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The sounds of whistles and honking horns have become common in the Twin Cities over the past month. 

Twin Cities residents have taken to the streets to both protest and simply observe the thousands of ICE agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The federal government has accused ICE watchers of breaking the law. Nicole Bedera said ICE watchers have science behind them.

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Bedera is a Minnesota-based sociologist, author of "On the Wrong Side" and co-founder of the anti-violence consulting group Beyond Compliance.

She spoke with MPR News host Clay Masters about what her research tells her about what behavior tends to lead to violence — and what doesn’t.

Can you speak to what ICE watchers are trying to do when they blow whistles or simply stand on the sidewalk and observe?

ICE observation is a de-escalation tactic. One of the reasons that it works so well is that a lot of our sociological research would tell us that most ICE agents entered into these jobs in part because they want approval, and they want to affirm their masculinity in public. 

An ICE watch works by surrounding these people — who will only engage in violence if they can get approval — with disapproval. It lets them know a lot of people are watching you, and they don’t actually think this is a good thing for you to do. We’re not going to think more highly of you for doing this. 

We've already started to see the impact. There are countless videos of ICE agents doing things like abandoning their mission, deciding not to detain someone, deciding to allow an immigrant or a person of color to remain in their home or on the street without any escalation of violence at all.

What do you make of the argument that ICE watchers might rile up a situation or make things violent?

I think it would be rare. Something a lot of sociologists of violence know that people in the general public don’t know is that there are two main groups that participate in violence and perpetrate violence. 

One of them is this really tiny group of people who are individually motivated to be violent. When someone says that someone being present could provoke somebody just by being there, they’re really thinking of that group, but that’s the least likely group that you’re going to encounter. 

The vast majority of perpetrators of violence are really only doing it to seek status and power and acceptance from the community around them, and so if the community around them says, “We don’t want you to be violent. We want you to leave.” It’s not really surprising to a social scientist that they would say, “OK, then I’m going to leave because people don’t approve of what I’m doing.”

The fact is, the national media started to notice what was happening in Minnesota after Renee Good was murdered, but part of why she was murdered is that she was observing ICE, and ICE was engaging in retaliation towards these organizing efforts that have been well underway in Minnesota.

Does the line get blurred here between protesters and ICE observers? There’s some overlap there, but we’re talking about different things. Or are we?

I think you and I are talking about different things. I think that the Trump administration is trying to blur that line, and right now they’re saying that if you donate to a mutual aid fund, or if you help your neighbor get access to groceries when they can’t leave their house, or if you come outside when your neighbor is being detained, or if you help patrol a day care in your neighborhood so that it’s safe at drop off, those are people who they’re labeling as protesters.

That's something that’s really important for people to understand, is that to some degree, in Minnesota, if you are going about your daily life and you happen to be present when ICE gets violent, you could be labeled a protester, whether you intended to be or not.

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The federal government has accused ICE watchers of breaking the law. Sociologist Nicole Bedera said ICE watchers have science behind them. She spoke with MPR News host Clay Masters.

Observing ICE agents is 'a de-escalation tactic,' sociologist says

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