Will Blatant Injustice Strengthen the Opposition?

A Saturday Prompt

High school students protesting outside the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

The events of the last few days in Minneapolis have led me to reflect on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insights about injustice, written from a jail cell in April 1963. It is famously known as “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

We have been witnessing a rising tide of injustice in Minnesota since the point-blank murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross 10 days ago on Jan. 7. First was the terrible horror of that killing, followed by the lies of Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem and others about the young mother of three’s culpability in order to justify her killing and shield their deadly agent. Then Minneapolis saw the deployment of hundreds more federal agents from an already overwhelming 2,000 armed thugs there, causing further incitements and threats by Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and further inflame the conditions he created.

In the last several days, we are confronted with the mad fact that the Trump Justice Department is refusing to investigate Ross’ actions, while announcing it is investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for their “terrorism” impeding the work of federal law enforcement. (“Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic,” Walz responded yesterday.) This followed the ghoulish and cruel announcement by the “Injustice Department” that they are now investigating Nicole Good’s widow, Becca Good. Added to this toxic mix: federal agents pepper spraying and otherwise attacking peaceful protestors expressing their First Amendment rights against an abusive federal invasion terrorizing their community.

Yesterday provided a sliver of good news: US District Judge Katherine Menendez ruled that federal agents in Minnesota are prohibited from arresting or using “pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools” against peaceful protestors. She also ruled agents are barred from stopping and detaining drivers who are not forcibly obstructing or interfering with federal operations. This is too late, tragically, to save the life of Renee Nicole Good.

It’s reasonable to look at this grotesque and lawless abuse of power and fear this injustice will grow worse and doubt there’s anything you can do. The regime is counting on Americans despairing and looking the other way. This reluctance strengthens their hand as they expand their perverse spectacle. Trump and his miscreants are also hoping they can egg on violence to justify more extreme measures.

This brings me back to MLK, whose words from 63 years ago ring with the power of alarm as if he too were witnessing our moment. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” he wrote, echoing the thoughts of another great American, Frederick Douglass. (“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” Douglass wrote in 1857. “It never did and it never will.”)

King had much more to say as he explained why he had traveled to Birmingham, defying a court injunction against demonstrations and leading a protest march against segregation. “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here,” he wrote after his arrest and during his eight-day imprisonment. He went on:

I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.

The interrelatedness of all communities and states.

An inescapable network of mutuality.

A single garment of destiny.

There will be more to say on Monday, Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Were he still alive, King would have turned 97 two days ago. It’s still shocking to realize that he was assassinated at the age of 39, gunned down for speaking out so forcefully against injustice, threatening those in power.

You may have never been to Minneapolis or even known someone personally from Minnesota. But MLK reminds us that they are our neighbors, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and that we are a part of an inescapable network of mutuality.

I think it’s useful counsel as we look at what’s happening in one of our American cities and recognize that this onslaught of abuse, this unjust campaign of retribution and violence, will intensify and spread. We surely did not wish it, but we are learning in terrible ways that we are a single garment of destiny. The question for each of us is whether this injustice will strengthen our commitment to oppose a lawless, authoritarian regime and its violent leaders bent on violating our people, our communities and our laws.

What do you think? Will the blatant injustice strengthen the opposition? Rather than the regime succeeding at quieting or even silencing dissent, do you expect growing protests? Are you hopeful that the courts will continue to push back? Are you counting on elected Democrats to provide the necessary leadership? In turn, are you discouraged by the success of the regime thus far to inflict so much damage? Perhaps you’d like to share the ways you have chosen to participate. Perhaps you’d like to describe what acts of opposition have particularly encouraged you.

As always, I look forward to reading your observations and the opportunity of the America, America community to learn from each other. Please do be respectful in your remarks. Trolling will not be tolerated.

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