Pretty sure Salmon is referring to the circling allegations that undercover cops were responsible for some of the destruction and inciting.
Edit: related Facebook post from a townie that my fiancee found.
OUT OF TOWNERS:
Here are some things the national mainstream media is misrepresenting or not covering (or covering very inadequately). Absolutely do not trust everything you are seeing.
1. The Autozone fire and early window breaking was NOT started by a protestor. It was started by a white cop in the world’s crappiest disguise. There were black protestors filming and begging him to stop. He tried to knock the camera down. The video has been repeatedly uploaded and taken down by multiple people. He has been ID’d by his ex wife. He works for the Saint Paul police department.
2. There are very real reasons to suspect that at least some of the other fires were not set by protestors. We already know that white nationalists and cops have been working the crowd, and since a lot of the businesses targeted last night were owned by BIPOC people— businesses that were notably unscathed after the first night— it is not a long leap.
3. It has been confirmed that the majority of the damage from looting had been performed by out of towners.
4. THIS WAS A PEACEFUL PROTEST UNTIL THE COPS BECAME VIOLENT. I can not stress this enough. There were a few protestors who threw rocks early on, but they were stopped by OTHER PROTESTORS. (A rock thrown by an individual, dinging harmlessly off a bullet proof vest, doesn’t fucking matter anyway.) Long, long before the looting and the fires (see points 1-2), the cops were shooting tear gas, flares, and rubber bullets at the protestors. Without rhyme or reason or warning. At brave youth, at reporters, at an overwhelmingly black crowd that was protesting a racist murder. The cops have been violent, abusive, militant, and predictable only in their cruelty as they sling erratic attacks at the crowd. All of the headlines blaming the violence on the protestors are disgusting, racist, and wrong.
5. The protestors have been helping each other. They have been cleaning up the neighborhood. They have been providing medical aid that one would think would be provided by emergency responders. They have been caring for each other and protecting each other on the battle field. Their bravery, compassion, and persistence is staggering to me. They are by and large BIPOC young people, and they are fighting for their lives. Their strength and kindness should be seen and heard.
I have personally not been in the middle of the actual protests yet, but I have tried to find other ways to help. Yesterday, I went all around town with my partner gathering and buying supplies to donate to the medic centers. The first one we went to was no longer taking donations because of the flood of donations they had received that morning. The next location took them happily, but were clearly reaching capacity as well. Then at night, I saw a twitter post that the medical tent at the first church we went to was on fire and needed help evacuating to a new location, so we hopped in the car and drove over. By the time we got there, about forty minutes after they posted on Facebook asking for help, the fire was out. Not only that, but we got caught in a traffic jam of other people who were also trying to help. There are people organizing, donating, mobilizing, to provide aid all over the city. This is a group of angry people, sure, but that anger is enormously justified. This is a group of people who love each other and their community.
Still want to talk about the protestors being “violent? Don’t. Talk about the police being violent instead.
Even if all the looting was being performed by the protestors, that would not be an okay justification for branding them negatively. Lashing out at a capitalist world that values white people’s property over black people’s lives is not senseless destruction but a logical conclusion. But that’s NOT even what’s going on here. The truth matters. The truth is that the cops and vigilante white nationalists are escalating the conflict, working people into a frenzy, attacking people, and in many instances framing the protestors in order to hurt the neighborhood and the media’s perception of the movement. If that sounds crazy to you, it’s because their plan is working.
I’ll continue to update this via edits at the top as new things come up or if any of the above information needs to be corrected. Things are happening very quickly. I apologize in advance if anything I said needs to be corrected.
If you are looking for a way to stay up to date on real time events, follow Unicorn Riot. They have been live streaming the whole thing and they do brave, amazing work.
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Topic: The Abusive Policing Thread: Beyond Brown, No Justice (Read 444264 times)