# Minneapolis is Burning...? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589 "2020-05-28T07:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/361 "2020-06-01T16:33:42Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Facebookers are saying the protest are funded by Soros. Presumably, the virus isn’t keeping people kept inside anymore and they’re going for martial law. “People are saying”, hunh? What are you babbling about? > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > I was thinking last week … Cite? > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > You are wrong. I was saying what facebook people are posting. I meant it’s one crisis after another, likely more, hence, no more carefree. You completely got my post wrong. At least “you” (whoever that was) got your post completely wrong. I don’t get it all. Why don’t you Google “How to write a paragraph” and, in 25 words or less, tell us WTF you’re trying to say? > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > First a virus to keep us inside. Then curfews. I wonder what’s next? Don’t keep us in suspense! Is it the Jews again? The Democrats? Who’s doing this to us? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/362 "2020-06-01T16:47:23Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > Agitator is a St Paul Cop: > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-O4rnUToU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-O4rnUToU) > > [Imgflip](https://imgflip.com/i/43dlns) :eek: Wow! I suppose this shouldn’t come as a surprise but … Wow! His voice is on the video, right? Identification should be fairly secure. (Why is he carrying an umbrella?) > [@MN\_Maenad](#): > > The mayor of St. Paul confirmed this morning that everyone arrested in St. Paul last night was from out of state. The riots and burnings have been organized, firefighters have described it as playing whack-a-mole. The governor said flat-out that this is being led by organized agitators. I know reporters are looking into who it may be, I’ve also heard the NSA is digging into the dark web. > > There’s something more going on here than protests against another racist murdering cop. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. I just hope that other cities aren’t subjected to this. I guess some people think it’s VERY important that the GOP win the next election. ☹ ```auto [quote="Dewey_Finn, post:292, topic:854589"] The point is the right kind of leadership can make a difference, if only our leaders can rise to it. [/QUOTE] Again: *Please include emoticons on your sarcastic posts.* Not all Dopers have a macabre sense of humor. ``` > [@octopus](#): > > It’s common sense really. You see how Antifa and other agitators are never arrested in cities governed by the left. Why lock up your voters? They are needed in November. Was **octopus** always this stupid? I barely remember him from years ago, but now that the competition is gone — Shodan, Ditka, etc. — he’s working overtime to get the title Stupidest Doper. Does the troll farm he’s working for give him a 50-cent bonus if he gets that title? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/363 "2020-06-01T16:50:23Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I don’t care about police cars, they can be replaced. A friend of mine took a non-lethal shot to the face last night, I care about that. I gather she’ll keep her eye. She’s a journalist and was on the job when a cop shot her in the head. MAGA Ouch! I don’t know your friend, but I still feel very sad about this. ☹ All Americans who aren’t actively fighting racism and police brutality are partly responsible for your friend’s injury. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/364 "2020-06-01T16:57:52Z")
She’s tough. I would say the responsibility lies with the people in the chain of command of the cops told to shoot at and arrest journalists. ---
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/365 "2020-06-01T17:39:32Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > She’s tough. She writes good anyway. I bought her book yesterday (Kindle) and, damn, I’m feeling so privileged having been born in Denmark. (I suppose it is Linda Tirado. For all I know the police have shot the eyes out on tens of journalists.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/366 "2020-06-01T19:12:45Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > :eek: Wow! I suppose this shouldn’t come as a surprise but … Wow! His voice is on the video, right? Identification should be fairly secure. (Why is he carrying an umbrella?) There are two speculations: It was to identify him to drones, or it was to prevent facial recognition, which the Hong Kong protesters are using. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/367 "2020-06-01T19:14:46Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > This is the kind of rote response that makes you sound like a mindless non-player character in a video game. > > If you’re going to do that, at least do the one where you beclown yourself by sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “buzz buzz buzz”. At least that one has some cringey comedic value. And he could at least get the grammar correct. “Won’t get ran over”? Good grief! ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/368 "2020-06-01T20:50:51Z")
"An Illinois man traveled to Minneapolis where he handed out explosives and encouraged individuals to throw them at police while streaming live on Facebook, federal prosecutors said in court documents. At approximately 8 p.m. on May 29, Matthew Rupert, of Galesburg, posted a two-hour live video to Facebook, in which he offered people explosives and suggested they throw the bombs at officers during [demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/minneapolis-protests-spread-to-other-cities-across-the-us/2279999/) “…They got SWAT trucks up there… I’ve got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back, bomb them back… light it and throw it,” Rupert said in the Facebook Live video, according to a criminal complaint filed by an FBI agent. … At approximately 10 p.m. on May 30, Rupert posted that he was on his way to Chicago, and the following day posted multiple videos of him in and around the Chicago area. In one video, the suspect stated he was at “South Plymouth and Ida B Wells,” waiting for his brother and could be heard saying “let’s start a riot,” and “I’m going to start doing some damage.” > **[Illinois Man Accused of Handing Out Explosives at Minneapolis Protest](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/illinois-man-accused-of-handing-out-explosives-at-minneapolis-protest/2282034/)** > > An Illinois man traveled to Minneapolis where he handed out explosives and encouraged individuals to throw them at police while streaming live on Facebook, federal prosecutors said in court documents. At approximately 8 p.m. on May 29, Matthew... He was arrested by Chicago PD. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/369 "2020-06-01T21:04:05Z")
> [@MissTake](#): > > [How about when a semi barrels into a massive group of peaceful protesters?](https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/05/31/breaking-semi-truck-appears-to-drive-through-protest-marchers-on-i-35w-bridge/) Really not a significant problem unless the driver said certain magic words that reference his deity, then it’s international terrorism. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/370 "2020-06-01T22:08:33Z")
It seems at this point unclear whether the semi driver on the expressway intended to drive into the protest. > **[Truck driver wasn't aiming for protesters on 35W bridge, Minnesota...](https://www.startribune.com/truck-driver-didn-t-intend-to-hit-protesters-on-35w-bridge-state-officials-say/570925582/)** > > Follow the StarTribune for the news, photos and videos from the Twin Cities and beyond. Even if he didn’t, that of course says nothing about the other cases, including the police who most certainly knew there were demonstrators there. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/371 "2020-06-01T22:53:27Z")
I’m not sure where else to put this, so I thought I’d include it here. I’m sorry, I’m not up on the current flow of the thread. I attended a protest last night at the police station in my little Maine college town. Some thoughts - I’m not sure how impromptu or not it was. I learned about it as I was lying on my couch watching the TeeVee when I heard chanting. I took a peek out the window and saw the crowd that had gathered across the street from the police station. The lot where they had gathered is corner to corner with my lot, so it was kind of hard to miss. I grabbed my mask and phone and I headed over. There was a black man speaking, seemingly off the cuff, about racial injustice - he was emotional at times but I was getting the feeling that this was about the hundredth time he’s made this speech and he was struggling to keep a flow. The crowd was very vocal - there were chants of “George Floyd, George Floyd” and “No justice, No peace” and call outs to the dozen so names of other black people who have been killed in the last few years. It was stirring and touching, but then there were a few poison pills in the crowd. There was this one young guy was just desperate to get a billy club across the bean. “Kneel you fucking pigs! What? Are you gonna shoot me? Fuck you!” He was right at that level of being irritating but not dangerous and he really wasn’t making any friends on any side of the argument. Fellow compatriots kept shushing him and asking him to calm down. There were three police cruisers in the lot, another across the street, and of course the entire police department across the other street. Six officers, wearing masks, stood in a line like they were protecting their vehicles, the wall to which the protesters were protesting. The big issue seemed to be getting the officers to kneel with the rest of the crowd. They wouldn’t. They took several genial pictures with people, hands held high, look at what buddies we are, type of things but no kneeling. The one officer that I was close to for a few minutes seemed reasonable; he was having a conversation with a protester about why they didn’t have body cameras and it turned into a budget conversation, but when she asked him why he wouldn’t kneel, he clammed up and turned away. After about an hour, the officers got in their cruisers and took off - a pathetic parade fifty feet back to the station. In the meantime one guy in a suit stayed back and it turned out he was the chief of police - also masked up, I’d like to add. I found out he was the chief of police when the aforementioned irritant piped up, “hey everybody, this guy is the chief of fucking police.” I was a little concerned for a moment. It was now one presumably unarmed cop amongst a crowd of about 200. A protester was asking why he wouldn’t let his officers kneel and he said, “I just don’t believe in it.” Uh oh. I thought it was going to go bad then. He was asked if he would join in a chant of “Black Lives Matter” and he agreed, but he wouldn’t start it. I think he was just faking it under his mask. There were a few instances of counter-protesting in the form of a truck stopping by and pronouncing, “God bless the police!” and another guy way back in the lot who piped up with an “All Lives Matter.” The responses to them were appropriate from where I stood - someone would shout, “shut the fuck up,” everybody would laugh and we’d go back to what we were doing. I felt the need to write this up because I’ve spent a good part of today seeing cops kicking the snot out of a lot of people in this country and I don’t know - there but for the grace and all that shit. I’ve never really felt this uncertain about shit in this country before. Some photojournalism: [Protest 1](https://flic.kr/p/2j7XoUk) [Protest 2](https://flic.kr/p/2j7XoP5) [Protest 3](https://flic.kr/p/2j7XoKH) [Protest 4](https://flic.kr/p/2j7VWu7) [Protest 5](https://flic.kr/p/2j7Xoxt) And as I was writing this I just heard President Dumbfuck come on talk absolute shit about dominating antifa or some fucking nonsense. I’m sorry folks - the pleasant protest experience above notwithstanding … we’re fucked. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/372 "2020-06-01T23:35:21Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Was **octopus** always this stupid? I barely remember him from years ago, but now that the competition is gone — Shodan, Ditka, etc. — he’s working overtime to get the title Stupidest Doper. Does the troll farm he’s working for give him a 50-cent bonus if he gets that title? He was doing better functioning as a mini-me for more competent trolls, but now he’s just a faint shadow of his past self. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/373 "2020-06-02T00:18:05Z")
Did Trump just declare Martial Law? ---
**Author:** ![Harrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac8455/32.png) [@Harrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harrington)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/374 "2020-06-02T02:30:12Z")
No, but he threatened to declare it. We may be seeing A-10s and Apaches above our cities’ skies next week. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/375 "2020-06-02T02:50:53Z")
Now that the weekend is over and people are back at work being productive and providing for their families I’m sure the streets will go back to tranquility. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/376 "2020-06-02T02:51:40Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Now that the weekend is over and people are back at work being productive and providing for their families I’m sure the streets will go back to tranquility. You’re a fucking piece of shit. Go die. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/377 "2020-06-02T03:11:20Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > You’re a fucking piece of shit. Go die. Can’t yet. People like me need to exist to provide goods and services and clean up the mess after these progressive, urban Biden rallies. Can’t have the whole country looking like Detroit. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/378 "2020-06-02T03:24:16Z")
Minneapolis police officers union chief calls George Floyd a “violent criminal”, describing those protesting over his death as terrorists and criticizing the city’s political leadership for not authorizing greater use of force to stop the rioting. > **[Anger as local police union chief calls George Floyd a 'violent criminal'](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/01/bob-kroll-george-floyd-minneapolis-police-union-chief)** > > Lt Bob Kroll says protests organised by ‘terrorist movement’ but former Minneapolis police chief calls Kroll ‘a disgrace to the badge’ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/379 "2020-06-02T03:50:33Z")
The Secretary of Defense has declared our United States to be a “Battlezone”. If you don’t think the shit has hit the fan, then you don’t know shit. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589/380 "2020-06-02T04:08:58Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Can’t yet. People like me need to exist to provide goods and services and clean up the mess after these progressive, urban Biden rallies. Can’t have the whole country looking like Detroit. Welp, I see the right-wing has settled on its malicious and mendacious talking points for the current crisis: 1. Appropriating responsible “essential worker” status for “people like me”, with the implication of “conservative white people”, erasing the [disproportionate presence and risks of minorities](https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/most-us-front-line-workers-are-women-minorities/5406233.html) among frontline workers. 2. Pretending that right-wingers are “cleaning up the mess” when they’re actually [prominent in initiating and accelerating the mess](https://www.lawfareblog.com/riots-white-supremacy-and-accelerationism). 3. Racist dogwhistles that by this point are just plain old whistles, with “mess” and “urban” and “Detroit” intended to convey the meaning “black”, with all the racist-stereotype baggage of scary messy useless lazy black people. (Not that “black people” is the exact epithet they intend to imply.) 4. And finally, blaming the whole situation by implication on the Democratic Presidential candidate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minneapolis-is-burning/854589.md?page=20)