RIOT LOG report from Kingfield MON-WED

[dreamshark]

 I keep intending to post, but just can't keep up. Don't want to start a contentious discussion thread but would like to see more actual news on what is happening locally, so I should really do what I can to help with that. In my attempt to sort it all out I have been keeping a rough timeline of events in notes on my phone. I might as well document it here. I think most of my tiny following lives in the Twin Cities and knows what's going on as well as I do, but this might be helpful for the few out of towners. Some of this is put together retroactively and might have some errors. Corrections are welcome, but please don't yell at me about who is at fault for what. I'm just trying to sort out the sequence of events. It's all starting to run together in my head. 

MONDAY May 25.

George Floyd shockingly murdered in broad daylight by a gang of 4 Minneapolis cops: two department veterans with long records of brutality and two rookies. The actually murderer was Derek Chauvin, who pinned George Floyd to the ground by the neck for almost 9 minutes until he died. Two others held him down and the 4th one kept the crowd away. This was all caught on video and witnessed by dozens of people. George kept gasping "I can't breathe," and the crowd was begging the cops to let him up, check his pulse, etc. 

 

TUESDAY May 26

The video went viral on social media and protests started. The makeshift shrine outside Cup Foods quickly ballooned into two or more huge piles of memorabilia and art. And a couple of artists created a stunning George Floyd mural on the side of Cup Foods, completed in a single day!  People started gathering at the site, maintaining an atmosphere of peaceful grief and mutual support. More aggressive protests were ongoing and building outside the Third Precinct Station at Minnehaha and Lake .

 

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WEDNESDAY May 27

 

ESCALATION IN THIRD PRECINCT

All day Wednesday the protests at Minnehaha/Lake outside the precinct building escalated in violence to the point where it can clearly be called a riot. Protesters tore down a hastily constructed fence around the building, broke windows, shot fireworks at the station, and destroyed police cars. Police responded with a barrage of tear gas grenades and rubber bullets. Or the other way round, depending on who you believe. Probably the actions on both sides were interlaced and the order varied depending on your vantage point. I think It was still daylight when this escalation took place, but the burning didn't start until well after dark. 

 

BURNING STARTS

The first building torched was the Autozone near the station house. The infamous Umbrella Man was caught on video walking along the storefront and calmly breaking all the windows with a hammer. He is confronted by what looks like a protest organizer who demands to know if he is a cop. Umbrella Man just runs away. Later in the evening, somebody torches the building. Target and Cub Foods are looted and seriously damaged. Looting spreads through the area, with sporadic fires.  

 

LOOTING IN UPTOWN

Late Wednesday night looters moved down Lake Street into Uptown, smashing windows and stealing stuff. There was no burning and as far as I can tell no actual protests or political statements, just opportunistic looting. Surely there is no ideological purpose in selectively smashing the windows of pharmacies, liquor stores, and cell phone stores. 

 

The next morning I biked to Uptown and took some pictures. It wasn't as bad as I feared, but the first sign that things were moving into the part of town that I consider "my neighborhood."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I'm a random person surfing by on my Networks page, and I wanted to thank you for bearing witness.

[dreamshark]

Thanks for commenting. Where do you live?

[minoanmiss]

I'm in the outskirts of Boston, MA.

[dreamshark]

How are things where you are?

[minoanmiss]

Last night the protest here was apparently accompanied by some damage and chaos. I am torn over whether or not to find out more or if I'm just too tired to follow up on it right now.

At least our Governor repudiated Trump's "get tough and jail people" rhetoric.

[dreamshark]

As did they all, I think.

Our governor actually DID call out the National Guard, but not to carry out Trump's appalling fantasies of "dominating" and shootin' looters. My first thought when I heard National Guard was "Kent State! We're all gonna die!" But nothing could be further from the truth. The modern National Guard is disciplined and professional, not the panicky novices of 1968. If anything they will probably keep the local police forces in line wherever they are deployed.

[alchimie]

Thank you for this post & the ones following, from California.

[dreamshark]

You're welcome and thanks for reading. Where in California?

[alchimie]

San Jose

[bibliofile]

Thanks for the chronological tracking. I was tracking days and dates unevenly due to the pandemic, and it's very helpful to read it laid out like this. Also, you are local to everything and are witnessing and documenting. Go you.

(When I've gone to visit the area and stayed with our mutual friend on Columbus, I would shop at Minnehaha & Lake. And drive down Lake St to get there. It's all familiar to me.)