I am stunned reading people trying to compare the “protester” in Minneapolis that got himself shot by LEO to Kyle Rittenhouse.

Kyle Rittenhouse did not cross state lines to engage in a protest nor to stop one. Kyle traveled at the request and invitation of friends who were standing with a mutual friend defending his business from rioters that were destroying private property.

The age to carry a rifle in Wisconsin is 17 so he was legally in possession which is why no charges were filed on possession.

Kyle was not approached by LEO and went to the police to report himself.

Kyle was attacked by criminals, one of whom was illegally in possession of a firearm.

Comparing his right to be armed, defend a business and self defense to a protester who shows up with a firearm at a scene where LEO are being targeted and threatened by the same group he aligned with and then he jumped in and became an aggressor on behalf of someone that LEO deemed a threat and pushed out of the way making him a combatant is not near the same.

He didn’t just show up in civilian clothing either. He was dressed for combat.

Based on the recent Signal group discoveries his decorum matches that of those who were actively engaged in the protester’s version of QRT.

This isn’t about constitutional rights. This is about dealing with insurgents and a very real evil threat to our nation.

The protester had the “right” to be armed. When he jumped in and put himself between the Officer and the woman he became an active threat. He obviously had chosen a side and it was to interfere with the ICE actions of capturing and arresting criminals. Showing up armed to block LEO from carrying out lawful arrests of criminals who are also here illegally makes you a threat and as soon as you engage the officer you make yourself a combatant.

ICE has been threatened and targeted by the Governor, The Mayor, The State AG and several members of the legislature. Officers have been attacked with clubs, knives and shot with guns. One was run over by a car. All of this while they are ridding the streets of criminals who have stolen, sold drugs, Trafficked humans, raped, terrorized and in some cases murdered. Yet these activists protect and defend them.

They do not have a right to interfere with the officers discharging their duties and carrying out these operations. They have a right to redress their government. That is not done by blocking or attempting to block the officers or by doxing them. It is not done by bringing a weapon to the already illegal gathering.

First Amendment

the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

US Constitution Article IV

Section 4

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

What we have had is an invasion and what ICE is doing is removing the invaders.

Article VI

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

I am not the author of this analysis, however as a Cold War veteran and having grown up with a Navy veteran that served during the Korean War the tactics addressed here are dead on with what is now happening in America.

Clinton took it to stage 1 and Obama took it to stage 2. We are now in stage 3 after 100 years of planning and testing to see when we would fall.

Analysis author credited at bottom

“As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly.

What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook.

Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse.

This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s.

The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience. You’re facing a distributed resistance that’s learned the lessons of successful insurgencies: stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time, force over-reaction when possible, maintain popular support through narrative, and never present a single center of gravity.

I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night.

Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war.

We either recognize what we’re actually looking at—or we pretend it’s still just “activism” until the structures harden and spread.

Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn’t January 2026 politics anymore.

It’s phase one of something we’ve spent decades trying to keep off our own soil.”

Eric Schwelm