Will Stancil
@whstancil.bsky.social
Minnesota guy.
"This particular activist will not stop." Sen. Chris Murphy
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What I actually did was allow credentialed press from mainstream outlets sit in my car on the condition that they identify no one but myself, something dozens of observers have done, but it’s fascinating how paranoiac mania over that imagined offense has evolved into vast crimes in 24 hours
Sixteen years in MN and I’ve never set foot in this miraculous place: a midwestern dive bar where everyone is Hmong, with an attached pool hall, EDM stage, and where you can order pho until midnight. The idea people would want to kick immigrants out of this region is insane.
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I was going to party but I just ate that whole bowl and I sort of want to fall asleep instead
so many conversations like this:
"stop being selfish and work with the movement"
"okay, tell me how"
"the movement has decided to exclude you, respect its decision"
"I don't like that, but I'll do my own thing"
"why are you acting unilaterally, disrespecting and criticizing the movement"
Springfield’s mayor has been talking about this for days now.
A court decision is likely on Monday, and may halt the end of TPS. It’s unclear whether DHS is going into Springfield anyway.
Breaking MS NOW:
The Trump admin is now eyeing Ohio for immigration enforcement operations that could begin as early as next week.
The operation is expected to target Haitian immigrants — with temporary protected status for Haiti expiring on Feb. 3.
The very well-accepted term for "stripping the legal protections of a minority group and then sending a paramilitary force to carry them away" is "ethnic cleansing."
They are planning to ethnically cleanse Springfield, Ohio.
Breaking MS NOW:
The Trump admin is now eyeing Ohio for immigration enforcement operations that could begin as early as next week.
The operation is expected to target Haitian immigrants — with temporary protected status for Haiti expiring on Feb. 3.
I thought I knew where this was going but I DID NOT. Hardcore
As a trans woman, getting arrested by Trump's goons would probably be a death sentence for me. I still say that feckless tangerine bitch can bring it if he wants. I won't shut up.
People keep saying "Getting arrested is bad, actually" and while I'd certainly prefer not to be, the administration's entire strategy is built around the idea that I will live in fear of it, and shape my behavior to avoid it, and cry in shame if I am. That is how THEY CONTROL YOU.
Push through your fear and they don't control you any more! And many people are in places where they can't push their fear - they're old, frail, have children, have people depending on them. So those of use who have to less to be fearful of should push even harder to stand in front of them.
Trump is controlling EVERYONE with fear. Politicians, foreign nations, universities, industries. "What if he does something to me?"
Well, what if he does?! Is that the worst thing anyone has ever experienced? Time in jail? A court fight? You lose your job? Is that worth your god-given free will
yeah it's extremely funny because the people who are extremely insistent that their politics are revolutionary spend all their time trying to not to get in trouble which ensures that that existing power structures literally have to exert no force at all to pacify them
that is absolutely true. I know many people far to the left of me who are fearless beyond measure. I see them every single day here
I think it’s important to not paint the entire left with the behavior of a few dipshits. A lot on the left have you props for your efforts and are also putting their safety on the line. Don’t fall to the temptation of division. Some of this online crap is an attempt to foment it.
lmao
look, generative AI is not going to die, even if the current bubble bursts
but OpenAI might
Sources: Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100B in OpenAI has stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed doubts about the deal (Wall Street Journal)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
sitting at a whites-only lunch counter is also "baiting," is the thing. and probably a lot more dangerous than telling ICE's donut patrol to bug off
Hey come arrest me, if you think you can. Literally. Make my day.
I would put money on the the White House/DHS/DOJ having had whether they could arrest @whstancil.bsky.social on the agenda of at least one meeting.
They literally threatened to arrest me yesterday and literally backed down instantly.
(I edited the legible radio chatter out of this but I wish I didn't have to, because it's the hardcore dispatch guy going "Yeah, we've got your back" as we race onto the highway behind the Wagoneer. My neighbors make me strong)
*slaps roof of fit* I can fit so many national correspondents in this bad boy
There’s like a random piece hanging off the Fit now too. Starting to look a little bit Road Warrior
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And not to put too fine a point on it or anything, but guess which side of the fight for civil rights did wear masks to conceal their identity?
Hint: They called them robes instead.
Right, they could have probably successfully concealed their identities, and did not do so, despite the risk of literally being lynched in their homes
My dude, Selma marchers did not face a security state with the capability of mass surveillance and data collection through highly sophisticated tools that do not require human review to record literally everything you do at a protest for use in a potential prosecution/detention.
You face no such risk and anonymity is hopeless anyway, and yet your energy is expended hiding?
No one asked me to stop ridealongs. They aren’t about “clout,” they’re about getting our story out. Real reporters pose little danger, especially compared to our core activity (chasing armed officers in our personal cars). As many can attest, I have tried hard to pass ridealongs to other observers.
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But what we’re seeing is a couple things: singular suspicion about “media,” literally more than the horde of total anonymous strangers on the line OR ICE ITSELF, plus a weird edge of jealousy that interprets media access as a tool for seeking “clout.” Neither are helpful.
There are some practices in various rapid responses that are being developed that solve this problem pretty well - standardized agreements for press, most notably. But it does need to be solved soon if this is going to continue or become a model elsewhere.
lol Chris Rufo walking himself into the right’s own memes
“tradition of industrial-frontier progressivism” yeah man that’s hardcore, that’s why I live here
next he’s going to tell us we have a tradition of mounting bayonet charges into a human sea of seditionists and heroically turning the tide in America’s most epochal conflicts as the battle hymn of the republic plays in the background, and also that’s bad
Protect our Scandinavian heritage!!!! (of over-empathizing and militant progressivism)
Chris Rufo is so upset about the Minneapolis protests that he is resorting to anti-Nordic racism christopherrufo.com/p/the-curse-...
Folks, you know what the most effective counterterrorism tactic we used in SOCOM was?
Making the enemy so scared of getting hit by a drone strike or a strike team that they hid and isolated themselves.
A single drone or strike team + a bunch of people talking too loudly in public = suppression.
I’m so glad you went. I had many people ask me - “is it safe? Should I leave my phone and ID at home? Do I need an exit strategy?”
We’re building this bizarre and paranoid civic culture based almost entirely on miasmatic online fear endlessly feeding itself. Selma marchers didn’t even mask!
ICE should switch to “we’re actually wearing masks to prevent the spread of long COVID” and instantly watch the opposition collapse into vicious factional infighting
Will Stancil is a covid denier and a fascist
wear a fucking mask
They actually have been doing this some, I hear. But you know, losing TSA Precheck seems like a pretty okay sacrifice for grinding fascism into dust
And for folks now fearing “what if they revoke my TSA precheck,” well lately the precheck line at PHL is longer than the regular line, so... 😂😂
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even absent infiltration by a stranger - people flip. they betray each other. they leak info by checking their phone on a bus, getting MITM'd, getting drunk, dating a shitbag. if your organization is dependent on perfect security you don't have an organization (even a resistance cell)
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what is our risk tolerance & threat model as a group AND as individuals, what is the worst case scenario for finding out a member is a fed, what is the worst case scenario for finding out an admin is a fed. these are good, answerable questions grounded in reality.
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also, like, it's not ~opsec if you e.g. have a heavily vetted super secret chat with a ton of sensitive links in the chat description that can be viewed by anyone with the link to request being added, which describes Three separate chats i've seen recently.
Guys the formal training for rapid response says you should always bring your phone and ID, making you trivially easy to identify. (You need your phone to film anyway.) The idea that the goal is to remain anonymous is actually not best practices at all, it’s like a weird inherited social practice
i wonder why he got removed from RRT group chats. jfc
I’m so glad you went. I had many people ask me - “is it safe? Should I leave my phone and ID at home? Do I need an exit strategy?”
We’re building this bizarre and paranoid civic culture based almost entirely on miasmatic online fear endlessly feeding itself. Selma marchers didn’t even mask!
Online security theater posting made me really afraid about having my phone or showing my face before going to a no kings protest and then when I got there it was a great time and my mom was taking pictures of everything lol. I felt ridiculous because I almost didn’t go people made it sound so risky
Let me reiterate: THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH GUYS TO PERSECUTE LARGE NUMBERS OF DISSENTERS. What they are doing, instead, is using fear and paranoia as a force multiplier: they don’t have to persecute us if we keep ourselves home because someone told us we can’t walk in public without being terrified.
I don’t think this is a particularly hot take. As we keep telling a particular federal agency, wearing a mask generally indicates cognizance of guilt and an intent to do something illegal. Protest works best when done confidently and unashamedly
An entire generation of people raised on social media simply do not have an understanding of how the media, protests, and surveillance work.
My hottest take is that masks at protests are cowardly and have done absolutely nothing but make all protests themselves look unserious to neutral parties.
Obviously if someone feels it’s necessary, go for it! But it’s become de rigueur in some spaces to camouflage your identity before any form of dissent or activism, which actually makes low-risk activities feel a lot scarier and seem a lot more sinister.
There are few things that mark a real journalist: they are affiliated with a specific outlet, they will tell you who it is, they have a press card with the outlet’s name (not always), they DO NOT try to hide their identity or use pseudonyms. The last thing is a huge red flag, bounce anyone who does
Are you aware that a majority of working journalists in the US are freelancers? Even if they’re on assignment for a legit and credible news organization, they probably won’t have a company business card.
Anyone who is cagey about who they are or what they’re doing, do not trust. Real journalists exist in a kind of social compact where they tell us their role and their rules, they respect our rules, and in exchange for that they get access. Almost all of them are extremely scrupulous about this
Here’s my advice. Also, if you’re not comfortable or sure, just say no. That’s fine! The problem is people trying to promulgate codes of conduct under which NOBODY is allowed to interact with press. That’s counterproductive - in general, respectable mainstream outlets have a vital role to play.
There are a lot of inexperienced neighbors in these networks, most who have no media training and don't know the first thing about how to interact with the press. How is (fictional) Sam, who patrols in between school drop offs, supposed to know if the press is legit or some far-right poser?
This happened to me yesterday. Two ICE officers abruptly blocked a freeway entrance, got out and illegally threatened me with arrest. All on video, thanks to a journalist in the backseat filming the entire thing. Press makes us safer.
Just did a press ridealong commute in an away-from-home rapid response network with good press disclosure policies, and the world didn’t end, no one was doxxed, no identities were revealed. I did spend a lot of time lost. It can be done!
Guys this is an INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING CLIPPING of something I said. The word “attack” here means “criticize,” and I used it to mirror the language of the person I was responding to.
My point was that you’re of course allowed to criticize antifa, but comparing them to Nazis is beyond the pale.
I really really hate this one because it gets passed around A LOT, despite the real context being very easy to demonstrate. I’d never wish violence on left-wing people, whether or not I agree with them on everything. It’s not something to joke about right now, or exploit for dunks or petty fights.
OUR SAFETY COMES FROM OUR NUMBERS, NOT OUR ANONYMITY
A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.
What you need to understand is that I kind of can’t. I’ve been blocked out. I can try to do other, similar-ish things but this nonsense is making it much harder for me to touch the grass I desperately want to touch. It’s frustrating!
Just keep doing what you're doing irl.
“I’m not there but let me tell you how this works” - let me stop you right there friend
🧵There is a certain level of mutual trust involved in direct action. I'm not otg in MSP, and I'm not in the coordination chats. People who are in those chats apparently decided that you violated that level of trust and placed people at risk through your actions. You aren't entitled to involvement
Awful to even try to catalogue the harm being done here in MN.
Educational harms, students out school? At least months.
Economic harms, from empty, half-functioning businesses? At least years.
Civic and psychic harms, from shattering the basic sense of safety? Decades.
Stolen neighbors? Forever.
Exactly. The harm being done to our immigrant communities, the harm being done to communities of color, the harm being done to all of us, will not be measured in days or months. It will be measured in generations.
What are you talking about? Me talking to a journalist does not “soft dox” you, if I happened to ever talk to you. They’d don’t magically know, much less publish, any of this information.
This Transitive Property of Doxxing is obviously dumb as can be, and is being selectively deployed here.
What's your first name? Will you share a picture of your face with some identifiable buildings in the background? How about your email address? Who your employer is?
Any two of these things gets me pretty close to a soft dox. You can make that decision for you. Stancil was making it for others.
There appear to be two things happening - first, a lot fear over “opsec,” where anyone who ever talks to a journalist is now a security risk.
And second, some subset of people - identities completely unknown to me, who I have never interacted with - who recognize the first thing as a useful weapon.
I’ll be frank - I’m seeing a ton of people saying “See? The fact he was kicked out proves he was who we thought he was, and totally unnecessary.” They seem a lot more interested in that second thing than the question of whether or not I was actually endangering anyone (I absolutely was not). A clue.
he spat on a rental car and then kicked it twice. no ice officer was in sight, but five of them immediately jumped out to beat him senseless, and then tear-gassed a crowd of maybe 50 bystanders as a parting shot
Trump: “Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent.”
ICE reportedly has a tool where they circle a geography and get the names of all the cell phone users within it. The key to defeating this technology is not "smashing your cell phone with a hammer" but "recognizing that having a list of 30 people who are recording you in public is not very useful"
Everyone following ICE caravans can assume their identities are known to ICE. ICE routinely leads them to their own houses to make this point. They take pictures of them in the streets and put them in their db. They're recording with cell phones that can be easily tracked.
dispatch can I get some cross-streets for intercept
Greg Bovino appears to be driving back to California after being reassigned from Minneapolis.
Eagle-eyed observers spotted Bovino in South Dakota and Wyoming as he travels west in a convoy of SUVs.
Terms of surrender
Minneapolis should press its momentum and demand not only withdrawal but start talking about the need for immediate reparations, loudly, with the total certainty that only winners have. "You have wronged us terribly and must pay recompense" and let them argue the second part.
I think this is precisely backwards. the exact thing that has united Minnesota right now is that this ISN'T another in an endless succession of social justice campaigns, but a fight against one very specific abuse: our own government conducting, for all intents and purposes, a siege against us
It's about being there for vulnerable people. It's not about the individual. Beating ICE is like the end game, this is going to go on for years and it's more important to support your neighbor than it is to hate ICE though both are great things to do. Countering ICE is only a means to helping people
It will end, it will probably end in a matter of weeks, not years, and when it ends all the problems of the world will not be solved, but ICE will be mostly gone and people can walk outside safely again
Yes: we have tens of thousands of Minnesotans who are, for all intents and purposes, in hiding right now. Most are documented, many are even citizens. Doesn't matter, because ICE doesn't care. Our schools are at COVID-era levels of attendance, with no extra resources for support. Unimaginable harm.
Minneapolis should press its momentum and demand not only withdrawal but start talking about the need for immediate reparations, loudly, with the total certainty that only winners have. "You have wronged us terribly and must pay recompense" and let them argue the second part.
"After you have returned our stolen neighbors you can begin to make up for the pain you have inflicted by funding the reconstruction of our city." Don't even dignify any argument over whether what happened was wrong.
Punish the guilty, give restitution to the city, and bring our stolen people BACK HOME WHERE THEY BELONG
with all due respect the end goal is not to prove that I am a good activist but to beat ICE. I have resources that are, at least, extremely unusual here in Minneapolis, and I do intend to fully use them towards that end.
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one journalist I talked to recently said his outlet was considering going to showings of Melania and profiling the two or three audience members but decided against it because they realized they'd all be other journalists with the same idea
friend of mine is an undocumented immigrant and has been hiding in Melania theaters bc he knows people assume no one is in there
the presence of a journalist does not mean the identity of every person the journalist encounters suddenly becomes a public fact. what I am discovering is that an alarming number of people appear to believe in this kind of miasmatic journalism. real journalists work by very strict disclosure rules
dude, I think you‘ve done some good but you’re not winning the argument by basically calling people immature for not wanting to be fully public like you. I also don’t know the right way to persuade on this one but your way ain’t working right now
many people, for many reasons, understandably do not want to accept that risk. maybe they have dependents or vulnerable people in their life, or no resources if something goes wrong. I am incredibly, incredibly sympathetic. in those instances, it's fair to let less vulnerable people take the heat.
the frustrating catch-22 we've been in is that, on one hand, people seem to get upset if we encourage them to be public, but also get upset if we try to create space for them to be private, by talking publicly and taking the heat. I understand it's a difficult situation but it's become a no-win.
guys the thing about being a decentralized leaderless network is that there are really no clear leaders to consult. what we have seen, though, is that careful press coverage of minneapolis community networks has massively benefited their cause, harmed ICE, and seemingly not led to anyone being IDed.
my specific case aside, the rapid increase in paranoia across these networks, which I think a lot of people perceive as getting WORSE over time, is a major issue. the most successful (read: largest) networks are the ones that have maintained a lot of openness
I want to be clear: drama aside, you CANNOT and SHOULD NOT drive around solo harassing ICE, unless you have a death wish. The strength of the neighborhood networks is how they let you share information and call for support. Without them, it's you versus an agency with billions of dollars of guns.
The system works because there is incredible power in having huge numbers of people do something that would be dangerous and hopeless if we did it alone. There are so many more of us than them. Risk can't be reduced to zero, but it can be distributed across a network too vast to reliably persecute.
Minneapolis's rapid response is working. You can see on the ground that it's working. But you can also see WHY it's working. It's not the secrecy (which, frankly, is a mirage). It's the numbers, and rules of engagement which refuse to create an obvious foothold for opponents.
I did a ridealong today. Journalists and observers have common cause in tracking and documenting federal immigration activity in the Twin Cities — doing it as a group is the safest, most efficient way
I would really appreciate if journalists who have done ridealongs would speak up about how important they are to helping Minneapolis. As I’ve said many times, opsec fears are the greatest threat to the networks we’ve built. But the reason we’re out here is to show the world what’s happening.
What? I received an anonymous message informing that I had been removed for violating a rule I'd never heard of, based on complaints I'd never heard, that I had no avenue of appeal, and that they would not be engaging further.
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I've been extremely vocal about my belief that, IN GENERAL, observers should be interacting with press. I have lined up free media training for observers (please take it!). I also understand many people are in a vulnerable place and, as a less vulnerable person, will shoulder risk if they cannot.
Guy is offering free media training for ICE observers! TAKE HIM UP ON IT, WE NEED MORE/BETTER MEDIA CONTACT
trusted journalists need access to be able to show and document what is really happening, while protecting people and important info as well.
a good journalist can do both. i think it is imperative to show what these operations are doing, so no alternative narratives can be attached to them.
I would really appreciate if journalists who have done ridealongs would speak up about how important they are to helping Minneapolis. As I’ve said many times, opsec fears are the greatest threat to the networks we’ve built. But the reason we’re out here is to show the world what’s happening.
I haven't ridden along, but I have carefully negotiated safety parameters with MN sources for weeks. Our understandings go far beyond SOP. I've heard from reporters at other national news outlets whose perspectives changed dramatically because of journalism Will helped to facilitate.
I would really appreciate if journalists who have done ridealongs would speak up about how important they are to helping Minneapolis. As I’ve said many times, opsec fears are the greatest threat to the networks we’ve built. But the reason we’re out here is to show the world what’s happening.
My colleague & I rode along with observers after the Twin Cities surge at the start of December, well before most national publications came to town. It was really necessary to get at what ICE is really doing on the ground & how people are opposing it.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
I would really appreciate if journalists who have done ridealongs would speak up about how important they are to helping Minneapolis. As I’ve said many times, opsec fears are the greatest threat to the networks we’ve built. But the reason we’re out here is to show the world what’s happening.
This is a lie. No one has asked me to stop anything. Literally last night my congresswoman told me to keep doing what I was doing. The first I heard that I should stop was TODAY, when I was removed.
This is not a game. I wouldn’t do anything that I thought would hurt the people in my neighborhood. This is incredibly important to me.
I’m sorry are you literally mad at me because I’m not steering money towards you
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The local rapid response policy, which I first learned today when I was permanently removed, is “No press allowed ever.” I just think this is incredibly short-sighted and almost intrinsically self-defeating. Who are we observing FOR?
The argument appears to be that no set of ground rules or conditions was sufficient to make press safe.
I’ll also note that I have had been very publicly conducting ridealongs with no objection voiced to me, for weeks. So this is a very abrupt enforcement of a very opaque policy.
Also I’m just really sad folks. By my count I’ve done 20 consecutive days of patrol and I’ve gotten really accustomed to certain names and voices who are out there all the time, far more than me, they made me feel safer, and I’ll miss you all. Hopefully some of you know who you are
I have begged people to speak to press. I am still begging people to talk to press. I ask reporters to find other observers before they talk to me. I genuinely don’t know what else to do.
Let this be a lesson, Will. Embrace the "doing the hard work of local organizing"-part and eschew the "while getting attention and building my brand"-part.