Cops Behaving Badly

[jmj]

Mayor Frey calls for the cop to be charged:

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/05/2 ... be-charged

[Sugar Magnolia]

In case there was any confusion.

Not sure about the racist cap.

Updated my original post as soon as I saw the correction.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/make- ... again-hat/

[Sugar Magnolia]

New video shows George Floyd being dragged out of his car without resisting arrest,

Actually, he was resisting arrest. You don't have to be fighting back to be resisting, and he was obviously hanging onto the steering wheel and "resisting" being removed from the car. One of the scenarios we went through in the academy was to resist being handcuffed without actively fighting back. I'm 5'2" and weighed 108 lbs in the academy and it took 2 much larger male officers over 4 minutes to get me cuffed with me doing nothing but twisting my body, separating my wrists and arms, hanging onto the door, not fighting back at all, just, literally, resisting. If they fight back they get charged with assault on an officer but if they just don't cooperate it's a resisting charge. The resisting charge would be a slam dunk since it took two of them to get him out and handcuffed.

I'm NOT excusing the officers, just clarifying the law.

[DejaMoo]

Turns out Chauvin the cop lives in the same suburban neighborhood as two of my sisters. They said the local police and the county's Mobile Task Force were called out to protect the neighborhood last night and again today. There's a protest scheduled at Chauvin's house (or, as one sister put it, "at the murderer's house") at 4 pm CDT today. The streets are being blocked off for crowd control.

[jmj]

Turns out Chauvin the cop lives in the same suburban neighborhood as two of my sisters. They said the local police and the county's Mobile Task Force were called out to protect the neighborhood last night and again today. There's a protest scheduled at Chauvin's house (or, as one sister put it, "at the murderer's house") at 4 pm CDT today. The streets are being blocked off for crowd control.

A friend shared this on facebook:



People are surrounding his house and preventing food from being delivered, etc. Sounds like the best way out of this situation at this point may be if he comes out in handcuffs.

[DejaMoo]

From a lawyer, who's a friend of a family member:

Our experience at the protest on 5/26:

After going to the initial protest from 5-7, we came home and ate some food and watched the live feeds coming out of the area. Somewhere around 8:30, the feeds stopped coming through. We decided to go back to find out what was happening, and to offer support/help as able.

I have gone to a TON of protests in my life. My parents raised me to make my voice heard. What we saw and experienced was unlike anything I’ve been a part of. Here is a summary of our experience:

- Upon arrival, we parked in the Target parking lot across the street from the third police precinct. We walked up to the corner directly across from the precinct, still on the other side of the street. We joined a large group (from a safe distance) of peaceful protestors. It included families, people handing out water, and mainly individuals observing and lending support.

- The first thing we noticed was an unbelievable amount of rubber bullets in the street.

- After a couple of minutes, we experienced the flash bangs. They scared the crap out of me at first, and Ben noted they were aiming at the protesters standing in the street with their hands up.

- We stayed put, and I started taking pictures and sharing what we saw on Facebook to try and keep people informed. Important to note that Ben and I were standing separate from the group by about 10-15ft, about 100ft from the main group closer to the barricade, and were standing under an umbrella together. Completely innocent.

- That’s when two flash bangs went off right in front of us. I jumped back, confused and shocked. Trying to understand who they were aiming at.

- Then the third one came, so close that the shrapnel hit me full force in the arm.

- Let’s repeat that we were STANDING ON THE SIDEWALK, sharing an umbrella, doing absolutely NOTHING illegal or even remotely aggressive.

- I ran back towards the parking lot, equal parts angry and confused. The skin on my arm was raised and hot.

- We went back towards the parking lot entrance and took a couple pictures of the torn down cart barricade, and a bus shelter with bullet holes (presumably rubber bullets), as you can see in my pictures.

- I turned around, about to head back to the car, and I heard a thunderous noise of glass shattering. With Ben and I standing a few feet away, cops in riot gear started THROWING CARTS THROUGH THE BUS SHELTER. You can see the after pictures below, after we ran away.

Guys, my mind is fucking blown. I have never personally experienced this. Throughout the entire night, there were zero orders to disperse. None. So when you hear the news say that the cops were “trying to disperse the crowd” please remember that they never ever gave that order. They were shooting into crowds of innocent people.

Lastly, but perhaps the most important thing to take away from this: we are white. This was an experience that was new to me, and as frightening as it was it was NOTHING like what the black community faces. This experience gave me a slight glimpse into what it is like to be scared of the police.

This event really woke me up. Please, please, please: PAY ATTENTION. George Floyd was murdered by police. It is on video. And yet, these men are walking free. The power given to these individuals is no longer being used to serve and protect. It’s being used to target communities, to target people who make them “uncomfortable.”

[Chilidog]

"Minnesota nice" is BS.

Outside the twin cities, if your name does not end in "...Sen," you don't count.

Even Prince's last name ended in "...sen."

[Sugar Magnolia]

Compare and contrast:
Armed white assholes block traffic and terrorize people at the state capitols and absolutely nothing happens other than shutting down the capitol so they can have their space. Peaceful protests at a local police station and they get tear gassed.

[Frater I*I]

Compare and contrast:
Armed white assholes block traffic and terrorize people at the state capitols...

It's alright...because it's all white....

[DejaMoo]

Broadcastify.com again. Pick the Hennepin County Public Safety stream. Listen to the cops firing tear gas and gel bullets on command.

[jmj]

AutoZone across from the precinct HQ is now on fire. Live from Unicorn Riot:

[Indigo]

Dollar Tree (in area of MPD 3rd Pct) is also on fire. Multiple businesses in the area looted, including Target, Cub Foods, and a pawn shop (name unknown) that I watched some looters live streaming themselves inside of as they were looting it. One person emerged with a chain saw that he got working, and he later vandalized some abandoned MPD equipment in the street with it.

I am surprised that nobody has been killed in these protests yet. If it continues I expect that will happen. One of the live feeds I was watching showed a male demonstrator shot with an unknown type weapon in his upper left thigh and he was bleeding profusely as he retreated.

Some heavily armed militia nuts also showed up, ostensibly to protect a business near the precinct. They were there earlier today when things were quiet and I would expect that by now (long after dark) they have retreated back into the woodwork and away from any real danger to themselves. It was raining heavily for a bit after sundown but that does not seem to have slowed down the crowds at all.

LA is also experiencing demonstrations.

[Indigo]

Just watched a fire that was set inside of a large, multistory building that is still under construction (on the first floor interior), someplace in the area of the MPD 3rd Pct. Big fire. No way it will do anything but grow without intervention of some sort.

If that building does not have a functioning fire suppression system in place yet (I could not tell from watching the live stream), the fire could rapidly get out of control & destroy it, potentially spread and endanger everybody else in that whole area. There is also a large fire burning just outside of that same building, I think from a dumpster and construction debris that were dragged over to it (near an outside wall) and set on fire.

Lots of other fires also burning in the area now (in the streets, fueled by barricades). MFD says they will not respond without MPD securing the area (which seems impossible right now).

Some live feeds (do not know how long these will remain active but they are functional right now):

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1rmxPAogoMjKN?q=minneapolis

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMKgQBeYRbJL?q=minneapolis
(This one also has a live scanner feed included in the audio)

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1MnGnQDkynVKO?q=minneapolis

[Indigo]

Turns out that sadly, somebody was killed after all (Wednesday evening, May 27th). Early reports unconfirmed by MPD state that the owner of the Cadillac Pawn Shop shot and killed a looter. One of the stories about the incident is here:

https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/cadillac ... er-report/

Cadillac Pawn was the place I watched on a live feed being looted hours ago. Crazy! The story linked to above has a link in it to Facebook videos showing a young African-American male being given CPR by a sheriff's deputy at the scene, on the sidewalk right outside the door of the pawn shop.

I caught part of an MPD news conference regarding the shooting and due to the early stage of the investigation, they are not identifying anybody or confirming anything that may have happened. There was widespread looting going on in the area though, many places hit & completely trashed. So it is possible the death was related to all of that.

I am done posting about the demonstrations here...

[Whatever4]

Thanks for the updates! What a mess.

[Indigo]

Thanks for the updates! What a mess.

You are welcome. I did not want to take over the thread with posts like I have been making; maybe the situation deserves a thread of its own. In any event, I'll keep these posts to a minimum.

Had another look and it turns out that one of the better lives feeds (Unicorn Riot) is back up. It can be found on their Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja?ref_src=tw ... r%5Eauthor

The big multistory building under construction I had posted about earlier (either apartments or condos) has been totally destroyed now; I had watched some hooded & masked protestors squirting what looked like lighter fluid on wood there and setting it alight, among many more acts of arson there.

Some sort of factory or warehouse business located behind the burned down building under construction (a business called 7 Sigma, Inc) at E 29th St & 26th Ave S also caught on fire, looks like it spread to the roof and that complex is on its way to being destroyed. The Auto Zone, a Wendy's fast food place, and likely others are all torched and destroyed (all in the vicinity of the MPD 3rd Pct) at Minnehaha Ave & Lake. The area looks like a war zone and the fire department is not responding to much of it, just letting places burn down.

Some of the protestors were screaming "This is for George!" and telling the live feed guy it has come to this (the destruction) because "Nobody listens to us." Others lamented the loss of businesses in their own neighborhood.

The MPD have mostly retreated from the neighborhood and are remaining behind the perimeter of the 3rd Pct, where they have barricaded themselves. A short while ago a volley of gunfire forced the officers outside guarding the precinct's main entrance to take hard cover, don their masks and then fire tear gas; if the officers had fired live rounds it would have been a massacre. Middle of the night and it still looks like rush hour there.

Some surreal scenes in the middle of it all... like the lady picking up garbage and putting it into a small plastic sack, when there are more than enough debris everywhere to keep a whole crew of cleaners busy there for days. And the American flag waiving from atop a pole in the precinct courtyard, fluttering over clouds of tear gas, a light breeze revealing smashed precinct windows and others boarded-up, as officers took cover and protesters screamed taunts & obscenities at them from across the street only moments ago...

While I do not know how much good it will do, I think it likely that the National Guard will end up being deployed soon. It can't go on like this.

[neonzx]

Great plan. Loot, damage, and even burn down businesses (businesses which had zero to do with what they are protesting). Now their neighbors in the community who work at these establishments have no paycheck. During a pandemic when there is economic uncertainty. How are those folks going to pay their rent or feed their kids?

But they stuck it to "the man", didn't they?

[Volkonski]

Tony Webster
@webster
·
1h
Some photos of the Wendy’s near the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis.

[jmj]

My regular Target store:

Edit: I see that apparently this twitter user is a right-wing jerk associated with the Daily Caller, so he has an agenda to push. Nevertheless, the video documents the scene.

[p0rtia]

Great plan. Loot, damage, and even burn down businesses (businesses which had zero to do with what they are protesting). Now their neighbors in the community who work at these establishments have no paycheck. During a pandemic when there is economic uncertainty. How are those folks going to pay their rent or feed their kids?

But they stuck it to "the man", didn't they?

Your comment repulsed me.

"A riot is the language of the unheard." - MLK

[neeneko]

Great plan. Loot, damage, and even burn down businesses (businesses which had zero to do with what they are protesting). Now their neighbors in the community who work at these establishments have no paycheck. During a pandemic when there is economic uncertainty. How are those folks going to pay their rent or feed their kids?

But they stuck it to "the man", didn't they?

Why do you think police started shooting them with rubber bullets and tear gas? Fastest way to turn a peaceful protest into a riot, and then use that riot to discredit the protest. The police can cause untold damage and their supporters still see them as the good guys, forgetting that THEY instigated things.

In a way, the protesters are speaking the police's language. If all you understand is money and violence, and you are a poor peaceful community, it make sense to try to speak their language.

[neonzx]

Why do you think police started shooting them with rubber bullets and tear gas? Fastest way to turn a peaceful protest into a riot, and then use that riot to discredit the protest. The police can cause untold damage and their supporters still see them as the good guys, forgetting that THEY instigated things.

In a way, the protesters are speaking the police's language. If all you understand is money and violence, and you are a poor peaceful community, it make sense to try to speak their language.

From what I've seen, tear gas and gel projectiles (NOT rubber bullets) were used when the crowd became violent by throwing rocks at officers.

This death occurred Monday. Tuesday, 4 officers involved were fired (not put on leave) and assistance from the FBI was requested. That is warp-speed in an investigation like this. Yesterday was Wednesday and we had rioters burning buildings to the ground.

Which civil rights and community leaders who spoke Tuesday before and during the protest advocated violence? None which I saw. In fact, they were stressing peaceful civil protest. The eyes of the nation were already watching things unfold. Burning buildings didn't advance any cause except damage their community more.

[RoadScholar]

It's like they never really understood the power of Dr. King's methods. If you want change, the last thing you want is to give folks an excuse to disregard your wishes by being violent. Smart man.

[Patagoniagirl]

It's like they never really understood the power of Dr. King's methods. If you want change, the last thing you want is to give folks an excuse to disregard your wishes by being violent. Smart man.

How many decades now?

[TexasFilly]

It's like they never really understood the power of Dr. King's methods. If you want change, the last thing you want is to give folks an excuse to disregard your wishes by being violent. Smart man.

Agreed. It seems to follow a pattern. There are legitimate protesters who show up to lawfully express their anger and outrage. Then the idiots see the opportunity and show up to loot stores, etc. This always allows white America to point and say "See, they are all just a bunch of animals and thugs."

This plays right into the hands of the police. Now the focus has shifted away from them murdering a black man in broad daylight to the criminal behavior of criminal elements.