Minnesota Burning
Rioting has broken out among protests in Minneapolis over the police killing of George Floyd.
Protests continued into Wednesday night in south Minneapolis, where Chopper 5 captured video of apparent looting at a nearby Target and other area businesses. Fires have sprung up around the area as well.
Gov. Tim Walz tweeted late Wednesday night, calling the situation near Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue an “extremely dangerous situation.”
The protests are happening in response to the death of George Floyd, who was killed Monday night after an incident that involved Minneapolis Police officers. All four officers involved in the arrest were fired on Tuesday.
Protesters were seen on Chopper 5 footage throwing bottles and rocks at law enforcement, while officers responded with rubber bullets, flash bombs and tear gas to push them back.
Some looters at the East Lake Street Target location were seen walking out with televisions, rugs and other items from the store. Other looters were seen at a tobacco store, a Dollar Tree and a liquor store. Additionally, Cub Foods and an AutoZone is being looted as well.
The AutoZone was set on fire as of 9:30 p.m. It could be seen burning on Chopper 5 video.
A source has confirmed to KSTP that the city requested support from the National Guard late Wednesday night to combat the ongoing riots.
“Rioting has broken out”. That’s a funny way to describe police firing tear gas and rubber bullets into a peaceful crowd to provoke a riot, or sending agents provocateur out to break windows and start fires and then blaming it on the protesters. Or to describe police false-arresting a CNN reporter and camera crew who had already moved to the place they were ordered to go, seemingly to prevent the media from recording whatever the police were up to in the wee hours of the morning.Report
yeah – I actually castigated NBC News on their facebook page for saying protests had erupted because that word creates a sense that it wasn’t legitimate. Words matter, and the older I get the more I find journalists really don’t know how to use words.Report
And yet, people STILL believe that what he press say is “the truth”, not their lying eyes.Report
Yeah, I’m living peripherally to the riots. The businesses around here have all been boarded up and my home is in a condo over a CVS so there have been a lot of break ins. We watched the liquor store across the street get broken into and it was a group of young, mostly white men doing it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the police are false flagging this but this much I am quite convinced of- there’re elements who don’t give a shit about Floyd’s death but who are very much enjoying the suspension of police activity that the protests are causing. The anarchists and the looters and, of course, the execrable imbeciles of Antifa are happy to bust down stores and set fires while sheltering behind the protests. They’re like a swarm of gadflies that follow a stampeding herd. They’re not of the herd but wherever the herd goes they show up and swarm like the parasites they are.
Very little of this deserves to be laid at the protesters feet. It’s enraging the way the right eagerly shoves all the misbehavior these fishers cause under the blanket definition of left wingers.Report
The same kind of thing happened in Baltimore. There were plenty of peaceful protests, then there were those who used them as an opportunity.
It’s really unfortunate it goes that way since most of the places where these incidents arise need investment and jobs more than anything else. All the talk about riots being the voice of the unheard or whatever is counter-productive, well intentioned as it may be.Report
I am in the heart of the riots in downtown LA.
Last night the drug store on the ground floor of my building was broken into an partly looted, and a burning dumpster pushed in the middle of the street in front of our door.
The protests in the afternoon were a largely mixed AA and white crowd, but as the night wore on the crowd became younger and whiter until around 10 it was almost exclusively young white males.
The atmosphere was one of freaky holiday, and there was a core of the young men who were obviously coordinating with each other in playing cat and mouse with the cops.
It was also obvious that neither side was really wanting a direct confrontation. The cops would sweep down the street, and the crowd would retreat, then stop and sort or replay that scene from 2001 where the apes stand across a divide and hoot and wave their arms at each other.
The the only real goal of the crowd was to strike a pose , flip off the cops, maybe light a trash can on fire or break a window, then go home and post about it on social media.
This is radically different than the 1992 riots, where there was a darker anger in the air. In that one, people were a lot more willing to go the next step in violent confrontation or burning buildings.Report
It’s probably because the police are much more suppressed in Minneapolis but there’s no small number of buildings the looting, posing, douche-bags have destroyed here.Report
Boy, if you hate looting, you’re gonna be SO MAD when you find out how capitalism works.Report
Everything seems like a shitshow because a lot of is. But i’ve some places where cops are marching with protesters for justice. Not enough places…yet….but it is a sign of the changes we need and that there are good people out there.Report
If you’re wondering “What has Biden said to step up to this historic moment?”
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He deleted that tweet and replaced it with this one:
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Jesus H. Christ. This is the Dems best hope?Report
Trump: Shoot the looters!
Biden: I strongly disagree with the president on this issue. We need to deescalate the tension and violence, reduce police brutality. Police should shoot looters only in the legs.Report
Boy, if that doesn’t summarize the “difference” between the right and the center, these days, I don’t know what would.Report
Biden’s trying to play the middle by appealing to the “why don’t the cops just wing ’em?” crowd.Report
It’s June. We need more LGBT cops shooting looters in the leg.Report
We didn’t nominate our best hope. IF we are extremely vocal she may end up the VP nominee.Report