Host Davey D brings on Minneapolis–St. Paul journalist and activist Georgia Fort to dig into ICE raids, attacks on Somali communities, and the growing repression of journalists and protesters in Minnesota and beyond.
Georgia starts by describing a November 25 raid on St. Paul’s East Side where several hundred people showed up and three journalists were attacked, including one from NPR who had to be taken away by ambulance. She stresses that First Amendment rights to protest and a free press are being violated repeatedly, with no real consequences, and that local officials who should be defending residents are either afraid or complicit. She cites ProPublica’s figure that at least 170 U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained by ICE.
Davey asks whether the media and the public “dropped the ball” after the George Floyd uprising, when reporters were already being arrested in Minneapolis. Georgia says yes, absolutely: Americans normalized constitutional violations, tolerated abuses aimed at Black people, and then allowed someone convicted of dozens of felonies to become president. She adds that even valid criticism of figures like Kamala Harris went nowhere because it wasn’t tied to any real strategy.
The conversation shifts to the Somali community and the narratives being pushed online. Davey describes seeing suddenly amplified social media accounts calling for ICE in Black neighborhoods and blaming immigrants. Georgia frames this as a “state of emergency” shaped by both racial terror and an information war: AI-generated or manipulated videos, algorithmic amplification, and social platforms aligned with Trump’s agenda. She points to examples like uncensored footage of Charlie Kirk being shot and asks what emotions and political outcomes that kind of content is meant to trigger.
Georgia pushes back on attempts to demonize Somali Minnesotans, noting they are deeply involved in academia, medicine, finance, and public life, and that fraud narratives conveniently erase the fact that a white woman led a major Minnesota scheme Trump pinned on Somalis. She draws a historical line from masked KKK terror to today’s masked federal agents and multi-agency immigration crackdowns, with unmarked cars, no badge numbers, no warrants, and U.S. citizens being swept up.
They talk about Minneapolis as a movement city: community members have sometimes successfully intervened in ICE actions, kept people safe, and supported lawsuits like those backed by the ACLU of Minnesota. Georgia notes Attorney General Keith Ellison’s many suits against the Trump administration, but says some officials are clearly scared after the assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband by someone posing as law enforcement, with an apparent hit list of other electeds.
In closing, Georgia urges listeners to follow her work at georgiafort.com and warns about the White House’s new “Media Offenders” page, which labels journalists and outlets as liars or lunatics. She fears that political violence will increasingly be directed at media workers. Her final message is that people cannot look away: this is about whether we are willing to defend civil and human rights, and what side of history each of us chooses to stand on.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.