Police allowed anti-deportation activists to maintain a road blockade in Minneapolis, Minnesota, until Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Jorge Ventura was assaulted nearby.
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on Monday cleared traffic cones and other debris that the mob used to direct traffic and deter Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles from Cedar Ave., footage from the left-leaning X account Minneapolis Spring shows. News of the blockade first broke on Sunday, but it remained standing by Monday, when Ventura was harassed and shoved into a car by masked men for investigating it.
“The Public Works team — with assistance from the [MPD] — cleared debris and homemade roadblocks,” the MPD said in an email Monday night, hours after the DCNF asked how it would respond to the vigilantes controlling traffic and attacking a journalist.
“Given the high-traffic and high-speed block of roadways on Cedar Ave., the City cleared the streets to ensure public safety for the neighborhoods and emergency vehicles,” the MPD said. They were cleared by about 2:30 central time, the MPD added.
Two officers were also seen days earlier at a different Minneapolis road blockade trying to tell demonstrators that they could potentially block emergency vehicles from passing through, according to footage Minneapolis Spring posted Saturday. The crowd disputed their concern and complained about ICE “abducting people.”
“Good talk,” one blockade defender said mockingly as the cops walked away.
After the Cedar Ave. structures were cleared, the Minneapolis Spring account encouraged supporters on X to try again.
“They want us to be demoralized but keep in mind: blockades are cheap to set up + not meant to function around the clock,” its Monday post said. “It takes almost no effort for people to set up another filter blockade. But this strategy will only work if we keep building momentum [with] more blockades.”
Jorge Ventura contributed reporting.
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