Protests Accross the Country

For anyone who has been unplugged from the news this week, this post is for you.

Demonstrations began four days ago in Minneapolis, in protest of a Memorial Day murder committed by four police officers. Several bystanders captured the brutality on video from many vantage points. There can be no doubt what happened. George Floyd, an unarmed black man was laying in the street handcuffed, while three (now fired) policemen kneeled on his back, and a fourth stood guard.

For 8 minutes and 40 seconds, we see Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin grinding his knee into Floyd’s neck. For approximately six of those minutes, Floyd is begging to breathe. “I can’t breath.” Bystander’s shouts at Officer Chauvin to get off Floyd’s neck were met with a stare as he shifted his weight, still on Floyd’s neck. During the last two minutes of the video show, Floyd no longer moving. He was likely dead but was not pronounced dead until he arrived at the hospital.

Although the four officers were fired, no legal action was taken. Two days after Floyd’s death protests began, first in Minneapolis, where the murder occurred. Police responded to the peaceful protests by spraying the crowd with rubber bullets and bombing them with tear-gas. Some demonstrators were turned away from a Target store near the location of the protest when they tried to buy milk to pour on their eyes to neutralize the chemicals.

On the second night of protests, while there was an odd lack of police presence police. Looting of the Target store began, fires were set, and other retail establishments in the area were vandalized.

A video showed a man dressed high-quality riot gear, wearing a gas mask, and carrying an umbrella to shield himself from cameras as he systematically broke windows of an Auto Zone store. He was followed by demonstrators who asked him if he was a cop and he said “no man, I’m here because this isn’t right.”

The man has been identified by his ex-wife who recognized his voice first, then his gate, and even some of the gear he wore. He is Jacob Pederson, a St. Paul Police Officer. So my question is, why hasn’t it been widely reported that at least one member of the police force was behind the looting?

Many pictures show looters were white and they didn’t look like protesters.

At the end of that day, word came that Chauvin had been arrested and charged with the murder of George Floyd, third-degree murder.

Officials announced the results of the autopsy report by the city coroner. According to documents, the autopsy showed no evidence of strangulation or “traumatic asphyxia,” but it says the way Floyd was restrained by police, combined with an “underlying health problem,” he had, likely contributed to his death. The police report includes the phrase excited delirium. It’s a term used primarily with cases involving death by police using excessive force. Clearly, there will be attempts to clear Chauvin of charges.

We all saw the tape, but the police department tells us we didn’t see what we witnessed.

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On day three, The National Guard was mobilized for the first time in 150 years in Minneapolis.

A CNN reporter and his crew were arrested while reporting on live television.

Minneapolis, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cheyanne, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, DC, Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Houston, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Memphis, Milwaukee, NYC, LA, Las Vegas, Louisville, Phoenix, Portland, Richmond, Sacramento, San Jose, Seattle, and etc. held protests yesterday.

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In Brooklyn NY, a video shows violence breaking out. It appears men, not in uniform, instigated fights with people in the crowds. Those who responded were sprayed with mace, roughed up, and arrested. The instigators were not arrested— because they were cops.

The White House went on lockdown last night and today tRump didn’t appear for a scheduled press conference. He was on Twitter.

tRump, who calls Nazi’s “very fine people,” called protesters “vicious dogs” and “thugs,” and tweeted “when looting starts shooting starts,” of course blames “ANTIFA, a group of people posing as violent liberals, for the looting and violence.

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It appears tRump’s call for violence has delivered. White Supremacists destroyed cities where black people will be blamed.

White people are among the crowds who are legitimately protesting, but there is also outside interference that is escalating the demonstrations and attempting to further divide us. This is a common tactic used in Russia, where tRump gets his orders. The goal is to arrest protesters. Demonstrations aren’t over. The good people in this country have tolerated a divisive criminal administration for three years. I hope we survive his tenure.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Barr chose this moment in time to release summaries of Michael Flynn’s phone conversations with a former Russian ambassador, material redacted from Robert Mueller’s report, including some pertaining to Don McGahn. Barr is a master at timing the release of damning evidence when the country is distracted.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-excited-delirium-and-how-should-police-react/

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/11/politics/michael-flynn-justice-department-william-barr/index.html

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/29/politics/justice-department-fbi-memos/index.html