Activist Tactics Against ICE Are Not ‘Nonviolent’

One of the many myths about the tactics used by anti-ICE activists in Minnesota is that their tactics are legitimate non-violent “speech” to protest the actions of federal agents. 

Obviously, holding signs and shouting epithets are both perfectly legal, and while insulting people is not exactly polite, people are rarely polite when they are angry or enraged. 

Also, obviously, physically assaulting people is not protected speech, and while Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, and Jacob Frey may believe that there is a divine right of leftists to impede law enforcement as they do their jobs, most Americans understand that throwing things at officers or smashing up their cars is way over the line. 

Both of these types of “protest” are common here, with ordinary liberals doing the former and the Black Bloc doing the latter, and much worse. 

But what about the videos you see regularly where federal agents are trying to work and are surrounded by people blowing loud whistles—whistles, by the way, that can emit high-pitched sounds at up to 140 db, which is enough to cause immediate hearing loss, severe pain, nausea, and disorientation.

It’s no accident that the activists have chosen those whistles, which are specifically designed to harm and disorient law enforcement while appearing to be little more than an annoyance to people who are not in the immediate vicinity. If you read the manuals for these protests, they are quite specific about the intent of what they are doing—they are creating an environment in which agents are physiologically primed to be under constant stress and threat, incapable of clear thought, and primed for violence. 

Chaps, there’s a reason these demonstrators are using whistles, horns, and making so much noise in all the video clips you are watching.

They don’t do these when protesting climate change or LGBTQ rights.

Those sudden, impulsive noises trigger the acoustic startle response.… pic.twitter.com/AlUvdUUTwa

— 𝖱𝖤𝖢𝖮𝖭𝟣 ®✞ (@Recon1_ZA) January 26, 2026

Chaps, there’s a reason these demonstrators are using whistles, horns, and making so much noise in all the video clips you are watching.

They don’t do these when protesting climate change or LGBTQ rights. 

Those sudden, impulsive noises trigger the acoustic startle response. It’s a rapid, involuntary reaction mediated by the brainstem, involving muscle tension, elevated heart rate, and adrenaline release.

That repetitive exposure from them fatigues neural pathways but sustains heightened arousal, diverting cognitive resources from higher-order tasks to basic threat monitoring.

It is an acute stressor, activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system, which releases cortisol and adrenaline. 

Long exposure to this stuff impairs prefrontal cortex function critical for decision making.

Pair this with the sheer annoyance, these tactics are a low-tech escalation of protest disruption, rooted in documented physiological responses to noise.

In layman’s terms, they’re putting these officers on edge and triggering them to act. Pretti and Good was exactly what they wanted. It’s usually someone else who ends up dying and not the instigator.

This is a great example.

Watch the guy at the rear strike an officer against the head with an object. These officers, already on edge, are very likely to react to something like that. When someone ends up getting hurt, they’re all innocent.

These events aren’t random.

These are organised tactics. 80% of the people protesting aren’t aware that they’re being used by their own team as cannon fodder to generate outrage.

These aren’t the ramblings of a right-wing activist. I looked it up, and indeed this is exactly what happens, and it is the intended effect. 

• Blowing loud whistles and throwing objects at close range can trigger immediate stress responses, cause physical harm (especially to hearing and eyes), and increase anxiety, fear, and anger in both targets and bystanders. These tactics also risk escalating confrontations, which can heighten trauma and longer‑term mental health symptoms for everyone involved.

  Physiological effects of loud whistles

  • Sudden loud noise activates the body’s stress system (amygdala → hypothalamus → adrenaline and cortisol), causing rapid increases in heart rate and blood pressure.

  • Chronic or repeated noise exposure is linked to cardiovascular problems, including hypertension and heart disease, especially when people feel they cannot control or escape the sound.

  • Very loud sound (around 130 dB and above) at close range can cause ear pain, temporary or permanent hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing), headaches, nausea, and noise sensitivity; risk is higher for children, older adults, and those with prior hearing issues.

  • Even if whistle volume is below “weaponized” acoustic devices, repeated high‑pitched blasts in close proximity add to overall noise pollution load, which is associated with sleep problems, reduced concentration, and fatigue.

• Psychological effects of loud whistles

  • Unwanted, inescapable noise increases annoyance, irritability, anger, and a sense of loss of control, which can evolve into chronic stress if exposure continues.

  • Noise that signals danger (like alarm whistles) pushes people into a high arousal fight‑or‑flight state; some accounts describe “immediate decrements in mental performance” and heightened stress under such stimulus.

  • Prolonged or repeated exposure to stressful protest environments, including intense noise and threats of conflict, is associated with anxiety, low mood, insomnia, and, in some individuals, trauma‑like symptoms, whether they are participating or observing.

  • For immigrants or targets of ICE actions, whistle alerts may be protective but can also be emotionally distressing; some whistle‑using neighbors report crying and strong distress after encounters.

• Physiological effects of throwing objects

  • Any thrown object that strikes someone can cause blunt‑force trauma, including contusions, lacerations, fractures, and eye injuries; systematic reviews of “kinetic impact projectiles” (rubber/plastic bullets and similar projectiles) show deaths, permanent disability, and serious injuries, especially to the head and face.

  • Even relatively small objects can cause severe harm at close range or when hitting vulnerable areas like the eyes, potentially leading to permanent vision loss or disfigurement.

  • Anticipating projectiles (seeing things thrown nearby) can trigger the same acute stress physiology—adrenaline surge, increased heart rate and blood pressure—as actually being hit, as the body reacts to perceived threat.

• Psychological effects of thrown objects and escalation

  • Being hit by or narrowly missing a projectile at a protest is associated with disorientation, panic, and fear; people struck by projectiles often describe shock, bleeding, and subsequent intrusive memories or hypervigilance.

  • Research on protests and policing documents that exposure to force and weapons at demonstrations increases risk of severe psychological distress and trauma‑related symptoms, including PTSD.

When people read or see videos of federal agents being harassed by people with whistles and occasional objects like snowballs being thrown at them (with some rocks or frozen water bottles thrown in occasionally), it sounds annoying, but not dangerous. Perhaps a bit over the line, but surely not enough to justify violent responses, right?

Yeah, well, that’s not the actual situation on the ground. Hundreds of whistles are being blown, many right in the ears of agents; objects are flying, agents are being pushed, and lots of people are screaming for blood, making death threats. 

For hours on end. It takes superhuman control not to lose control, and that is the point of the tactic. To, at some point, break an agent’s self-control and catch it on video. 

Yes, an attack on a person/officer’s auditory system is absolutely an assault.

Your ears are biological organs connected directly to the brain. Deliberately exposing someone to damaging sound is no different in principle from striking their eyes with a laser, poisoning their… pic.twitter.com/OLOgHhCkik

— 𝖱𝖤𝖢𝖮𝖭𝟣 ®✞ (@Recon1_ZA) January 27, 2026

Yes, an attack on a person/officer’s auditory system is absolutely an assault. 

Your ears are biological organs connected directly to the brain. Deliberately exposing someone to damaging sound is no different in principle from striking their eyes with a laser, poisoning their lungs with gas, or striking the skin with force.

Assault does not require visible injury. 

They’re using sound as a weapon, and the intent matters. When sound is used intentionally to injure, intimidate, or impair a person’s hearing or neurological function, it meets every meaningful definition of assault.

There is solid science behind this, and every person subjected to it is absolutely justified to respond to it in defense.

There are all sorts of training materials out there explaining how to trigger violence from agents and catch it on tape. That is what those “observers” you see with cameras are there for: to cover the entire range of the contested territory to ensure coverage once violence begins. The video is carefully curated, and no phone video can capture the sheer volume of the sound because no phone is designed to destroy your ears, so sound levels are muted below a tolerable level, even when they are not in reality. 

Think of it as your home theater portraying a flash-bang grenade going off. In reality, it disorients you entirely, but on TV, it is a bright light and a loud noise that merely excites you. 

This level of sophistication—encrypted comms, real-time tracking, organized rapid response—smacks of foreign irregular warfare ops. As a retired CIA Senior Ops Officer, I’ve seen Russia & China fund/train proxies to destabilize the US from within. Time for a deep investigation… https://t.co/bjUo6F1f7R

— Rick de la Torre (@vrk_rick) January 27, 2026

These tactics have been developed and refined over the years, put into training manuals, taught to Black Bloc protesters, and when they are mobilized, they train local activists to implement them. 

It is highly organized to the point of mimicking the tactics of insurgencies. And many of the Black Bloc people see it in exactly those terms. 

“minneapolis could be our Fallujah”

Far-left extremists linked to Antifa and anarchist and communist extremists are encouraging comrades to go to Minneapolis as “delegates” for an armed uprising against the U.S. government. They’re raising funds for weapons, tactical gear and… pic.twitter.com/nVAaSaX4Cq

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) January 25, 2026

Unfortunately, the majority of people who get their information from Pravda believe that the federal government is an invading force and that the activists are just defending their neighbors. It seems implausible that this is backed by tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, organized, and tolerated by the local political officials. 

Unfortunately, it is. 

Will Walz and Frey reverse course and back down? Walz appears to be wavering, but Frey, not so much. Trump’s bringing in Tom Homan is a good step, as Kristi Noem hasn’t exactly covered herself in glory (again). 

But even if Walz and Frey do compromise, I’m not sure that the activists will cooperate. The soccer moms might, but the Black Bloc wants a war and sees itself as a revolutionary movement. They want the violence. 

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