the attitude with arnie arnesen the tues edition Jan 20

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Jan 19, 2026, 8:35:17 PM (11 days ago) Jan 19
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The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts: thoughts from Minnesota and a cop speaks to the moment
producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH
opening thoughts:
From a friend I met at ST.Olaf College in Northfield MN and is now living in Norway.
My dad drove a school bus in his later years. He loved those kids, and they him. He was against installing video cameras in the buses to handle the kids, his philosophy being you should just talk with them. I wonder what he would think of armed ICE agents overwhelming his bus.
A friend living just south of Minneapolis/St. Paul shared this account from a mom there. The shooting, dragging people out of their homes and cars, and other violent and unnecessary acts are horrendous. In addition there are all the arrests and harassments which are not making the news, but are traumatizing kids witnessing and wondering what is happening:
«This note is for those of you not in a heavily ICE-patrolled area. This inhumanity and cruelty is actually happening.
Keep in mind that I live in a fairly high-resourced, predominantly white suburb of St. Paul, and this is still our reality now. School buses in our district are being followed by ICE, and there are nearby reports of school buses being boarded by ICE agents with guns while kids are on them.
So, I have to talk to my kids about what to do, what to document, and how to keep our friends and ourselves safe if this happens on their buses.
Regular people are being stopped in Target parking lots and demanded to show their passports. The other day, ICE profiled a brown man at our local Target who then pulled out his TSA ID. No joke. A federal employee. It’s pure racism.
Folks are cancelling needed medical appointments or keeping kids home from school out of fear. People will die. Kids will fall behind. Black and brown people are afraid to leave their houses, despite being citizens or permanent residents. They can’t make it to grocery stores without feeling unsafe, so we try to find community groups to deliver groceries and help out.
Community members—mamas, sisters, brothers, daddios—many U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents—are being taken and detained. This recently happened to a staff member’s wife at a nearby school. They have children. How do you explain a mom’s absence to your kids? How is kidnapping someone’s mother improving our community?
I have had conversations with my 11-year-old about what to record and document if he sees ICE approach anyone. I have described to him what our rights are. These are not conversations to have with an 11-year-old.
My 9-year-old’s tennis class was dismissed early tonight because it’s next to the federal building where ICE is headquartered, and there was fear for public safety.
I had to snuggle my 9-year-old to sleep tonight because she understands enough to know that things are very wrong right now.
Our teachers have to patrol parking lots at school dismissal to ensure kids are safe. Communities are arranging systems to walk kids—even high schoolers—home from bus stops or schools.
These actions create generational trauma. And this is still the beginning of this attack on our city.
It’s cruel and inhumane how people are being treated—pulling their pants down and dragging them along sidewalks, throwing them face-first into icy snow, or shooting them through a car window as they’re driving away.
No one feels safe.
Taxpayers are spending billions so good people can be harassed and taken from their families, and so kids can live in fear.
This is not okay.
This is a pledge for all of us to stand up strong for the democracy we believe in—where we appreciate the melting pot we are. Those of us who are privileged to have white skin: now is the time, if there ever was one. Show up for your neighbors.
We in the Twin Cities—we are one. They should know by now that acts of violence and humiliation against our people only fuel our unity.
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If this unsettles you, it should.
part one: Michael Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic and the author of five books, including his latest and critically acclaimed The Middle Out: The Rise of Progressive Economics and a Return to Shared Prosperity. With extensive experience as an editor, columnist, progressive commentator, and special correspondent for renowned publications such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Daily Beast, and many others, Tomasky has been a trusted voice in political journalism for more than three decades.
We’re Nearing the Day When ICE Thugs Just Open Fire on Crowds The United States is now closer to Assad’s Syria than to anything we recognize as fitting within the understood norms of American history.

part two: opening thoughts
 
This is message from a former police officer friend that I admire and respect, Jim Shepard. He is speaking truth.
He writes:
These aren’t my words but they capture my feelings on the Renee Goode situation prettty well
“I wore a badge long enough to know the difference between a dangerous situation and a manufactured one.
What happened in Minneapolis wasn’t split-second chaos. It wasn’t a tragic accident. And it sure as hell wasn’t “necessary force.”
It was escalation. Illegal, reckless escalation—and any law enforcement official who tells you otherwise is lying, or hasn’t done the job.
From what we’ve seen so far, the encounter didn’t begin with a threat that justified lethal force.
There was no imminent danger to officers or the public that required bullets. There was time. There were options. There were off-ramps.
And they weren’t taken.
One of the first things you’re taught as a police officer is that force is not a punishment. It’s not a tool to assert dominance. It’s not something you use because someone doesn’t comply fast enough or says the wrong thing.
Force is a last resort governed by law. Period.
The standard is simple: Is there an immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death? If the answer is no, deadly force is unlawful. Full stop.
What we’re being fed now—by Trump officials, right-wing media, and the same law-and-order grifters who never hesitate to excuse police violence—is a familiar script.
They cherry-pick moments. They speculate about “what could have happened.” They inflate fear after the fact to justify an outcome that was already decided before any real threat existed.
That’s not analysis. That’s propaganda.
I’ve watched this play out too many times. A civilian is killed. The facts are inconvenient. So the story gets rewritten—fast. Suddenly the victim is on trial. Suddenly we’re told the officer “felt threatened.” Suddenly every rule of policing bends to accommodate the result.
But feelings don’t determine legality. The Constitution does.
If a cop “feels” scared but the objective facts don’t support deadly force, the shooting is still illegal.
Law enforcement isn’t vibes-based. It’s rule-based. Or at least it’s supposed to be.
The Trump administration knows this. They also know that if they repeat the lie often enough—if they shout “violent suspect” and “split-second decision” and “officer safety” into every camera—they can muddy the water long enough for accountability to disappear.
That’s the real pattern here. Not law enforcement. Not justice.
Covering your ass cause you just did something morally abhorrent and don’t want to admit it.
As someone who has been in violent confrontations, who has had to make real decisions under real pressure, I’m telling you this plainly: restraint is part of the job. De-escalation is part of the job. Walking away alive with everyone still breathing is the job.
When officers abandon that responsibility—and when the federal government rushes to excuse it—we don’t get safety. We get impunity.
And when the state lies to protect unlawful killing, it doesn’t just dishonor the person who died. It poisons the legitimacy of every officer who still believes the badge means something.
This wasn’t a tragedy without cause. It was a choice.
And no amount of propaganda can change that.”

part two: Laura Jedeed is a New York–based journalist focused on American conservative and far-right movements. She has bylines in Rolling Stone, the New Republic, and New York magazine.

You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof. What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We’re all finding out.  https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/ice-recruitment-minneapolis-shooting.html

The Trump Administration Is Calling My Viral Story a Lie. Good Thing I Kept the Receipts. The administration that lies all the time is lying about me. And I can prove it.  https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/ice-recruitment-trump-administration-dhs-minneapolis.html

Anti-Trump US reporter says she was offered job at ICE after ‘minimal vetting’

Slate journalist Laura Jedeed documented hiring process and said she got offer despite not completing paperwork    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/slate-reporter-ice-job-offer


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KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP -  Anonymous 

D. ARNIE ARNESEN
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Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
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