My city, Minneapolis, On Fire: a story about white nationalism and it's consequences

[Jarhyn]

I live in Minneapolis. The last two nights, I've spent on neighborhood watch, in immediate coordination with my neighbors. While all this started with the murder of a black man by a white cop, that's not all there is to it. But this isn't about that.

This is about the fact of who is doing the shooting and the burning and the looting.

Rather, It's about the white nationalists riding around in a red truck dropping explosives and incindiaries off the back of their red pickup truck, and shooting at folks.

It's about the fact that white looters and vandals have already put a building in my neighborhood to the torch

It's about the groups of white people roving around.just south of where I live with high powered high capacity rifles.

It's about the military response, shooting people who are legally on their own porches with "less lethal" rounds that have cracked skulls and blinded reporters.

It's about the fact that in my neighborhood we aren't on the lookout for black folks, it's the white people with out of state (or covered, or absent) license plates that we record and are tracking movements of.

It's about the white person in the clown mask that was roving back alleys near Penn that ran away when confronted.

It's about the fact that the people in my community doing watch rotations are anti-fascist but we are now being labeled as terrorists for simply holding the ideology that fascism is bad and must be resisted.

It's about the fact that I'm going to be out with a fire extinguisher and flame-retardant clothing with armed white nationalists out there who have already fired shots in an attempt to "boogaloo".

It's about the fact that several peaceful protestors, one of which who is an acquaintance of mine, have taken 40mm cannisters from point blank (10 feet) as retaliation for being so bold as to wear goggles rather than allow themselves to be maced while protesting. The only thing that kept her shoulder and/or back from being broken was the fact that her filled backpack broke the impact.

It's about the fact that our president is clearing streets of peaceful protests with violent force so he can have photo shoots in front of a church where people HAD been getting medical care and receiving donations... A photo opportunity with a Bible shamelessly taken, without consent, from the priests that were providing aid at that church.

It's about the fact that cops responded to "rioting" and "looting" reports mere seconds after a white cop-looking motherfucker with a gasmask, likely a St Paul COP was breaking out windows at AutoZone, ground zero for the "rioting".

It is about the fact that MPD allowed over a dozen complaints against the officer that instigated all this with the casual choking of a suspect to go unpunished, including 7 deaths, and when another officer, the one who called for backup, sought to attend the welfare of the "suspect", he was told to stand down.

My city is on fire. None of the people here mourn the burned shell of Wells Fargo; they were and have always been predatory of the people of color in our and other neighborhoods. The people of my community, my new housemate doesn't mourn the burning of the target stores (he was scheduled to start at the lake street target that got burned the first night); the were literally working on pioneering racist profiling and shrinkage measures there.we don't mourn the burning of the third precinct. We don't mourn any of that.

What this is about is the fact that my city, particularly it's police department but also in general, has a white supremecy problem, and the fact that apparently, that makes us all terrorists.

I've never been so proud to be a "terrorist".

 

[Derec]

Why are those who claim that it's all white people fault never called out for their racism?

 

[Trausti]

“I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot,” said Howard Graves, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks white supremacist and other anti-government extremist groups.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-protests-white-supremacists-antifa.html

 

[Jarhyn]

Why are those who claim that it's all white people fault never called out for their racism?

Ah yes, I'm racist for the fact that the people starting fires and shooting people and who are otherwise engaged in suspicious activities are white, sporting symbology of white nationalist militias or white nationalist movements.

 

[Trausti]

Why are those who claim that it's all white people fault never called out for their racism?

Ah yes, I'm racist for the fact that the people starting fires and shooting people and who are otherwise engaged in suspicious activities are white, sporting symbology of white nationalist militias or white nationalist movements.

Antifa are White nationalist. Whatever, dude.

 

[Politesse]

Why are those who claim that it's all white people fault never called out for their racism?

So if someone made a comment that implied all of the protestors to belong to only one race, you would consider that person racist?

 

[Deepak]

“I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot,” said Howard Graves, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks white supremacist and other anti-government extremist groups.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-protests-white-supremacists-antifa.html

“We’re going to see a diversity of fringe malefactors,” said Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “We know for a fact there have been far-right agitators both online and at these rallies, as well as far-left.”

...

In a Facebook post from Richmond, two young white men are shown holding that flag up behind an African-American woman with a hand-lettered sign reading “A knee is the new noose!!” That referred to the police action used in the death of Mr. Floyd.

Mike Griffin, a longtime activist in Minneapolis, said the demonstrations in his city attracted people he had never seen before. They included well-dressed young white men in expensive boots carrying hammers and talking about torching buildings. “I know protests, I’ve been doing it for 20 years,” he said. “People not affiliated with the protests are creating havoc on the streets.”

Whither our Kantians?

 

[Jarhyn]

Why are those who claim that it's all white people fault never called out for their racism?

So if someone made a comment that implied all of the protestors to belong to only one race, you would consider that person racist?

No, then, there will be "very fine people on both sides".

 

[Trausti]

Federal authorities accuse Galesburg man of traveling to Chicago for protests with homemade bombs, charge him with inciting a riot

An Illinois man arrested in Chicago over the weekend had homemade bombs in his car and had been seen on videos posted on the internet participating in the looting and rioting in Minneapolis and Chicago, according to federal charges filed Monday.

Matthew Rupert, 28, of Galesburg, was charged in U.S. District Court in Minnesota with inciting a riot and possession of an explosive device, court records show.

According to the complaint, Rupert posted a messages on his Facebook account on Thursday saying he was going to Minneapolis to protest the police-involved death of George Floyd and wanted “goons” to join him.

Yep. White Nationalist.

 

[Trausti]

 

[laughing dog]

Why are those who claim that it's all white people fault never called out for their racism?

Since the OP does not say it is ALL WHITE PEOPLE'S FAULT, what makes your question relevant?

 

[Deepak]

.

Notice how not one person in this thread said riots are good. Everyone is a hypocrite in imagination land.

Elsewhere you're simultaneously advocating a secret government hit list while posting cartoons about totalitarian regimes.

Memes are the new duckspeak

 

[repoman]

Boogaloo?

More like Oogaboogaloo.

 

[Metaphor]

My city is on fire. None of the people here mourn the burned shell of Wells Fargo; they were and have always been predatory of the people of color in our and other neighborhoods. The people of my community, my new housemate doesn't mourn the burning of the target stores (he was scheduled to start at the lake street target that got burned the first night); the were literally working on pioneering racist profiling and shrinkage measures there.we don't mourn the burning of the third precinct. We don't mourn any of that.

No, this person doesn't mourn 'any of that', and he projects his lack of grief to his entire neighbourhood. I'd say the owners and employees and customers might be a bit miffed, but.

 

[Axulus]

My city is on fire. None of the people here mourn the burned shell of Wells Fargo; they were and have always been predatory of the people of color in our and other neighborhoods. The people of my community, my new housemate doesn't mourn the burning of the target stores (he was scheduled to start at the lake street target that got burned the first night); the were literally working on pioneering racist profiling and shrinkage measures there.we don't mourn the burning of the third precinct. We don't mourn any of that.

No, this person doesn't mourn 'any of that', and he projects his lack of grief to his entire neighbourhood. I'd say the owners and employees and customers might be a bit miffed, but.

And, to add to that, in the same breath a person like this will criticize businesses for not investing and locating enough branches in minority neighborhoods, creating things like so called food deserts and fewer job opportunities, and yet he apparently doesn't mourn when they are driven out. Their only consistent trait is to be anti-business (as part of their anti-capitalist worldview), even when they contradict themselves.

 

[Jarhyn]

What stubs me about the ignorance I see in some of the posts from 'the usual crowd' is that they don't seem to understand how the people of the community can band together against rioting and disruption, and select which businesses to mourn and defend and care about based on the conduct of that business towards the community.

It's not like the community grocery store that went in two years ago isn't cared for; after a petty theft and minor damage, there have been people camped out there every night. People are posting shifts at all the major businesses in the community, yet we don't see any significant complaints about the burned out shell of the Wells Fargo. It's almost like the conduct of a business within it's community is the thing against which we measure pity and empathy in this situation. It is almost as if community support is a function of support that business gives to the community. Target supported a precinct known for their racist enforcement, and we have 'the usual crowd', 'very fine people's indeed out here making it seem like that is somehow central or counter to the idea that the people attacking our communities are literally white nationalist terrorists. I know this because we have identified several, and linked them back to "boogaloo" Facebook groups, and have exposed various text conversations through infiltration of one of their channels.

 

[blastula]

Jarhyn, how much of your OP is based on firsthand knowledge?

 

[Derec]

Damn those white supremacists in Minneapolis! Must be those "Boogaloos" ...

 

[Derec]

Target supported a precinct known for their racist enforcement,

In what way? And how does that justify looting and destroying the store? And why is the chief of police in Minneapolis so uninterested in bringing those vandals to justice?

 

[TV and credit cards]

My city is on fire. None of the people here mourn the burned shell of Wells Fargo; they were and have always been predatory of the people of color in our and other neighborhoods. The people of my community, my new housemate doesn't mourn the burning of the target stores (he was scheduled to start at the lake street target that got burned the first night); the were literally working on pioneering racist profiling and shrinkage measures there.we don't mourn the burning of the third precinct. We don't mourn any of that.

No, this person doesn't mourn 'any of that', and he projects his lack of grief to his entire neighbourhood. I'd say the owners and employees and customers might be a bit miffed, but.

And, to add to that, in the same breath a person like this will criticize businesses for not investing and locating enough branches in minority neighborhoods, creating things like so called food deserts and fewer job opportunities, and yet he apparently doesn't mourn when they are driven out. Their only consistent trait is to be anti-business (as part of their anti-capitalist worldview), even when they contradict themselves.

You're expecting people to act rationally in an emotionally charged situation? Sometimes shit gets broken just because people need to break shit. Because maybe we're dealing with people who generation after generation have needed to teach their kids not how to thrive but how to survive and this brings a sense of hopelessness in one's life at a very early age, at the age of understanding. They see their lives as having no opportunity, of having little value. And then we point out the outsized disparity in homicides in the black community and wonder why. And let's stop calling it "the black community". It makes it sound like a nice place to live. It's a fucking prison without bars is what it is.