John Hinderaker wrote here about the apparent arson at the offices of the Center of the American Experiment and other conservative organizations in suburban Minneapolis over this past weekend. The Star Tribune hasn’t gotten around to covering the story yet. Someday soon, but not yet.
In the meantime, Alpha News is doing the job that the local mainstream media natives won’t do. Alpha News posted its story here yesterday afternoon. Alpha has added a footnote to the story via X (update: and via Alpha story here). DFL state representative Andy Smith greeted the apparent arson in the spirit of high comedy. He thinks it’s funny.
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Andy Smith mocks possible arson of building housing 3 conservative orgs pic.twitter.com/Qp5xJiW4Ca
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) February 1, 2024
Smith filed for bankruptcy last year. Alpha reported on his bankruptcy at the time. His financial bankruptcy can serve as a metaphor of his intellectual and moral bankruptcy. Smith’s legislative page is here. He’s in his first term representing a Rochester district. His degrees in theology belie his moral bankruptcy.
I have a footnote of my own to add on the celebration of arson in the Twin Cities. On the evening of August 26, 2020, downtown Minneapolis retailers were subject to arson, rioting, and looting following the suicide of a homicide suspect and the false rumors surrounding the man’s death.
It was the summer of Saint George Floyd and emotions were said to be running high — said by Star Tribune reporter Reid Forgrave. “Emotions” appeared in his story when Forgrave purported to explain the rioting and looting:
[O]n Wednesday night, even as a man with a megaphone shouted, “We have the video — the man killed himself!” emotions morphed into violence. A group looted a nearby Target. A man sat on the hood of a squad car, and two police officers shoved him off and sprayed him with mace, dousing several bystanders. Some tossed garbage cans to the street, and a few took the lids and smashed windows of businesses in IDS Center. They broke windows to Nordstrom Rack, climbed inside and then left with stolen merchandise.
“Emotions” really got out of hand at the retail outlets of Target, Saks, and Nordstrom. If avarice can be deemed an emotion, the Center of the American Experiment’s John Phelan recounted in painstaking detail just how emotional it got.
Forgrave quoted an apologist toward the end of his story: “Looting, he said, isn’t about stealing; it’s about lashing out at the power structure that otherwise won’t let them in.” The patronizing spirit that suffuses Forgrave’s indulgence is destroying Minneapolis.
One of the emotional gentlemen who sought to torch Target hq in August 2020 was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release earlier this week. His name is Leroy Lemonte Perry Williams. The U.S. Attorney’s office has posted its press release on the sentencing here. Here’s hoping whoever torched John’s office meets up with Williams behind bars before too long.
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