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This is part of a series of on-the-ground reports from Minneapolis.

As masked men dressed for war surrounded the car my friend Patty and I sat in, all I could think about were the moments that had led to my neighbor Renee Good’s death. “I’m not mad at you,” she had told her killer. These agents, who I had to assume were from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (they never identified themselves), were already banging on our windows and recording us. Then they pepper-sprayed the intake vent of the car. They were definitely mad at us.

“You’re under arrest!” the agents yelled. Terrified, I thrust my hands in the air and waited for instruction. They did not give me any—instead, they shattered our windows and pulled me out. I was roughly handcuffed and shoved into the back of an unmarked Subaru.

I was a recent volunteer to the neighborhood group that had organized to observe and report ICE after Operation Metro Surge began here in Minnesota weeks ago. The efforts had only increased since Good’s killing. In community chats, suspected ICE sightings are reported, their license plates checked against a constantly updated public spreadsheet. If they are confirmed, people in cars drive to the scene to record what the agents are doing and warn people that ICE is in the area with car horns and whistles. Recording, a legally protected action, occurs on public streets.

Most of the time, commuting (as it’s known in activist circles) is boring. You typically drive in circles around familiar streets. Volunteer dispatchers will help coordinate where people should go, but usually they just recommend sticking around areas with lots of brown people: restaurants, community centers, the kinds of places that make Minneapolis vital. Commuting has become so popular as of late that it’s common to hear a dispatcher request that listeners “please leave the call if you are not actively commuting.” Signal calls have limited space.

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Occasionally, though, commuting is terrifying. “Have y’all not........

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