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| Untouchable: FBI in the 1960s. Minnesotan Somalis in 2025 |
We found a place on East 24th Street in Manhattan. That is to say, our mother found it; for father, Pa, was off working every day, as an Australian Representative at the United Nations. But that's another story.
For me, a nine year old, the biggest excitement was having TV. Not because we'd not had a TV set in Canberra. But because Canberra, and indeed most of Australia, did not have TV at all. Imagine. No TV! No TV stations! No soap operas!
I recall the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Debate, on our tiny black & white set. The first live TV presidential debate, ever. Again, another story.
More exciting for me though, were cops and robbers shows. One of the biggest of those back then was the series "The Untouchables". We all loved it.
I'll ask Grok to summarise:
The Untouchables were a real-life squad of U.S. Bureau of Prohibition agents led by Eliot Ness in Chicago from 1930–1932. Handpicked for integrity and incorruptibility, they targeted Al Capone's bootlegging operations during Prohibition through raids, surveillance, and evidence gathering. Their efforts contributed to Capone's 1931 tax evasion conviction (though not directly for alcohol crimes). The nickname "Untouchables" arose after they rejected bribes.
The TV program The Untouchables (1959–1963) was an ABC crime drama series starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness. Produced by Desilu, it ran for four seasons (118 episodes) and dramatized the squad's battles against organized crime [the Mafia] in 1930s Chicago, featuring gangsters like Frank Nitti. It was based on Ness's 1957 memoir, but included significant fictional elements. It was a popular, violent-for-its-time procedural that won Emmys early on.
Now here's the reason I mention this. Because I remember the debates at the time. The Italian community in the United States, the very substantial Italian community, was worried that the FBI going after the Italian Mafia so strongly and openly would paint all Italians with the same brush. "All Italians are crooks", that sort of thing.
Bu as the debate went on, the Italian community changed. They mellowed. They accepted that getting rid of organised crime -- i.e. the Mafia -- was a good thing for themselves and for the wider American community. So they ended up supporting what the FBI was doing. Net result: suppression of organised crime.
Now, let's pivot to Minneapolis and the findings by the US Department of Justice that there has been widespread, organised fraud in the Minnesota community. The evidence is that the Minnesotan Somali community is most complicit. The numbers are vast: at least $8 Billion defrauded from the taxpayer, perhaps double that. Most of it -- something like 89% -- is by Somalis in Minnesota.
The reaction of the Minnesota community, of its politician and media, of spokespeople for the Somali community has been to deny, deflect and continue to defraud.
It may be that that these Somalis are just stuck in Stage One, as it were: at the same place the Italian communities were in the 1950s and 1960 over the FBI tackling Mafia crime. Maybe they'll move to Stage Two, and acceptance, even assistance, over time, as did the Italian communities.
But I don't think so. Because if it's only the first stage, we'd see some signs, surely, that there's a Stage Two looming. We'd see a softening of the rhetoric. Whereas the rhetoric has morphed into violence and the drumbeat is louder and louder for even more violence.
Policians in Minnesota are all lining up to counter the police, ICE and DOJ, who are trying to rein in the fraud. Tim Walz, the governor, has said Minnesota is "at war" with the Federal Government. The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has said "ICE must fuck off". The Congressional representative for MN, Ilhan Omar, talks of "racism" (of course), of "white supremacy" (of course), and claims, falsely, that there's been not a single case of a Somali charged and found guilty of fraud (there are hundreds; so Omaer is straight-out lying).
How different.
Italian Community (1960s): Has concerns about the FBI investigating organised crime by the Italian Mafia gangs. But then realises that it's best that they be brought down. They support the FBI.
Untouchables 1960s: The FBI. The FBI had the team of "Untouchables", that we glorified then, and remember now.
Somali/Minnesota community (2025): They deny and deflect any wrongdoing. Their supporters obstruct officers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement police (ICE), who are simply doing their duties under Federal Law. There is no hint that they are going to take a more moderate stance as did the Italian community.
Untouchables 2025: The Somali community in Minnesota, and all its politicians, State and Federal, are today's Untouchables. While ICE and the Federal government are demonised and attacked.
* * *
Is it just the passage of time that makes such different outcomes for a similar situation? Or is it that everyone hates Trump so much that there's no reason to their actions?
I think it's the latter. They are driven by visceral hate of Donald Trump. We know this because both Bill Clinton an even more so, Barack Obama, pursued deportation of illegal immigrants into the United States with all the vigour that Donalt Trump is today. But in their cases there was only approval, no pushback at all.
Indeed, the man in charge of ICE and deportations during Obama's presidency, Tom Homan, was granted a Presidential Medal of Honour [pic here] by then president Obama, for having achieved 900,000 deportations, still the record and still unsurpassed by Trump. Homan works for Trump now. Under Obama he was glorified; under Trump, he's a demon to be killed.
Go figure.
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| Tom Homan, today's Border Czar, receives Presidential Medal from president Obama, for whom he then worked. He works for Trump now |
