Saturday, May 30, 2020

“New and Very Dangerous”: The Extreme Right-Wing Infiltration of the George Floyd Protests


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My friend Phil recently shared on Facebook an informative, albeit disturbing, analysis of certain aspects of the ongoing property-destroying violence here in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The genesis of the unrest undergirding these acts of violence was the May 25 murder of George Floyd, an African American man, by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, who has since been fired and charged with third degree murder.

Writes Phil:

It’s time to stop using the word “protesters” when assigning blame to the arson and attacks on black businesses and post offices and homes being committed overnight. It is now being widely reported by demonstrators, reporters, as well as state authorities that white supremacists, white Second Amendment extremists, white anti-government extremists and other outside groups are infiltrating the demonstrations. They are white men wearing masks. They’re arriving in pickups with out of state plates, some with white power symbols. They are wearing tactical vests and boots. They are starting fires efficiently and ranging widely. When asked “why” they give ambiguous answers, like, “to take a stand,” without indicating what stand they’re taking, for what, or for whom. They use code phrases developed online, such as “86ing” a place when they mean to burn it down. They target black businesses, homes in predominantly black residential neighborhoods, and other targets with symbolic meaning to their extremist causes, like post offices. Activity on their online channels indicates these are premeditated, organized, coordinated attacks.

They’ve been arriving for days. We’ve all seen the first attack on property back on Tuesday was a white masked man in black with a black umbrella who systematically smashed Autozone windows. When confronted by black protesters, he gave vague answers before leaving the scene. [7/28/20 Update: Police confirm that “Umbrella Man” was a white supremacist intent on inciting a riot.]

All of this fits [when one recognizes that the] only collection of groups [that have] been openly advocating, arming, training, and agitating for violent conflict both with government and non-white Americans [is] rightwing extremists. Those who are fighting police brutality and anti-black violence and oppression have different behaviors and targets [than these rightwing extremists]. They fall into three rough groups: 1) the law-abiding nonviolent, 2) the nonviolent willing to break minor laws and commit incidental minor property damage in order to take control over their own streets and disrupt 'business as usual,', and 3) those willing to commit significant targeted property damage against institutions that are responsible for their political and economic oppression: police stations, redlining banks, etc. All three 'groups' (because much of this is spontaneous self-organization of people based on their personal approach, gravitating to other like-minded people, rather than conventional formal organizations) show pronounced conscientious toward – and take affirmative steps to protect – small businesses, local businesses, black- and POC- and woman-owned businesses, folks’ homes, etc. In this mix are criminal opportunists of various kinds, races, genders, 'philosophies.' They don’t set fires. They grab and go.

So we must NOT ascribe all the overnight violence and damage to the “protesters.” The conflict has reached a totally new and very dangerous stage. It is complex, fluid.

The operating assumption – for our safety, for the pursuit of justice for those living in fear and suffering the destruction of their livelihoods – is that attacks on black and small businesses, on residential neighborhoods, on government buildings not part of the criminal justice system, on sources of food, medicine, and water for black and poor residents and civilians, and even on law enforcement themselves in order to provoke reaction, are being carried out, not by protesters, but by the white groups who have been openly advocating, organizing and training for civil war.


________________________


Others have also been sharing via social media their thoughts and observations on the issues and events discussed above by Phil.

Following are some examples.





Last night, right-wing extremists escalated their campaign to create chaos in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

They used arson as a primary tactic. It was an escalation from their work to encourage looting on Wednesday night.

They are using the widespread (and justifiable) demonstrations of grief about George Floyd as a vehicle to advance their political objectives.

They have launched an organized effort to manipulate public perception, deconstruct public infrastructure, and create mistrust and fear.

They will likely return tonight.

What’s going on?

Certain right-wing extremists have a revolutionary orientation. They want to advance their objectives by sparking civil conflict. Their theory is that, if properly polarized (often by race), others will rise up to join them. They see themselves as leading a vanguard effort.

There’s a strain of this kind of thinking that runs through touchstone reactionary documents, like The Turner Diaries, and touchstone terrorist efforts, like the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The latest update is an internet-irony-infused version (of course) that identifies as the Boogaloo movement. You can read more about them here and here.

You can read about their work to manipulate demonstrations about George Floyd here.

Suffice to say, there is growing evidence that some kind of organized effort is afoot in Minneapolis/St. Paul. It appears to have at least three operational forms.

First, they blend into protests, encourage lawlessness, relocate, and repeat. Again and again, those transgressing certain social taboos, like smashing windows, have been white men, masked and sometimes conspicuously geared up. It’s a tactic designed to manipulate public perception. By encouraging lawlessness, they can shift the public narrative about the demonstration and produce polarizing (and memorable visuals) like looting.

Second, they attack public infrastructure, both physical and social. Friday night saw the burning of a post office, a first. Previous nights included attacks on banks, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. It can be easy to miss this if you just see it all as looting. The story isn’t ‘people want stuff.’ The story is: someone is trying to deconstruct the systems that support communities in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. This attack on infrastructure plays out in a second way, and vividly so on Friday night. They were using geographically widespread acts of arson to force the Minneapolis Fire Department to play Whack-A-Mole. Friday night’s arsons, particularly those on the Northside, were taking place miles away from demonstrations on the Southside, sometimes focused on beloved institutions. This tactic is designed to create chaos, weaken the community bonds, and discredit political leaders.

Third, there are active disinformation efforts happening online. If you dig through your recent followers or the replies in journalist’s tweets you can pretty easily find bogus accounts (i.e. those with 1000s of tweets but fewer than 100 followers, accounts created in May 2020 with no personally identifiable information). These accounts are posting polarizing content, sometimes right-leaning, sometimes left-leaning, often fear-inducing. This tactic is designed to create mistrust and fear.

Look, this stuff is alarming. I guess I am sounding an alarm here; but let me put this in some context. There may not be many of these folks. . . . They are not an insurmountable number. Why are they not insurmountable? Because they only win if we overreact. They win by making us afraid and by getting us to do their dirty work.

– ISAIAH
Excerpted from “This Is What We're Dealing With
May 30, 2020



I have to say this. I am convinced Minneapolis has been infiltrated.

For people outside of Minneapolis looking in and wondering what in the world is happening at night and why people are burning down their own communities... wondering why anyone would do that. . . . It's because it's not, for the most part, the people of Minneapolis. It's not the peaceful protesters.

Why would people burn down their own libraries? Affordable housing? Shelters? Nonprofits? Locally owned businesses, many of them owned by people of color? Because the majority of people who are doing this, do not live there.

I have been hearing my friends and protesters in Minneapolis and organizers and leaders of color saying this is not them. Now we are getting reports, seeing videos, more and more evidence that white supremacists and even the freaking [Mexican] cartel are sending people here.

I don’t know what else to say at this moment except the people of Minneapolis are good and loving.

Hurt and in pain and demanding justice and change? Absolutely. But amazing, caring and compassionate people who are proud of their neighborhoods and what they have built. Go in the day light and you see thousands of people coming out of their homes, helping to clean up, and getting supplies to their neighbors.

– Jenna Carter
Minneapolis City Councilmember





I hope my friends outside the city know that the arson and targeted infrastructure destruction was a coordinated attack from outsiders - violent anarchists, anti-government cults, white supremacists, using the protests for their own terrorist activities. We saw the targeting on Thursday, throughout the city, of pharmacies and food stores. And, oddly, auto parts stores. From my own porch I’ve seen two days of souped up cars and trucks speeding noisily around, out of state plates when I can discern them.

There is at this point no place to purchase food or pharmaceuticals for many miles in all directions, at a time when there is no public transit. Most streetfront businesses in my immediate neighborhood are burned to the ground or otherwise destroyed, it being a targeted minority neighborhood.

So please stop lumping the outside agitators with “the protesters.”

– Steven J Levine
Minneapolis resident



I've been writing about what I am seeing in Saint Paul and Minneapolis. I'm responding largely to a frustration I have as someone who spent years marching in the streets, encouraging a “diversity of tactics,” and otherwise trying to figure out how to create a more just society.

What I have been seeing, especially in Saint Paul, is not that decades-long debate. I've seen loosely organized gangs leading attacks on businesses. I don't know what happened in Minneapolis last night, but I think there is a much higher degree of outside provocation and people blending into the crowd than we have seen in these actions before.

There is a lot happening here and much of it will not be unwrapped. I think people assume it is the rage of the oppressed that is tearing down the metro – and I think that it is correctly attributed to all of the marches but only some of the destruction.

I think much more is the work of outside agitators (sometimes working at cross purposes with different motivations). No one controls where massive civil unrest goes, anyone that thinks they can is a fool.

It is one thing for people to rage that their communities and government have utterly failed them. It is another thing for outsiders to come in, loot and burn a city to the ground, and go back to their homes to brag about it on the Internet.

– Christopher Mitchell
Saint Paul resident





This may be nothing less than right-wingers attacking one of the most progressive cities in the country. And [when I say progressive] I'm talking about the people who live in the city, not their police force who killed George. Forget about the police, this city has been built by working-class people, and the people that live here are very progressive. There are all kinds of bad politicians and police and other people who give us a bad name and ruin things for us, but this city is one of the most progressive in the country, and I would not doubt for a second that right-wingers have targeted it intentionally to destroy it. We have to stop that, but we have to do it peacefully. If enough people oppose some violent right-wing white guy from the suburbs or wherever we can stop them, and we can do it without violence

– Christopher Loch
Minneapolis resident



There are outsiders who are coming and causing much of the non-rubber bullet/tear gas harm, starting fires in volatile and vulnerable places, riling up already hurt and sad people to do the same. The energy is palpable when they are around. They are on a mission. They seem to be moving in small, guerrilla groups and there is some level of strategy behind this, a trying to break this place, this positive struggle we are in. Many of the random, out of the central corridor vandalism/violence seems to be happening right off highway exits. To me, there seem to be some people who are circling the cities, dipping in and out of communities to scare people who normally don’t feel like this is their issue.

Here’s the punchline: We are still here. We are all under slept and distressed. However, the community is taking care of each other. There are food drives, clean up crews, peaceful protest makers, and suppliers working to fulfill the needs. Healers and artists and activists are working to shift the energy, answer and hold the ageless sorrow, and help us refill our souls. We are getting people out of harms way, witnessing, opening our homes to the displaced, buying food out of pocket, doing safety checks all day and all night. Our bonds are tight, if imperfect, and we will spell each other and strategize and we will come through this. We belong to each other.

– Miré
Minneapolis resident





I have been reading – and now our elected officials are acknowledging – that there are a frightening assortment – growing (perhaps exponentially) by the day – of others “lurking” as “allies” among the grieving and raging masses, whose actions are NOT rooted in the dignity denied to or the life taken from George Floyd or the black community as a whole. Rather, they are rooted in the desire to seize this moment and twist it to purposes that are unholy. Among the protesters and looters (and both of these have a “right” to be there – and that is a hard truth for us to hear!), there are now also anarchists, white supremacists, anti-government actors, guns-rights fanatics, and accelerationists – none of whom give a damn about the black community, not its pain, its dignity, or its dreams. They are only interested in riding this holy wave of rage (for which we white people bear fundamental responsibility) into an unholy direction.

Anarchists see it an opportunity to disrupt society, but they have no common cause with the black community beyond that momentary coalescing of interests. White supremacists see it as an opportunity to insert themselves into a confrontation where they might be able to escalate things even worse into an all-out race war. They will feign being allies just long enough to set up conditions to for catastrophic reactions. Similarly, anti-government actors and guns rights fanatics (groups that overlap with but are not identical to white supremacists), are actually willing to stand with black people in opposing police/state-sponsored violence, because their goal is not race war but a war with the state itself. Yet they have zero interest in racial justice or any Beloved Community. They will betray black people the moment they’re no longer useful to their sense of war with the government. And accelerationists (who overlap with these other groups – sorry, but these are blurry, messy categories) are persons determined to wreak whatever havoc they can (and this is a moment pregnant with opportunity to do just that) in order to “accelerate” the fraying of society toward a future state that will NOT be friendly to black people.

Listen, there is real evidence that representatives of all of these groups are embedding themselves opportunistically within the masses gathered in response to George Floyd’s murder! They are coming from across the country to seize this moment of holy rage and spin it out of control. I suspect that is why the MN Department of Public Safety (who acknowledged their awareness of such groups within the protests) initially stationed the National Guard at the Fed and the capitol and power stations – because these things may well be the targets of some of these other groups when they’re ready to act. And it’s why they acknowledged (at the 1:30 a.m. briefing) that they have heard of persons coming to these protests with the goal of killing a national guardsman.

This is some genuinely unholy rage just waiting for the chance to creep out. And the Hennepin County Attorney’s game of slow deliberate investigation (even when carried out at “breakneck speed” as we wants us to believe) completely underestimates the peril of this moment. His inaction fuels the holy rage – and widens the window for unholy rage to build explosively.

And it seems clear after Friday night that both the mayor and the governor grievously underestimated the holy rage. Willing to offer words of authentic empathy, they nonetheless imagined themselves caught in the limits of what is realistically possible in the short term regarding politics or policy (to dismantle the racism endemic to the Minneapolis Police Department and elsewhere). And – as a result of that – they unintentionally exposed our community to a far greater risk of destruction. Can we get back from this edge? I don’t know. But the alternative is civic catastrophe.

And the protesters – at time (legitimately!) triumphant at the power they have touched in this moment – seem also oblivious to the threat posed to all of us (themselves included!) by persons/groups hiding within their numbers . . . who might be working to “guide” legitimate rage into actions that are intended for ends quite different than the protesters have in their heart and mind.

This IS a moment pregnant – painful, bloody, and labored – with possibility. And we dare not erase the holiness of the rage within the black community. It has sparked a HOLY riot tilting (HOPEFULLY!) toward social revolution and transformation, which would be good for all of us.




Most of the arrested rioters are not from here. They are looting and starting fires all over the Twin Cities. There are plans to release information on the ties of these rioters later today.

I live in a part of the city where there haven't been any protests. However, the epicenter of our community - our businesses, grocery stores, and community centers – have been destroyed. And it wasn't done as part of the protest. It wasn't done by our community. This was done to us.

Currently, our community is cleaning up after the rioters and looters who are trying to destroy our community. Our community is standing in front of stores, keeping looters at bay. Our community is filming and reporting those who are starting fires. Our community is organizing to bring essential supplies (food, masks, toiletries) into these areas. Our community is checking-in on people who don't have the means and luxury of driving to get what they need from areas that aren't being destroyed. Our community is working together. Our community is protesting the actions behind the horrific murder of George Floyd. Our community is banding together to support his grieving family.

– Anonymous





There is a phenomenon of white people, often racists, hijacking protests devoted to uplifting and seeking justice for Black lives. We must highlight and root out this betrayal of protest.

However, there are often incidents where property has been destroyed that did not involve white individuals from out of town. I witnessed this in Baltimore during the Uprising here. This was done out of rage, frustration, and suppressed terror that has been ignored for centuries.

Looting by white people attempting to hijack protests must definitely be addressed. But we can't allow this to distract us from WHY others have chosen to destroy property. Doing so only shifts the legitimacy of a protest, at least in the eyes of the media, and changes the narrative of assembling for justice to condemning protesters for engaging in violence, or giving white supremacists airtime. The media never gets deep enough to address WHY many have no qualms with destroying property.

We need to embrace the nuance here. Yes, white looters hijacking protesters and engaging in property destruction to detract from the message of collective action should be called out. But we also need to elevate, listen to, and acknowledge the perspectives of those who are not white who feel compelled to express their rage by destroying property and conglomerates of capital that are more highly valued than human life.

– Phillip Clark
via Facebook
May 30, 2020


NEXT: Mayor Melvin Carter:
“The Anger Is Real, and I Share It With You”


Related Off-site Links:
Outsiders and Extremists Are Among Those Fomenting Violence in Twin Cities – Jon Collins and Elizabeth Shockman (MPR News, May 30, 2020).
Far-Right Infiltrators and Agitators in George Floyd Protests: Indicators of White Supremacists – Mia Bloom (Just Security, May 30, 2020).
Minnesota Officials Link Arrested Looters to White Supremacist Groups – Jon Parton (Courthouse News Service, May 30, 2020).
Far-right “Boogaloo” Militants Have Embedded Themselves in the George Floyd Protests in Minneapolis: “They Want Their Civil War” – Tess Owen (VICE, May 29, 2020).
Minnesota Attorney General Suggests Auto Zone Riot Starter Was “Provocateur” – Roman White (The Source, May 29, 2020).
Mayor Frey: The People Doing the Burning Are Not Minneapolis Residents – Declan Desmond (Bring Me the News, May 30, 2020).
Black Protesters Who Want to Demonstrate Peacefully Are Calling Out White People Who Instigate Violence – Clarissa-Jan Lim (BuzzFeed, May 30, 2020).
Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide – Matthew Dessem (Slate, May 31, 2020).
White Extremists Terrorize and Loot: 10 Videos of Destruction Black People Will Be Blamed ForBET (May 31, 2020).

UPDATES: “We Came to Riot”: Illinois Man Livestreamed Lighting Fires and Handing Out Explosives to Throw at Police Officers in Minneapolis, Charges Say – Andy Mannix (Star Tribune, June 1, 2020).
White Nationalist Group Posing as Antifa Called for Violence on Twitter – Ben Collins, Brandy Zadrozny and Emmanuelle Saliba (NBC News, June 1, 2020).
Report: Homeland Security Warned of ‘Anarchist and Militia Extremists’ Plan to Storm Minnesota Capitol and Burn It – Dave Orrick (Pioneer Press, June 1, 2020).
Donald Trump’s “Antifa” Hysteria Is Absurd. But It’s Also Very Dangerous – Chip Gibbons (Jacobin, June 2, 2020).
FBI “Has No Intelligence” Indicating Antifa Was Linked to Weekend Violence in the George Floyd Protests, Despite Trump and Republicans' Claims – Sonam Sheth (Business Insider, June 2, 2020).
White House Forced to Retract Claim Viral Videos Prove Antifa Is Plotting Violence – Robert Mackey (The Intercept, June 3, 2020).
Three Self-Proclaimed Members of the Far-Right “Boogaloo” Movement Were Arrested on Domestic Terrorism Charges for Trying to Spark Violence During Protests – Rosie Perper and Sonam Sheth (Business Insider, June 3, 2020).
Minneapolis Police Say “Umbrella Man” Was a White Supremacist Trying to Incite George Floyd Rioting – Libor Jany (Star Tribune, July 28, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
“I Can't Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
Something to Think About – May 28, 2020
Honoring George Floyd
Trevor Noah on the “Dominoes of Racial Injustice”
Rallying in Solidarity with Eric Garner and Other Victims of Police Brutality
In Minneapolis, Rallying in Solidarity with Black Lives in Baltimore
“Say Her Name” Solidarity Action
“We Are All One” – #Justice4Jamar and the 4th Precinct Occupation
Quote of the Day – March 31, 2016
“This Doesn't Happen to White People”
Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
Sweet Darkness
Photo of the Day, 5/3/2015: “Black Is Sacred”
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015 (Part II)
Something to Think About – March 25, 2016

Image 1: Michael J. Bayly.
Image 2: Rachel McLean.
Image 3: Photographer unknown.
Image 4: Photographer unknown.
Images 5-10: Michael J. Bayly.


Today I Will Be Still


No matter what my problem, the perfect solution exists within the Mind of God. My job is not to be burdened by the question, but rather to make myself available to the answer. My worrying only delays the answer, reflecting my lack of faith that there is one. Today I will be still, knowing every answer, every healing, and every solution is on its way.

The universe is self-correcting, and I am a child of the universe. Miracles [shifts in perception from fear to love] occur in response to every problem, yet it is my faith and compassion that bring them forth. May my mind be a conduit of love and faith, that my problems may be solved.

Dear God,

In You lies the answer to every question
and the solution to every problem.
I place my anxious mind
in Your care
And pray for the calm through which
I can receive Your answers.
And so it is.

Amen.



See also the related Wild Reed posts:
Cultivating Stillness
Inner Peace
The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
Be In My Mind, Beloved One
Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
You Are My Goal, Beloved One
A Sacred Pause
Aligning With the Living Light
Mystical Participation
Returning the Mind to God
I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
Being the Light
Adnan in Morning Light
It’s You
The Landscape Is a Mirror
Out and About – Spring 2020
Somalia Bound
Saaxiib Qurux Badan – July 15, 2019
Saaxiib Qurux Badan – July 14, 2019
Adnan . . . Amidst Mississippi Reflections and Forest Green
Adnan . . . with Sunset Reflections and Jet Trail
Saaxiib Qurux Badan – April 16, 2019
In This In-Between Time
Saaxiib Qurux Badan – March 29, 2019
Active Waiting: A Radical Attitude Toward Life

Image: Saaxiib Qurux Badan (“Beautiful Friend”), Minneapolis, MN – Michael J. Bayly (5/30/20).


Trevor Noah on the “Dominoes of Racial Injustice”

Last night The Daily Show's Trevor Noah shared some profound thoughts on recent events in the U.S., events that center on three people who have been part of incidences that Noah calls “dominos of racial injustice”: Amy Cooper, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd.

Noah insightfully illustrates how the injustice and violence inherent to these incidences puts a spotlight on how the “contract” between society and black Americans has been broken time and time again.





Related Off-site Links:
Trevor Noah: “Police In America Are Looting Black Bodies” – Lee Moran (The Huffington Post, May 30, 2020).
Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide – Matthew Dessem (Slate, May 31, 2020).
From George Floyd to Chris Cooper: Ibram X. Kendi on “Racist Terror” Facing Black People in AmericaDemocracy Now! (May 27, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
“I Can't Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
Something to Think About – May 28, 2020
Honoring George Floyd
Rallying in Solidarity with Eric Garner and Other Victims of Police Brutality
In Minneapolis, Rallying in Solidarity with Black Lives in Baltimore
“Say Her Name” Solidarity Action
“We Are All One” – #Justice4Jamar and the 4th Precinct Occupation
Quote of the Day – March 31, 2016
“This Doesn't Happen to White People”
Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
Sweet Darkness
Photo of the Day, 5/3/2015: “Black Is Sacred”
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015 (Part II)
Something to Think About – March 25, 2016


Thursday, May 28, 2020

Honoring George Floyd



This afternoon after work, I drove to the intersection of Chicago Ave. and 38th St. in south Minneapolis to pay my respects to George Floyd, the 46-year-old African-American man who was murdered by the police at that location on Monday night.

An employee at the Cup Foods grocery store on Chicago Ave. had called the police after Floyd allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. A bystander captured the terrible scene of Floyd's subsequent death on his smartphone. The clip, posted later on Facebook, shows Floyd already on the ground, in handcuffs, and groaning under the weight of a white police officer's knees on his back and neck. Off camera, three other police officers stood nearby. All three chose to simply look on as Floyd struggled to breathe.

"Please, man," Floyd says, "I can't breathe. . . . My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts. . . . They're gonna kill me, man."

As Floyd says and struggles less, a gathered crowd pleads for the police officer, later identified as Derek Chauvin, to remove his knee from Floyd's neck. He refuses to do so. About three minutes into the 10-minute video recording, Floyd stops moving altogether. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

For the last two nights there have been protests in Minneapolis in response to the killing of George Floyd. The four police officers involved have been fired and are being investigated, but no arrests have been made. Last night violence erupted around the Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct, not far from my home, after police fired rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas into a crowd of protesters. Later, some of those gathered set fire to several buildings and cars. In the ensuring chaos and destruction, one man was killed, innumerable windows were smashed, and looters descended upon a nearby Target store and Cub Foods store. Protests and incidences of looting have continued today across the Twin Cities.

In an effort to head-off further unrest this evening, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has called out the National Guard, which is expected to supply personnel and equipment needed to “support emergency operations and response,” according to Walz’s order. Some, however, fear that a military presence will further inflame the situation.


Paying my respects

As I left work earlier this afternoon, I considered visiting the site of last night's unrest and devastation but then decided to go instead to where George Floyd was killed. I wanted to somehow pay my respects; to bear witness to the terrible crime of his death.

As you can see from the pictures that accompany this post, many people were gathered at Chicago and 38h. Indeed, there has been a permanent presence of people since Monday night, and the intersection has been closed off by those who have continued to gather there.

Although people are justifiably sad and angry, there is also a very respectful and somber atmosphere that shrouds the intersection. Flowers and cards and other creative expressions of love and remembrance cover the spot outside the Cup Foods deli where Floyd was murdered, and a table of refreshments is set up nearby for those who visit and opt to stand in the sun so as to listen to the steady stream of speeches and testimonies by local community leaders.

My photos are accompanied by a powerful piece written by MN Rep. Aisha Gomez (DFL, 62B).







This is why we talk about police abolition.

There is no reform that can fix this system. No training or body camera or coaching or diversification effort or outside investigation or toothless oversight body that can fix this.

The rot in police departments is the rot in our political and social systems, crystallized and heavily armed. It is a reflection of our country, built on the enslavement of African people and the genocide and dispossession of Native people, reliant on exploited immigrant labor to enforce the racialized social order and help the powerful accumulate wealth.

The police exist to uphold this social order, with deadly force when necessary. Like they did on 38th and Chicago last night, with a knee on George Floyd’s neck as he said he couldn’t breathe and begged for his life.

The origins of policing in the US are in slave patrols that hunted liberated enslaved people and quelled uprisings. There is no reform that can fix that.

When we talk about abolition or divesting from the police it’s not an aggressive or dreamy or unrealistic stance.

It is a dispassionate acknowledgement that our current policing system does what it was designed to do, to protect private property, uphold white supremacy, and terrorize Black and Brown people. It does not serve the interests of the people and it does not make our communities safe.

We have to reimagine and reorganize how and for whom we build safety in communities.

The police state was not constructed overnight and won’t be replaced overnight. We have to start by divesting from police budgets and stripping away functions that we don’t need people with guns to do and investing in anti-poverty efforts, public health-informed safety interventions, and critical mental health and addiction resources. We have to question the way policing has always functioned.

Why isn’t there a number we can call to dispatch an unarmed crisis team to respond to mental health or substance abuse related crises?

If we want the City to pay for distributing bikes and helmets to kids is the police department the best way to get that done?

If we want representatives of the City to walk around commercial districts and be a presence on the street do we need them to be armed?

We can and must intentionally walk away from a system of state violence that murders and terrorizes Black and Brown men to uphold white supremacy and capitalism.

We can and must orient ourselves to a world beyond policing as it is currently designed, where we build real safety for all members of our community, or we will stay caught in the same cycle of state sanctioned murder of Black men in the streets, outrage, and failed reform, on and on, that we’ve been in for decades.

Love and tenderness and protection to Mr. Floyd’s people, the beloved Black community in our city, and everyone hurting today.

Aisha Gomez
May 26, 2020








NEXT: “New and Very Dangerous”:
The Extreme Right-Wing Infiltration
of the George Floyd Protests



Related Off-site Links:
Man Dies in Minneapolis Police Custody; 4 Cops Fired; Gov. Walz Wants Answers – Brandt Williams, Tim Nelson and Matt Sepic (MPR News, May 26, 2020).
“It’s Real Ugly”: Protesters Clash With Minneapolis Police After George Floyd’s Death – Jeff Wagner (WCCO-4, May 26, 2020).
Police in Riot Gear Fire Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas at Thousands of Protestors Demanding the Arrest of Four Minneapolis Cops Involved in the Death of Black Man George Floyd – Rachel Sharp and Karen Ruiz (Daily Mail, May 26, 2020).
Additional Video Shows George Floyd Was Not Resisting Arrest as Police Claimed – Biba Adams (The Grio, May 27, 2020).
Friends and Family Members Reeling Following George Floyd's Death – Christina Maxouris (WCCO-4 News, May 27, 2020).
George Floyd's Family Says Four Officers Involved in His Death Should Be Charged With Murder – Christina Maxouris (CNN, May 27, 2020).
Victim in Police Encounter Had Started New Life in Minnesota – Associated Press via MPR News (May 27, 2020).
“Why Is the Man Who Killed George Floyd Not in Jail?”: Minneapolis Mayor Calls for Charges Against Arresting OfficerKSTP News (May 27, 2020).
George Floyd's Death Shows the Power of Social Media as the US Continues to Grapple With Racial Tensions – Kathryn Diss (ABC News, May 28, 2020).
Protests Erupt in Minneapolis for 2nd Straight Night After Death of George Floyd – Anne Branigin (The Root, May 28, 2020).
Minneapolis Is Burning, But the Kindling Has Been There For So Long – Tom Lyden (Fox 9 News, May 28, 2020).

UPDATES: Fires and Destruction Continue as Tensions Reignite in MinneapolisFox 9 News (May 28, 2020).
Minneapolis Police Precinct Overrun in Night of Mayhem and FireMPR News (May 28, 2020).
“No Justice, No Peace”: Protesters Breach Minneapolis Police Precinct, Set Fires in the Wake of George Floyd's Death – Tyler J. Davis, Trevor Hughes, Grace Hauck and Jordan Culver (USA Today, May 28, 2020).
“Racist President”: Democrats Accuse Trump of Inciting Violence in Minneapolis – Rebecca Shabad (NBC News, May 29, 2020).
Ex-police Officer Derek Chauvin Charged With Murder and Manslaughter in George Floyd Death – Chao Xiong and Paul Walsh (Star Tribune, May 29, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
“I Can't Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
Something to Think About – May 28, 2020
Rallying in Solidarity with Eric Garner and Other Victims of Police Brutality
In Minneapolis, Rallying in Solidarity with Black Lives in Baltimore
“Say Her Name” Solidarity Action
“We Are All One” – #Justice4Jamar and the 4th Precinct Occupation
Quote of the Day – March 31, 2016
“This Doesn't Happen to White People”
Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
Sweet Darkness
Photo of the Day, 5/3/2015: “Black Is Sacred”
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015 (Part II)
Something to Think About – March 25, 2016

Photography: Michael J. Bayly. (Opening image is of a mural honoring George Floyd that's being created on the 38th St. side of Cup Foods. Three artists — Xena Goldman, Greta McLain, and Cadex Herrera — started the artwork around 7 a.m. this morning.)


Something to Think About . . .

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Which knee is the problem?

Source


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Progressive Perspectives on Colin Kaepernick and the “Take A Knee” Movement
“I Can't Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd

Related Off-site Link:
This Is Why Colin Kaepernick Took a Knee – Sally Jenkins (The Washington Post, May 30, 2020).


Tuesday, May 26, 2020

“I Can't Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd


The following was written and first published on Facebook by Isuru Herath in response to last night's killing by police of George Floyd (pictured above), a 46-year-old African-American man who worked as a security guard at Conga Latin Bistro.

Herath is a labor organizer and south Minneapolis resident who lives in Ward 9, where Floyd was killed.


I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around another state-sanctioned murder at the hands of the police. There's something about how the cops decided to murder George Floyd during a pandemic by slowly taking away his ability to breathe just as COVID-19 slowly takes away the patient's ability to breathe – taking away the strength of the black race to breathe.

This act of choking an innocent person to death is a long-used tool of the capitalist state. Whether lynching black people in the U.S or the global north slowly suffocating the indigenous people across the world to retain hegemonic control of lands and resources of the global south, it's a deliberate, calculated act to kill non-white people.

When people say, George Floyd was saying, “I can't breathe” for four minutes, it echos the voices of the oppressed peoples who have been shouting for centuries. Now, there are over 100,000 people, mostly black people that died in the last few months, likely thinking at the end, “I can't breathe,” because of the negligent decisions by our political leaders to place the interest of profit [before people].

I see no difference between the action the cop took to kill George and the act of slowly killing people for the capitalists. Just as the Walz-Flannagan administration decided to open the state during this pandemic, knowing that it would be black, native, and immigrant communities that will feel the onslaught of the disease, they were willing to choke communities of color for their political expediency.

In this case, one form of choking is more explicit, and the other is insidious.

Similarly, when the healthcare industry, backed by the state, decides to under-staff hospitals intentionally and erode the protections of the workers, it's because they believe that black and brown lives are not worth saving. When conditions have created to force Amazon workers, the meat packagers, the factory workers, Caribou workers, and all essential workers to work with complete disregard for their humanity, the workers are indirectly, but intentionally choked.

It's all related; it wasn't another simple act of “police brutality,” but an overall coordinated part of our society set forth by the state and the corporate elites. The act of choking is a tool of the capitalist society, and it's the tool that AmeriKKKa has been using for centuries to slowly take away the ability for the oppressed people to breathe.

Rest in power, George Floyd. I hope you have all the opportunity to breathe freely.

– Isuru Herath
via Facebook
May 26, 2020


NEXT: Honoring George Floyd


Related Off-site Links:
Man Dies in Minneapolis After Video Shows Police Officer Kneeling on His NeckStar Tribune (May 26, 2020).
Man Who Begged “Please, I Can't Breathe” Dies in Minneapolis Police Custody – Mike Mullen (City Pages, May 26, 2020).
Man Dies in Minneapolis Police Custody; 4 Cops Fired; Gov. Walz Wants Answers – Brandt Williams, Tim Nelson and Matt Sepic (MPR News, May 26, 2020).
“It’s Real Ugly”: Protesters Clash With Minneapolis Police After George Floyd’s Death – Jeff Wagner (WCCO-4, May 26, 2020).
Police in Riot Gear Fire Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas at Thousands of Protestors Demanding the Arrest of Four Minneapolis Cops Involved in the Death of Black Man George Floyd – Rachel Sharp and Karen Ruiz (Daily Mail, May 26, 2020).

UPDATES: Additional Video Shows George Floyd Was Not Resisting Arrest as Police Claimed – Biba Adams (The Grio, May 27, 2020).
Friends and Family Members Reeling Following George Floyd's Death – Christina Maxouris (WCCO-4 News, May 27, 2020).
George Floyd's Family Says Four Officers Involved in His Death Should Be Charged With Murder – Christina Maxouris (CNN, May 27, 2020).
Victim in Police Encounter Had Started New Life in Minnesota – Associated Press via MPR News (May 27, 2020).
“Why Is the Man Who Killed George Floyd Not in Jail?”: Minneapolis Mayor Calls for Charges Against Arresting OfficerKSTP News (May 27, 2020).
As Police Brutality Draws National Attention, Advocates and Journalists Push for Accountability in Shooting of Breonna Taylor – Anne Branigin (The Root, May 27, 2020).
From George Floyd to Chris Cooper: Ibram X. Kendi on “Racist Terror” Facing Black People in AmericaDemocracy Now! (May 27, 2020).
No One Put a Knee on His Neck: A Cop Tortured and Killed George Floyd on Camera — Yet It Took Four Days to Arrest Him – Leonard Greene (New York Daily News, May 29, 2020).
Policing in the US Is Not About Enforcing Law. It’s About Enforcing White Supremacy – Paul Butler (The Gaurdian, May 30, 2020).
Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide – Matthew Dessem (Slate, May 31, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Rallying in Solidarity with Eric Garner and Other Victims of Police Brutality
In Minneapolis, Rallying in Solidarity with Black Lives in Baltimore
“Say Her Name” Solidarity Action
“We Are All One” – #Justice4Jamar and the 4th Precinct Occupation
Quote of the Day – March 31, 2016
“This Doesn't Happen to White People”
Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
Sweet Darkness
Photo of the Day, 5/3/2015: “Black Is Sacred”
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015
“And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015 (Part II)
Something to Think About – March 25, 2016

Image 1: George Floyd. (Photographer unknown)
Image 2: George Floyd being choked to death by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin – Monday, May 25, 2020. The next afternoon it was announced that Chauvin and three other police officers had been fired for their role in Floyd's death. (Photo: Darnella Frazier)


Saturday, May 23, 2020

Spring Awakens!



We've recently had a lot of rain here in the Twin Cities, which has ensured an incredible burst of spring green and spring blooms!

It's a beautiful sight, and one that fills me with hope. For despite all the upheaval and uncertainty in the world at this time, life goes on. And we see this every day in the “circling of nature,” which, as Thomas Moore reminds us, may be the best way to “find our substance” and thus our place and purpose in the world.

Following are some of my photographs of spring's return to Minnesota. Enjoy!















See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Photo of the Day – May 2, 2020
When Spring Returns
The Landscape Is a Mirror
Spring: “Truly the Season for Joy and Hope”
Let the Greening Begin
New Spring Green
Green Destiny
Following the Footprints of Spring
Spring Blooms
“Jubilation is My Name”: Spring in Minnesota
Full Bloom
Spring Garden
In the Footsteps of Spring
Thomas Moore on the Circling of Nature as the Best Way to Find Our Substance

Opening image: Spring awakens! . . . Actually, it's dancer Chalvar Monteiro (of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) in the 2019 production, Ode, which the New York Times describes as a "daring and delicate work" about gun violence.
All other images: Michael J. Bayly (March-May 2020).