Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offered these comments Wednesday evening urging citizens to peacefully protest “protest loudly and urgently.” “I’m angry. Angry is not a strong enough word-but we must remain peaceful,” he said.

GOVERNOR TIM WALZ: My fellow Minnesotans, what’s happening in Minnesota right now defies belief. News reports simply don’t do justice to the level of chaos, disruption, and trauma the federal government is raining down upon our communities. Two to three thousand armed agents of the federal government have been deployed to Minnesota. Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door to door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live. They’re pulling people over-indiscriminately, including U.S. citizens-demanding to see their papers. They’re going door to door and showing up at grocery stores, at bus stops, even at our schools. They’re breaking windows. They’re dragging pregnant women down the street, just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process. Let’s be very, very clear, Minnesotans: this long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. Instead, it is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government. Last week, that campaign claimed the life of Renee Nicole Good. We’ve all watched the video. And yet, instead of conducting an impartial investigation so we can hold accountable the officer responsible for Renee’s death, the Trump administration is devoting the full power of the federal government to finding an excuse to attack the victim and her family. Just yesterday, six federal prosecutors-including the longtime career prosecutor leading the charge to investigate and eliminate fraud in our state’s programs-quit their jobs rather than go along with this assault on the United States Constitution. But as bad as it’s been, Donald Trump intends for it to get worse. This week, he went online to promise that a day of retribution and reckoning is coming. That is a direct threat against the people of this state-people who dared to vote against him three times and who continue to stand up for freedom with courage, empathy, and profound grace. All across Minnesota, people are stepping up to help their neighbors who are being unjustly and unlawfully targeted. They’re distributing care packages, walking kids to school, raising their voices in peaceful protest-even though doing so has made many of our fellow Minnesotans targets for violent retribution. Folks, I know it’s scary. I know it’s absurd that we all have to defend law and order, justice, and humanity while also caring for our families and trying to do our jobs. So tonight, let me say once again to Donald Trump: end this occupation. You’ve done enough. And let me say four critical things to the people of Minnesota-four things I want you to hear as you watch the news and look out for one another. First, Donald Trump wants this chaos. He wants confusion, and yes, he wants more violence on our streets. We cannot give him what he wants. We must protest loudly and urgently, but also peacefully. As hard as we will fight in the courts and at the ballot box, we cannot and will not let violence prevail. You’re angry. I’m angry. Angry is not a strong enough word-but we must remain peaceful. Second, you are not powerless. You are not helpless. And you are certainly not alone. All across Minnesota, people are learning about opportunities not just to resist, but to help people who are in danger. Thousands upon thousands of our fellow Minnesotans are going to be relying on mutual aid in the days and weeks to come, and they need our support. Tonight, I want to share another way you can help. Help us establish a record of exactly what’s happening in our communities. You have an absolute right to peacefully film ICE agents as they conduct these activities. Carry your phone with you. If you see ICE agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Peacefully help us create a database of the atrocities being committed against Minnesotans-not just to establish a record for posterity, but to ensure accountability in court and at the ballot box. Third, we will not have to live like this. We will bring an end to this chaos and confusion. We will reclaim our communities. We will establish a sense of safety again. We are working every day, with legal experts and elected officials, to find a way forward. We will not be alone in this, and those responsible know their days of acting without consequence are numbered. Fourth, and finally, I want you to know how incredibly proud I am of you. This is who we are. Minnesotans believe in the rule of law. We feed our kids. We take care of our neighbors. We look out for those in the shadows of life. We are a place where there is room for everybody, no matter who you are or where you came from. We are an island of decency in a country being driven toward cruelty. And we will remain an island of decency-of justice.

RealClearPolitics Videos