For the second night in a row, sizable protest crowds in Minnesota were met with police action. The protests are in response to the arrest and subsequent brutal death of George Floyd while in police custody. Gov. Tim Walz told CNN that the protests started peacefully enough, but turned “extremely dangerous” after several large fires and looting were reported. The friction between protesters and law enforcement came to a head as police deployed tear gas and “non-lethal” projectiles.
Mayor Jacob Frey confirmed that he has asked for the Minnesota National Guard to be on hand after Wednesday night’s clashes.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told KARE11 that the “vast majority” of protesters have been peaceful but that it only takes a handful of folks to get tear gas thrown into crowds of people. "I did direct our officers to deploy gas once a secure fence was breached, and those individuals, again not all, but some of those individuals were in our secure parking facility which had access to our Minneapolis squad cars and weapons. I was concerned about the personal safety of not only our officers, but of course those who were in attendance and the general public who was still out there observing."
While images and video of the civil unrest in Minnesota dominate nightly news, the police reaction stands in stark contrast to the recent “reopen” protests in Minnesota, Michigan, and elsewhere where angry white supremacists and gun extremists taunted and even shoved police, who offered little more than blank stares in return. No tear gas, no “non-lethal” bullets.
It may be 2020, but the escalation of tension between protesters and police seems eerily familiar to those of the past.
One might argue that part of it is that there are a lot more people protesting the racial injustice and homicide of George Floyd than there were Second Amendment whoohaas protesting social distancing requirements, so law enforcement has a lot more to handle. The other side of it is protesting the state’s law enforcement apparatus is dangerous.
And as with all progressive protests, there is an element of questioning where the violence that the conservative sections of our country prefer to focus on begins.
The fallout from the second night of protests is terrible in some places.
All of that anger out there wants some change.
But there’s a lot of love out there, too.