JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Turning now to Minnesota, where we meet Dylan Alverson at Modern Times Cafe, the South Minneapolis restaurant he's owned for 15 years. In the small prep kitchen, he methodically chops organic carrots and broccoli.
DYLAN ALVERSON: A farm from River Falls, Wisconsin, came and just randomly dropped off, like, 120 pounds of beautiful organic carrots. People have been showing up and dropping off food and calling with support on top of everything else. It's been really incredible.
SUMMERS: Alverson tells me that things shifted after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed last week. He decided to change his restaurant's model and its name, calling it Post Modern Times instead. He's accepting donations, and people pay what they can. He wants to feed people until ICE enforcement actions end in the city. Alverson said the last few weeks have been a crisis, chaos.
ALVERSON: We heard about the killing of Renee Good probably 30 minutes after it happened. Drove over to the site, and what I saw looked like the start of a war.
SUMMERS: Alverson closed his restaurant that day. As he tried to process Good's killing and figure out the best way forward, he witnessed another incident.
ALVERSON: I was chipping ice outside, and I heard whistles. And I walked five blocks away to the site of the woman who was ripped out of her car, the woman with autism that was at a stoplight. I was within feet of that when that happened. It felt like, how can this be America?
SUMMERS: I mean, it strikes me that your business is not far from where George Floyd was murdered years ago, as you point out, not far from where Renee Good was just killed. What feels different in this moment?
ALVERSON: One, Minneapolis learned a lot from being in such a crisis before. And I did see city leaders kind of approaching this situation in a much better way. The neighborhood itself pretty much immediately just transitioned into support network - looking out for each other, feeding each other. I keep saying that if this neighborhood or this city was under this threat of violence from illegal immigrant criminals, we would respond in the way that people are responding to ICE against the threat of a criminal wave.
SUMMERS: I know that here at Modern Times, you've changed the name of your business. You've changed the model of your business. Talk to me about why you decided to do that and what the community response has been like.
ALVERSON: I heard of the killing of Alex Pretti. It was Saturday morning, and I heard of it, and just my stomach dropped. And I raced over there. I mean, we saw an even more brutal force of armed agents. And knowing that another person was killed without cause felt like this is going to keep happening. So this was a way to show resistance, to stop generating income for the federal and state government while we're unsafe on our street. I'm a chef, so the way that I show compassion is through food. And, you know, it's also a gamble on humanity.
SUMMERS: So many people across the country and across the world are watching Minneapolis and the Twin Cities right now. What do you think people who aren't from here, have maybe never been here before, what do you want them to know in this moment?
ALVERSON: It's incredible. It's a group of people that have stepped in where our government has failed us and have created an organized structure that is keeping people safe. And also, you know, I want people to see that we're not - Minnesotans are tough. Don't come and pick a fight in January. But this is possibly coming to your city. And I want people to understand that we can stand up and take care of each other. I've never heard of someone involved in any of these groups or feeding people that are regretting it.
SUMMERS: That was Dylan Alverson. He's a restaurant owner in South Minneapolis.
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