For the Star Tribune, Abby Simons and Andy Mannix write: “The city of Minneapolis imposed a curfew and asked the National Guard to return to its streets after renewed rioting and looting Wednesday night. The unrest was sparked by untrue rumors that a man wanted for a fatal shooting who killed himself as police closed in had actually been shot by officers. Police almost immediately shared surveillance video of the suicide, but it did little to calm crowds who broke windows at retail stores, restaurants, bars and coffee shops. The sudden chaos prompted Gov. Tim Walz to declare an emergency in the city and mobilize the Minnesota National Guard and 150 State Patrol troopers. Mayor Jacob Frey also ordered a curfew from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday. At a late evening news conference, Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo stressed that the man killed himself earlier in the day and that it was not an ‘officer-involved shooting.’”
Matt Sepic and MPR staff report: “Minneapolis officers will be barred from shooting at moving vehicles unless safety is an issue, and will have to provide explanations every time they unholster weapons, the city’s mayor and police chief announced Wednesday. Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the changes are part of a policy overhaul designed at improving trust after the killing of George Floyd in May, in addition to previous incidents over the years. … (Frey) said the policy changes do not require approval by the officers’ union, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis.”
The New York Times reports: “The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday that it would open a federal civil rights investigation into Officer Rusten Sheskey, after he shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, multiple times as the man tried to enter his car, touching off several days of protests in Kenosha, Wis. The F.B.I. will conduct the federal inquiry in cooperation with the Wisconsin authorities, the department said in a statement, after the officer opened fire on Mr. Blake on Sunday, leaving him partially paralyzed.”
Also in the Star Tribune, this from Michael Rand, “On Tuesday, only two days after the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wis., Lynx coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve was asked if she was conflicted about holding games in the Florida bubble while larger issues raged around the country. … A day later, teams across U.S. professional sports turned that sentiment into action. The Lynx were among them, with their game against the Los Angeles Sparks postponed as part of a wave started when the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks went on strike and decided not to take the floor for their playoff game against the Orlando Magic.”
In the Pioneer Press, Dane Mizutani writes: While the rest of the collective sports world shut down on Wednesday night as various teams protested the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the NHL pressed on with its regular slate of playoff games. … The contrast of responses was enough to make Wild defenseman Matt Dumba speak up. He vented for about 10 minutes on Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver and condemned the NHL for not doing more. ‘We are always last to the party on these topics,’ Dumba said. ‘It’s kind of sad and disheartening for me and for members of the (Hockey Diversity Alliance), and I’m sure for other guys across the league. …You’re just outside looking in on actually being leaders and evoking real change when there’s such an opportunity to do so.’”
The AP reports: “Repeated calls for armed vigilantes to travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to protect businesses following the police shooting of Jacob Blake spread across social media in the hours before two people were shot to death and a third was wounded during a third night of unrest in the city. Multiple threads on Facebook and Reddit urged militias and other armed people to head to the protests, researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Lab said in a blog post Wednesday. The demonstrations broke out after Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was left paralyzed Sunday when he was shot from behind by officers answering a domestic dispute call.”
An editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says, “Wisconsin must face up to the chronic problem of over-aggressive policing of people of color. We support a package of bills that aim to reduce police brutality. Gov. Tony Evers is asking the Legislature to consider them in a special session next week. Among other things, the measures would ban police chokeholds and no-knock search warrants and make it harder for officers with troubled pasts to move from one job to another. We also support a proposal by state Sen. Van Wanggaard, a Republican and former police officer, to allow officials to analyze police-involved deaths the same way the National Transportation Safety Board investigates plane crashes.”
Also from the AP: “A former Minnesota college student pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge that she tried to help al-Qaida. Tnuza Jamal Hassan, 22, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty in U.S District Court to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Charges of lying to the FBI and arson will be dismissed when Hassan is sentenced in December. When Hassan was stopped from flying to Afghanistan in September 2017, prosecutors said she told FBI agents that she wanted to join al-Qaida and marry a fighter, and that she might even wear a suicide belt.”
For The New York Times, Katharine Wu says, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus. Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious. Models suggest that about half of transmission events can be traced back to individuals still in this so-called pre-symptomatic stage, before they start to feel ill — if they ever feel sick at all.”
At MPR, Dan Gunderson says, “In May, Andy Leonard was a bit gloomy about the prospects for East Silent Lake Resort, his family-run business in Otter Tail County. Cancellations were coming in every day — and with a growing pandemic, he expected to lose up to half his business this summer. But now it’s August. And while the pandemic — and the uncertainty it carried with it — continues, the summer has markedly exceeded Leonard’s low expectations.… ‘From a reservation standpoint, we were probably down about 30 percent.’”
Another day detailing the ongoing collapse of the nation, from BS WI “policing”, to resulting riots, to calls for rightwing Trumpist militia nuts to show up with their high-powered weaponry, which (surprise, surprise!) results in multiple first degree murders of protesters. Under 18 and heavily armed? Even better! Then, another state over, let’s have some BS riots over a (totally false) rumor to boot. Covid pandemic? Economic depression? Bring it on! Whatever, dude!
Which doesn’t even mention the fact that a moderate tropical storm was able to reach Category 4 status in record time as it passed over the now routinely super-heated late summer Gulf waters. Well, you lives on the Gulf in the new man-made climate and you takes your chances! Ditto for the apocalyptic wildfire scene(s) across California, which is now our American Australia, becoming equally uninhabitable as a result of global warming.
But 4 More Years! 4 More Years! Can’t take all the winning!
Why does Walz continue to say that the right to protest must be protected? The last three months proves that people need protection FROM protesters.
By his comments, and that of Frey & Carter, only tell the sociopaths, that they have their backs and are free to Burn, Loot, and Murder.
Well, perhaps because it is an actual constitutional right, unlike the rightwing-manufactured personal “right” to own firearms.
And as for your concerns of “murder”, that’s mostly being done (on film!) by the nation’s police and the “Blue Lives Matter” militiamen, as in the Kenosha calamity…
Putting aside your disregard for the constitution, the protesters aren’t doing the looting. BLM was telling people the cops were not at fault. The only murdere that took place were by a right-wing cop wannabe.
Who knew that tolerating violent Marxist riots would encourage more violent Marxists in the future? At least Timmy didn’t sit on his hands for three nights before calling out the “19 year old cooks” this time.
Looting department stores and burning restaurants because a murderer commited suicide is a weird way to bring about a socialist utopia.
Everyone and anyone having access to firearms sure hasn’t brought about the objectivist one, either. But hey, I’m sure Ammon is out on bail, SOMEBODY has to lead the next insurrection, after all…
Thanks Facebook for spreading rumors and stirring up the worst of human emotions.
I hope to live long enough to see Zuckerberg and his presence gone forever from our civil society.
In the meantime, more provocation, more fear, more violence and lawlessness will be our plight.
It’s all profits for the spreaders of disinfomation.
Facebook is often a curse, but I also believe that this happened in large part because the city and police department have used up all of their benefit of the doubt. Too many lies and too much CYA. It is way too easy to believe that the police did just up and shoot, and were claiming suicide out of convenience- and that isn’t the fault of social media.
My understanding is that it was not much facebook in this case as word of mouth. Local activists did attempt (and at times were a help) in dispelling the rumor.
Data also shows that at least half of those booked were outside the city, which would match police reports that some drove in to partake in looting. This also matches up with what was seen in May when a number of people came from out of the city and state sometimes to loot; other times just to cause trouble for various reasons(many of those were white). That said, there were a good number from within the city and no doubt the quick response of the guard this time helped keep the destruction down. It seems like Frey and the council(who don’t seem to vocal the past few days) appear caught between not wanting to be the bad guy and have police/looter/rioters or those who are non complaint with the curfew to be seen in conflict vs protecting people and property. Many of these are small businesses that cannot afford this. Frey reacted better this time around; but one has to wonder how much more Minneapolis can survive without more people/businesses opting out. And yes, Trump has offered little in terms of actual legislation/money to support cops or encouraged cities to make changes.
Its weird that you keep talking about Marxists, because the people who keep getting arrested for riot damage are mostly white supremacists and white men from outside the City. I expect it will be the same this time around.
All four of the people recently arrested for arson are Minnesotans, apparently you have drank the cool-aid of Walz, Carter & Frey who tried to claim the rioters were outsiders, the two guys that tried to blow up Dakota County Governemnt center? both Minnesotans
It is clear from arrest records that the rioters are Minnesotans. And the arrested are both black and white. The only thing they have in common is age.
Your comment leaves me with no alternative but to think that you don’t know what the term “Marxist” means.
FYI it is not a synonym for “yucky.”
Many, including myself, lament the loss of civility in our political discourse and debate. A big problem in partisan appeals is the increased use of what one might charitably call “hyperbole” but which is regarded by others as simply “lies.” Do people who buy into the Trump/GOP campaign message of “law and order” really believe that those who disapprove of and oppose Trump and the GOP are also against “law and order” and really in support of arson, looting and rioting? Do they really believe that protesters are no different from or better than looters, rioters or arsonists? Do they really think anyone who gives any reasonably careful thought to these claims is going to be persuaded that getting tough on protesters and restricting Constitutional rights of peaceful assembly or other liberties (not, of course, “Second Amendment rights”) is going to protect freedom and stop “Marxism” (or “Socialism”, which they think is the same thing)?
The demonstrations which have erupted since the death of George Floyd and now the shooting of Jacob Blake has been in response to the not unfounded belief in institutionalized racism in the police departments of this country. The demonstrations and the political issue which underlie them have nothing to do with economic ideology like Marxism or Socialism. In my mind, they are about the problem of slavery and its residual implications after the Civil War, the overthrow of Reconstruction in the 1890’s and the white supremacy that did that and continues to undermine efforts to undo the legacy of Jim Crow. These issues are not just a problem for African-Americans but a problem for white people too. Politicians who appeal to “law and order” while ignoring this serious problem of racial injustice and institutionalized racism are only using this slogan and device to divide voters and using their distress and fear about lawlessness to distract them from the underlying problem.
I get that GOP voters don’t like to be labeled racist. But when that party and its supporters embrace the same tactics and messages that white (and yes at the time almost entirely Democrats) people used to provoke murders and lynchings of African-Americans and attacks on their communities to establish literally “white political power” (e.g. Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898), it’s hard to avoid connecting the dots. The GOP has repudiated the very principles it was founded on in the 1850’s. It’s time needs to end with this election.
Thanks for these measured words, Jon. But then one would have to deal with the actual history of America (like slavery and 1898 and Jim Crow) and not some fantastical Fox n’ Friends nonsense (like BLM & “Marxism!”)….there’s no fun in that for the American right!
Going completely unmentioned is that Trump is president, McConnell runs the senate and they both declared a House policing reform bill dead on arrival in the senate graveyard, with no ability to propose and pass a bill of their own to address the nationwide urban unrest and injustice. Then they blame Biden[!] and how bad things will be under Dems, of all insanity. What can one say?