Cyclist on cyclist violence in Minneapolis over the weekend. Per the AP: “Six people are facing potential criminal penalties in a series of water attacks on three pedal pubs in Minneapolis, including one that carried six off-duty police officers. … PedalPub Twin Cities manager Lisa Staplin said the first two ‘Mad Max’-style attacks Saturday evening involved bicyclists who sprayed a driver and passengers with high-powered water guns and threw water balloons at them. She said the pilot of the first pedal pub was momentarily blinded by the blast. … Kurtis Johnson, 31, of Inver Grove Heights told MPR News he was one of the men squirting at the pedal pub passengers. He says the off-duty officers used excessive force. … ‘If you can’t take a joke and think that there’s something more to it than just water, I mean, you’ve got to take a big look at your life if you think we’re out to try to hurt people. We were just having fun,’ Johnson said.” Certainly good advice, but maybe misdirected here.
Oh, and here’s the video of the aforementioned off-duty officers’ response.
Today in scrupulously honest Minnesotans: “United States on Tuesday officially returned a vase from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and 24 other artifacts that had been looted over the decades from Italy, including 1st-century frescoes and precious books that ended up in U.S. museums, universities and private collections,” the AP reports (in the Star Tribune). “Police stressed that most collectors and museums willingly gave up the artifacts after learning they had been stolen. The Minneapolis museum director contacted the Italian culture ministry after reading an article about one suspect piece, police said.”
Jerk ghost hunters ruining it for all the legitimate ghost hunters. City Pages’ Cory Zurowski reports, “For as long as Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze can remember, outsiders have rolled into Litchfield in search of ghosts. … Last week’s episode, in which four self-styled ‘ghost hunters’ were arrested for burglary and vandalism inside the Ness Church, a 19th-century building that’s fabled for paranormal activity, was especially egregious. … Sometime during the wee hours of Sunday, May 17, 23-year-old Kyle Huber of Victoria and three others from Sioux Falls, S.D. — 23-year-old Todd Suurmeyer, 25-year-old Joseph Porter, and 24-year-old Brittani Roberts — allegedly vandalized a monument that marks where the first five victims of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War are buried.”
Your top-secret back route into St. Paul just got nixed for a while. “Road construction coming soon to Ford Parkway will send drivers looking for different routes,” reports the Pioneer Press’ Sarah Horner. “Starting Tuesday, the street will be closed to through traffic, as well as parking, between Fairview and Snelling avenues for about three months, according to information from Ramsey County.”
In other news…
University of Minnesota hires a new police chief — Matthew Clark of the Minneapolis Police Department [Minnesota Daily]
Your daily Walker: “Does Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Have a Bicycle Vendetta?” [Planetizen]
“MN court: Boyfriend’s revenge post is protected speech” [MPR’s NewsCut]
Yikes: “Two dead, one hospitalized following shooting at Grand Forks Walmart” [Inforum]
Anoka City Council cracking down on “aggressive solicitation.” [KSTP]
Lee’s Liquor Lounge getting sold to a regular. [Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal]
Just a bear, doin’ bear stuffs … in Stillwater Township. [Stillwater Current]
Reports: Former Gophers coach Glen Mason to lose his spot as BTN top football analyst [Star Tribune]
Nicely done
Love that photo reenactment!
Please tell me they’re kidding..
“I mean, you’ve got to take a big look at your life”…Pot, meet Kettle.
On the other hand . . . . . .
I wonder how many the off-duty officers had tipped back prior to the attack (they were riding a Pedal Pub, after all). They may not have been – er – operating on “their full faculties”, either.
Since they weren’t driving…
…it really doesn’t matter how much they had to drink. And given that there were no reports of improper behavior, they were sober enough to display far more common sense than the Bike Terrorists.
I was responding to . . . .
this quote from the article:
“He says the off-duty officers used excessive force.”
There’s also this video which – while it isn’t necessarily clear who is using all the profanity and who begins yelling orders at the end – could call into question how much force these off-duty officers employed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKdT3SNSH64
Personally, I think there was probably improper behavior exhibited on both sides. I don’t condone what the attackers did, but I don’t give the off-duty officers a free ride on this one either, and don’t discount the possible role drinking may have played in their behavior in the event it is found they used unnecessary force in the situation.
People in desperate need of lives
I’m not a fan of Pedal Pubs myself. The entertainment value of pedaling this lumbering contraption around town in whatever weather is happening that day, swilling enough beer to get your money’s worth out of it eludes me. On the other hand, I don’t see it as any reason to attack unconsenting strangers with water guns.
The spokesperson for this group gave his age as 31. As the kids would say, really, dude?
Cops and Water
The water-slingers were wrong, jerks. Nobody deserves to get randomly soaked just because some privileged self serving punks are annoyed at them.
Having said that, the way these cops acted is embarrassing. They immediately turned to storm trooper mode. Glad they weren’t carrying at the time or there would be dead people.
Shouldn’t cops who are off duty, now that we’ve bred them to be so dangerous, wear warning labels?
To say these officers are “bred” to be dangerous and would kill if they only had guns is offensive. They were rightly angry about being attacked like this and much more restrained than many other groups of 30 year old men that I can think of.