An assault rifle, held straight up, points to the blue sky. Eyes are cased in sunglasses, a defense against the bright May sun. A young man in a brown tank top—it is warm here in Minnesota, at last—sits in the back of a red pickup truck, waving an American flag. The flag is decorated with stitched-on white letters, spelling out TRUMP and his key campaign slogan: Make America Great Again.
Brad Sigal
A protester stands at the Minnesota state capitol with a sign reading, "Waltz Traiter to Constitution".
Another man stands on a sidewalk holding a homemade, cardboard sign that pegs Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as a “traiter to the constitution.” Both traitor and Walz’s name (rendered “Waltz”) are misspelled. Nearby, a woman stands on the Capitol lawn, clutching a bright gold sign with two seemingly unrelated commands on it: “Hands Up!,” it advises, with “Don’t Vaccinate” scrawled below.
These are scenes from an anti-coronavirus rally held in St. Paul on Saturday, with images captured by local photographer and labor activist Brad Sigal.
Sigal’s work is as brilliant as the blue sky in May, offering clip after clip of mostly young, mostly male, mostly white (or all white, as far as I could tell) activists camped out near the state capitol with guns, flags, and signs in hand.
Many observers have rightfully called out the white privilege evident in being allowed to host an armed, public protest with little fear of arrest or police violence.
It’s happening in cities and state capitol buildings across the United States now, thanks to President Trump’s weaponization of the COVID-19 crisis.
Armed bodies are occupying our public spaces, spurred by Trump’s blithe call to action in April. He took to Twitter to urge the residents of Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia—all headed by Democratic governors—to “liberate” their states, inciting rebellion against his own administration’s directives to social distance and stay home.
But Minnesota’s May 2 rally was nowhere near as dramatic as Michigan’s. There, protesters stormed into the capitol building, flexing their gun-toting muscles and screaming in the face of police officers.
It’s scary.
Many observers have rightfully called out the white privilege evident in being allowed to host an armed, public protest with little fear of arrest or police violence. It’s a moment of reckoning, forcing those of us (myself included) who live in liberal strongholds to take stock of the anger that’s apparently so easy to foment.
In my corner of South Minneapolis, pro-science, pro-immigrant yard signs dot the landscape, along with Black Lives Matter placards. Lately, people have also added colorful homages to essential workers, a nod to the grocery store employees, janitorial staff, and nurses who are keeping us fed and cared for during this crisis.
Brad Sigal
Nurses make heart symbols with their hands in counter protest to those protesting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's stay-at-home order.
This can be a comforting, like-minded place to dwell. And frankly, other than glancing through Sigal’s photos on Instagram, I didn’t really pay too much attention to the St. Paul rally until this morning when I spoke on the phone with my elderly aunt.
Her pre-coronavirus life was spent at the YMCA and on adventures and outings with friends and family members.These days, though, she’s home alone, with CNN on in the background most of the time, to break up the quiet hours.
“Did you see those protesters?” She asked me, with disgust in her voice. I still marvel at her late-in-life adoption of more liberal views, fueled in large part by her extreme distaste for Donald Trump. “They’re not even from here.”
They’re not? I hadn’t really stopped to think about that. Quickly, I checked news coverage and happened upon a newscaster referring to the St. Paul rally held on May 2 as hosted by a group called “Operation Gridlock.”
Sure enough, Operation Gridlock is an outside, far-right, extremist group that appears to exist only on Facebook. There, an event page tied to Operation Gridlock and advertising the recent protest mentions just one host’s name: Ben Dorr.
Ah, here we go. Dorr’s father is Paul Dorr, an infamous, Iowa-based activist who travels to small Midwestern towns, stirring up hate, anger, and no votes. Working from a zealotry-fueled belief that public education should not exist, Dorr has become an expert at getting local funding levies defeated.
Digging deeper into the Dorrs’ work reveals allegations that their inflamed rhetoric and gun-laden advocacy is more about lining their own pockets than anything else.
He also has a reputation for burning books and otherwise dabbling in extremism, and he has clearly passed his world view on to his sons, Ben, Christopher, and Aaron. Recently, The Washington Post noted how the Dorr brothers appear to be the uniting force behind the “anti-quarantine protests” taking place around the country.
Hello, rabbit hole. Digging deeper into the Dorrs’ work reveals allegations that their inflamed rhetoric and gun-laden advocacy is more about lining their own pockets than anything else. “Scamming is a family affair for brothers Ben, Chris, and Aaron Dorr,” warns one cautionary website.
This strikes me as more worrisome than a grassroots uprising would, even if guns were involved in both scenarios. But, wait. Those guns! After delving into the world of the Dorrs and learning more about how they are stirring up rage—white rage, to be clear—I revisited Sigal’s photos from the St. Paul rally.
The first few are fearful, with assault rifles, Trump-as-Moses posters, and groups of young men standing defiantly together while the Minnesota capitol appears fortress-like behind them.
Brad Sigal
Nurses stand in counter protest on May 2 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
But these aren’t the pictures that brought tears to my eyes. Instead, it was the several slides Sigal included that show the counterprotest that took place alongside the one orchestrated by Ben Dorr. These photos feature nurses from nearby hospitals, clad in blue scrubs and face masks, standing guard in front of the entrance to their health-care facilities.
Some of the nurses are making heart shapes with their hands. Many are standing with their arms crossed and stony expressions on their faces. Don’t tread on me? No, don’t mess with me.
The last picture in Sigal’s Instagram post shows nurses standing in the street, next to a counter protester dressed as the Grim Reaper, face mask intact. It’s a gut punch, but one that inspires.
Dorr and his ilk clearly know, as Trump does, how to whip up an audience, even if that audience ends up fighting for their right to be exposed to something as deadly as COVID-19. And if they do catch the coronavirus, nurses in face masks and scrubs will still be there to help.