Most of the Twin Cities metro area was under a 7:00 p.m. curfew last night, leading to cancellation of a Minnesota Twins home game and other sports events. Rioting and looting were widespread in Brooklyn Center, where the police encounter with Daunte Wright took place, and elsewhere. The National Guard was deployed along with local law enforcement to try to limit the damage done by rioters.
More bottles coming toward officers, they report. Some in the group have umbrellas to shield from gas canisters and rubber bullets. https://t.co/Q4EppF30Aq pic.twitter.com/uHYqLDvEOB
— MN CRIME π¨ (@MN_CRIME) April 13, 2021
On the ground in Brooklyn Center, MN for @townhallcom. Rioters are throwing projectiles and shooting fireworks at police guarding the cityβs police building. Police are firing tear gas and flashbangs. Video to come. pic.twitter.com/mp2ImON8iz
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 13, 2021
MN State Troopers used crowd control munitions after getting into a scuffle while trying to arrest some rioters. pic.twitter.com/LnhHh4RjNR
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 13, 2021
This is what the back and forth between the rioters and police looks like in Brooklyn Center, MN. pic.twitter.com/yb6e5TMG4m
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 13, 2021
Brooklyn Center’s Chief of Police held a press conference in which he referred to the riot, in which one of his officers was hit in the head by a thrown brick and had to be hospitalized. The assembled reporters, in their invincible ignorance, denied that there had been any riot:
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Gannon: "I was front and center… at the riot."
Reporter: "There was no riot."
Gannon: "There was… the officers that were putting themselves in harm's way were being pelted with frozen cans of pop, they were being pelted with concrete blocks." pic.twitter.com/aM5rfjYpxx
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 12, 2021
The correct term, apparently, is “mostly peaceful protest.”
The Star Tribune, on the other hand, knows how to toe the party line. Its “news” story fails to describe Duante Wright’s struggle with the police officers in his attempt to flee the scene, instead decorously saying that “he slipped back into the driver’s seat.” Then we get this editorializing:
Once again, a Black man died during a police encounter. In an instant, the world’s focus on Minnesota shifted from the trial of Derek Chauvin to a new outrage that brought street protests, promises of reform, and anguish over a relentless pattern of deadly police misconduct.
The Strib adds this absurdity:
A “blue line” flag β a sign of law enforcement support, co-opted by extremists and viewed by many activists as a symbol of opposition to the racial justice movement β waved below the American flag on the pole in front of the police station.
Meanwhile, the defense begins its case today in the homicide trial of Derek Chauvin. Good luck with that.
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