bonkers. And yet here they are, feminists upporting an Iranian regime which hates and abuses women simply because they don’t want to support anything that Trump or Israel would support. Does the hypocrisy get any worse?
Just a little FYI, Brian – back in the 60s & 70s, our family of 9 traveled to Bemidji, MN to camp and fish for a couple of unforgettable weeks. Never in all that time did we see any indication whatsoever that Minnesota was anything short of a solid ‘Red’ state! And it has sat surrounded by pretty darn ‘Red’ states for 100 years plus! I’ve long been thoroughly convinced that the political machine in Minneapolis is, alone, responsible for what makes it ‘appear’ to have turned ‘Blue’ over the past 40 years. 90% of the people up there are SOOOO much like we Iowans there’s no way Walz can be its legitimate Governor.
Nor Ellison & his f-up son be holding their offices without having greatly cheated at election time.
Especially for a ‘quickie’, you definitely touched all the bases, my friend, and very powerfully, and I dig your sneaky little – “cashists” ! 🙂
Thank you, Mark for the praise and for the interesting history and information. I am 100% with you and convinced that Minnesota was targeted by enemies of the U.S. to be a stepping stone into fomenting chaos and anarchy throughout the U.S. I suspect Soros of being behind this, though there is quite a cast of Bond villains who could fit the bill. But the number of woke rebellions that have emanated from Minneapolis goes far beyond either logic or probability. It has been chosen. Why would an entire population of Somalis choose the state in the union that is by far the most dissimilar to Somalia? Their presence has already disrupted U.S. politics to a degree far disproportional to their numbers. And Ilhan Omar has produced an impressive amount of damage even as she has gotten ridiculously wealthy on taxpayer money.
Always “social justice,” isn’t it – a great justification for “revolutionary” violence – from the Jacobins to Bolsheviks to Nazis to today’s Darwin Award winners. Those “romantics” always start with words, followed by screams and murder – all for “common good” and misplaced sympathies, while those who do need to be helped and saved wait in vain. Great job, Brian!
Thank you so much, Michael! “Social justice” these days is an Orwellian oxymoron. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Orwell predicted the future with startling accuracy. As for all of those “revolutions for justice” that you describe — you are absolutely right. They always end up with the best, most productive and fairest people facing the guillotine while a useless but vengeful Madam Defarge knits and gloats.
They caught all the dangerous criminals in the first 2 days and then resorted to harassing day-laborers, cooks, gardeners, daycare workers, children, schools, retail employees, and ended in the murder of 2 people (that we know about). They were here to instill terror. You poem is an ode to bootlicking.
As a lawyer you should recognize the heinous disregard the Constitution on full desplay here.
You sound like a child.
Did they catch all the criminals who were running those fake Somali “Day Care” centers, and who had defrauded the state of Minnesota out of tens of millions of dollars, a good chunk of which went to Democrat politicians and foreign terrorists?
Nobody was “murdered.” Two sentimental idiots interfered in legal government proceedings, one of them using her car as a weapon and the other stupidly walking around with a concealed gun.
You sound like a leftist asshole.
Thank you for your words of common sense, Joe. Right now the allegation is $100,000,000 for the day care centers alone. But don’t forget, the total amount of fraud for welfare benefits and social service benefits is 9 BILLION dollars. Soros must love that. It helps fund a whole lot of anti-American protests by people who have bafflingly come in droves to a country they despise.
God, you people are so boring. The “heinous disregard” on display here is the disregard of people for the law. If it’s the law itself you don’t like, elect a different president, file a lawsuit (y’all are really good at that) or even peacefully protest. But do NOT somehow bringing firearms to the show and interfere with the actions of the police. You cite the Constitution which does NOT give a citizen the right to interfere with police action, nor does it apply to non-citizens. But how selective you people are. You hate the Second Amendment so much — until one of your own brandishes a weapon and suddenly he’s a freedom fighter. How you love to martyr people. But if I mentioned Charlie Kirk you’d probably scream “hater” into your soy latte.
Guess what, sir. Whoever is in this country illegally is by definition a breaker of the law. And if you think all the people who are hiding and eluding law enforcement are somehow good people who the gestapo is simply rounding up for no reason, then you are delusional. Do yourself a favor, stop watching Rachel Maddow and return to reality.
I’ll say this: I notice in my capacity as a lawyer that when people don’t interfere with the police and threaten them with guns or cars, that they somehow manage to not end up dead. And I’ve sued many a police officer in my day for excessive force, wrongful arrest and other torts. I’m not the one who sounds like a whining teenager here, Mr. Nelsen. You do. I’m sorry for the extent to which propaganda has taken hold of your brain. I suggest you go to a nice Mamdani rally and work off some steam.
Oh, by the way. I was a Democrat from 1978 until 2023. You, sir, are the reason I had to finally switch parties after 45 years of being a loyal liberal.
And you, Mr. Nelsen, sound like most of the “progressive” morons who haunt the airwaves, and I suspect that you have never given the Constitution a close reading. If you ever remove your head from your nether portal, you might discover fresh air and sunny skies.
Brian, your work is a striking act of moral witness with clarity. The juxtaposition of armed agitators who parade as pseudo-righteous defenders with the blatant suffering of unarmed Iranians creates a disturbing contrast, refusing easy partisanship while exposing hypocrisy. Your poem’s tension is its engine, driving the piece with relentless power. Would that these opportunistic perpetrators stop shouting at their perceived enemy and examine their lazy, selfish silences regarding the helpless innocents in Iran. These are most likely the same incendiaries who protest brave Israel.
Thank you so much for your kind and insightful words, Laura! I’m so glad you see this in cinematic terms — contrasting images which depict the depravity of leftists idolizing criminals versus the brave Iranians who have been slaughtered for trying to restore the very freedoms that were stolen by the ayatollahs and which we yet enjoy in America. They ignore true heroes precisely because they hate the fact that those heroes stand on the right side of history. The leftists hate Trump, they hate Israel and — as the old saying goes — “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” So you have women who claim to be feminists giving a pass to one of the most misogynistic regimes on the planet. You have LGBT people giving a pass to a country that condemns all gay people. But the leftists hate who they hate so they’ll go to any lengths and engage in any philosophical acrobatics to keep on hating because that’s the way they like it. It’s all very cynical.
Brian, I was hoping you would be the one to write on the events in Minnesota, which you did with your incomparable flair and striking comparisons. You are so accurate about Soros, Marxists, and other ill-conceived leftists that inhabit our society and work toward its (our) demise.
Thank you very much indeed, Roy! I wish the Marxists would leave Minnesota alone and go march in Beijing. In collaboration with the Islamists, the threat to Western civilization must not be underestimated. They have already taught a large number of Americans to hate a country they should be deeply proud of. And they’ve taught white men that they are toxic and Jews and Christians that they are colonial relics who are guilty of the most heinous crimes simply for existing. People need to wake up.
A very succinct summary of current event in Minneapolis. Your final couplet adds serious weight to the poem as a whole, elevating it from a mere description of events or expression of frustration to a moral commentary on a movement. As a descendant of individuals who immigrated to the U.S. to escape the Russian pogroms, it curdles my blood to watch Antifa-fueled insanity unfold in America’s own streets. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you very much indeed, D.R. I also have ancestors who escaped the pogroms of Russia in the 1890s, a Lutheran mother who lived in Nazi Germany before and throughout World War II and who subsequently served as a translater at the Nuremberg Trials, and a Jewish father who served in the American sector of occupied Germany after World War II near Dachau. Fear and hatred of unschooled mobs is deep in my DNA as is a strong desire to see history properly recorded and never forgotten, distorted or rewritten.
Like you, my blood also curdles to see Antifa-fueled insanity unfold in America. It violates everything our amazing country has stood for these 250 years. It is deeply painful to see so many self-loathing Americans — the descendents of the gallant soldiers who won World War II — on board with the idea of American shame. It shows how extraordinarily well-organized and patient our enemies have been for their many decades of lying in wait. It is our job to not give them the satisfaction of destroying our culture. Our best minds and most valiant hearts must not succumb to the propaganda.
I am reminded strongly of Yeats’ painful observation in “The Second Coming”: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst. Are full of passionate intensity.” We must regain our conviction. Our future depends upon it.
Brian,
Interesting video!
https://generaldispatch.whatfinger.com/elon-musk-its-the-biggest-psy-op-ever/
Has anyone else noticed that no one is worried about the billions of fraud anymore? Hmmmmmmm….
Mike, well absolutely. This attack by members of the Left has very little to do with the actual policies of deportation or the conduct of Tom Homan and everything to do with sabotaging and underming the Trump Administration. Here are some statistics for you, effective as of August, 2025:
Barack Obama’s administration deported more immigrants than any other in the last 3 decades, according to official figures analyzed by Factchequeado. It carried out 2,749,706 deportations in 8 years, an average of 942 per day. During his first term (2009-2012), it averaged 1,088 per day; in the second (2013-2016), the daily average dropped to 794.
Between January and June 2025, Donald Trump’s administration carried out 128,039 deportations, averaging 810 per day, fewer than in the years with the highest deportations under Obama. And this is according to a Latino website which has a deep interest in the question. https://factchequeado.com/teexplicamos/20250820/obama-deportations-trump-biden-numbers/
The left only cares about illegal immigrant deportations when it’s the Republicans doing it rather than the Democrats. It’s the same hypocrisy that only cares about deaths in the Middle East if Israel is involved. If it’s a tyrannical theocracy like Iran, then… meh.
Oh, and under the presidency of Barack Obama 56 people were killed by ICE. Oh, and Obama gave Tom Homan the Distinguished Service Medal for his work deporting illegal aliens. And guess what? The Democrats didn’t riot or try to interfere with ICE. They save that crap for the Republicans.
Also, Mike, on the subject of my theory concerning the anti-American Left grooming Minnesota as a test place for its anarchistic policies, here is some corroboration: https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/far-left-groups-are-behind-the-funding-of-anti-ice-protests-in-minnesota-report-new-york-post-renee-good-immigration-dc
This insanity beginning with George Floyd has been manufactured and scripted. The Left will treat Minnesota as if it were Boston in 1770. That, at least, is what they’re trying for. It’s cynical, manipulative and corrupt.
I was waiting for a good Minneapolis poem, and you delivered posthaste. You highlight an important point: this is all a charade (well, with the potential for an attempted color revolution). Meanwhile a real popular uprising against authoritarianism is overlooked. (Also overlooked, I would add, is the attempted coup in China, which has massive implications.) Thank you for this timely piece.
Thank you so much, Adam! I wrote this poem deeply rankled by the events taking place in Minneapolis — not just the events but the perverse way the left was spinning them to (once again) turn scofflaws and agitators into dimestore martyrs. That was already vexing enough but to then see the extent to which the MSM was ignoring the monumental events in Iran and what they might mean for the triumph of true freedom really angered me. Their agenda is just so toxic. And their hypocrisy is revolting.
The whole business in Minneapolis is choreographed, orchestrated, scripted, and carefully directed via the internet and other far-reaching connections. In the past, intelligence agencies could arrange a riot or any kind of civil disturbance with just few trained provocateurs with connections and street smarts. Nowadays the instigators can summon up thousands of instant demonstrators and placard-carrying protestors and get them to show up somewhere and do everything they can to cause trouble. The effect is better, because these silly sheep will do some things that cause real violence and deaths, and thereby inflame political passions even further through mainstream and social media.
That, of course, is the whole idea. It’s part of the playbook.
The fact is that there are a lot of really stupid and emotion-driven idiots who will jump up and do anything if the correct buttons are pressed on TV or the internet. It’s a way of pretending that you are brave and heroic.
You are 100% correct, Joe. None of this is organic. It is a manipulative form of agitprop. In fact, this article from Fox published today corroborates your analysis precisely:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fox-news-digital-analysis-how-minneapolis-agitator-networks-use-insurgency-tactics-hinder-ice
And the funding for all of this crap comes from very dark anti-American interests:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ccp-connected-millionaire-allegedly-bankrolls-minneapolis-agitator-groups-through-dark-money-network
Brian, your poem breathes love of country and genuinely American sympathy for those deprived of true freedom.
Thank you very much indeed, Margaret. I pray for those deprived of freedom and fervently hope that the regime change so desperately needed in Iran comes forth — and quickly!
Thank you Brian for this very important poem.
Thank you so much, Norma! It’s great to see you here and I very much appreciate your comment.