Thursday, May 28, 2020

JOE BIDEN'S PAL AMY KLOBUCHAR DECLINED TO PROSECUTE MURDERING COP - BUT LOVES TO SUCK OFF BRIBES FROM BANKSTERS

Klobuchar Previously Declined to Prosecute Officer Involved in George Floyd’s Death

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speaks to voters, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019, during a campaign stop at a home, in Nashua, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
AP Photo/Steven Senne
4:22

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), as a Minnesota county prosecutor in the early 2000s, refused to prosecute the police officer now at the center of the controversy surrounding the death of George Floyd.
Klobuchar, who served as the chief legal officer of Hennepin County, Minnesota, before ascending to the United States Senate, declined to charge Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for his role in the shooting death of Wayne Reyes in October 2006.
Reyes allegedly “stabbed his girlfriend and a male friend,” before fleeing in his vehicle and setting off a chase by law enforcement, according to a report on police brutality from the Minneapolis-based Communities United Against Police Brutality.
Chauvin, who at the time had been on the Minneapolis police force since 1999, was one of six officers involved in the pursuit. When Reyes was eventually stopped, Chauvin and the other officers claimed he aimed a shotgun towards them in a threatening manner. Reyes’s alleged burnishing of the weapon resulted in all six officers opening fire and killing him.
The incident, which was reported by The Guardian on Thursday, elicited widespread concern among Minneapolis residents at the time of Reyes’s death for what was seen as too strong a use of force. As such, Klobuchar, who was running for the U.S. Senate at the time of the shooting, was pressured by the local black community in Minneapolis to prosecute the officers involved.
In the weeks following the shooting, however, Klobuchar declined to act on the matter. Instead, having won her Senate race, she spent the remaining three months of her tenure between November 2006 and January 2007 planning for her transition to Washington, DC. The case eventually went to a grand jury in 2008, which opted not to charge the officers with any wrongdoing for their conduct.
Chauvin would continue to serve on the Minneapolis police force for the next decade and a half. It would not, though, be his last brush with controversy. In 2011, Chauvin would be placed on temporary leave after he and four other officers shot a Native American man, who was later charged with felony second-degree assault. Overall, Chauvin would face at least ten civilian complaints throughout his tenure with the force. Three of those, which arose because of his use of “derogatory language” and “demeaning tone” towards suspects, would result in oral reprimands.
His career officially came to an end earlier this week when he was fired for his involvement in Floyd’s death. The firing came after a video went viral showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck while attempting to arrest the man for alleged forgery. In the video, Floyd is heard pleading for help, claiming he cannot breathe, as Chauvin stands over him. Tou Thao, Chauvin’s partner who also has a record of police brutality complaints, is seen in the video refusing to intervene.
Since the video went viral, protests have arisen across Minnesota and other parts of the country from activists hoping to shine a light on what they see as the failures and inequities of the criminal justice system. Although most of the protests have been non-violent, several riots broke out in Minneapolis and neighboring Saint Paul on Wednesday and Thursday.
The attention drawn by both the protests and the riots has brought Klobuchar’s 2006 decision to not prosecute Chauvin back into the spotlight. Such scrutiny, however, comes at an inopportune moment for the senator, who leads the short-list to be former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate this November.
Even though Klobuchar was always going to face criticism for the law and order image she cultivated as a county prosecutor, the current situation in Minnesota disqualifies her in the eyes of many black Democrats and activists. The sentiment was perhaps best summed up by Sunny Hostin during an episode of ABC’s The View on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing that black people in Minneapolis are arrested at nine times the rate of a white person for nonviolent offenses,” Hostin said. She added “that this is why the black community has said that Amy Klobuchar is a nonstarter for them, because … she declined to prosecute over two dozen cases involving police killings of unarmed people.”


Minneapolis Mayor: Technique Used in Floyd Arrest ‘Not Authorized’ – Arresting Officer Needs to Be Charged

1:18
During a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said there isn’t a good answer for why the arresting officer in the death of George Floyd is not behind bars and called for the arresting officer to be charged. He also stated that the technique that was used on Floyd during his arrest isn’t allowed by the Minneapolis police and its officers are not trained to use it.
Frey stated, “Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? If you had done it, or I had done it. We would be behind bars right now. And I cannot come up with a good answer to that question. And so, I’m calling on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to act on the evidence before him. I’m calling on him to charge the arresting officer in this case.”
Frey later added, “We watched, for five whole, excruciating minutes, as a white officer firmly pressed his knee into the neck of an unarmed, handcuffed black man. … By the way, there — that particular technique that was used is not authorized by the MPD. It is not something that officers are trained in — on. And it should not be used, period.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
The murder of George Floyd and the fight against police violence in the US

28 May 2020
The  condemns the Memorial Day murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota and demands the prosecution of the police officers who are responsible for his death.
The killing of George Floyd is a horrific crime. Floyd, who was African American, died Monday after being pinned to the ground by four police officers in front of a crowd that was pleading that he be let go. Much of the crime was caught on bystander video and surveillance cameras.
One video shows officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, forcefully pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes as the 46-year-old pleaded for his life, crying out “I can’t breathe” and “You are going to kill me!”
George Floyd (Photo: Offices of Ben Crump Law)
Floyd was detained after a call from a local shop that he had attempted to use a forged ten-dollar bill. The store owner later told media that he did not know if Floyd even knew if it was forged. Police rushed to the scene, seized Floyd, pulled him from his vehicle, handcuffed him, and then held him in a chokehold until his body went limp.
The three other officers who helped restrain Floyd have been identified as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng.
While the official police report stated that Floyd resisted arrest, surveillance video released Wednesday by a local restaurant owner makes clear that he did not struggle at any point as he was taken out of his car and handcuffed by police.
Despite his death being a clear murder in broad daylight without any justification, as of Wednesday evening Chauvin, Lane, Thao and Kueng remain free men. They were suspended without pay by the police department and then fired by Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey in response to popular anger Tuesday.
The killing and refusal to arrest Floyd’s killers has generated anger among workers of all races who have taken part in two days of demonstrations.
Thousands of workers and youth, both white and black, turned out Tuesday to protest at the intersection where Floyd was killed and at a nearby police station. Police unloaded round after round of tear gas and non-lethal rounds to disperse the angry demonstration. Further demonstrations were organized last night in Minneapolis and other cities throughout the US.
The murder of George Floyd is the latest in an unending string of deaths at the hands of US police. So far this year, according to killedbypolice.net, there have been 400 police killings. The number killed every year is more than 1,000.
It has been nearly six years since Michael Brown was shot to death in Ferguson, Missouri (August 9, 2014) and Eric Garner was strangled to death in New York City (July 17, 2014), sparking mass demonstrations against police violence. Some 6,000 people have been killed by police in the intervening period.
No doubt racism plays a role in incidents of police violence. While the greatest number of police killings is of whites, African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately targeted for harassment, abuse, arrest and incarceration. The Trump administration has deliberately cultivated the most backward and reactionary layers, including among police officers. Trump has proclaimed that he likes watching footage of “rough” treatment of “thugs,” and has urged police not to be “too nice.”
The source of police violence, however, is not racial antagonism, but class oppression. The unifying characteristic among victims of police violence—black, white, Hispanic or Native American—is that they are poor and among the most vulnerable segments of the population.
The role of Black Lives Matter and other proponents of racial politics, in claiming that racism is the cause of police violence, is to promote the idea that hiring more black police officers or electing more black politicians will resolve the problem. Inevitably, this means channeling opposition behind the Democratic Party, one of the twin parties of Wall Street and the military. And the epidemic of police violence continues unabated.
This reign of terror raged under the watch of Democratic President Barack Obama and continues under the fascistic Republican Donald Trump. Regardless of whether a state has a Democratic or Republican governor, if the mayor or police chief is black, white, male, female, straight or gay, police killings continue unabated.
It is three years since a Somali-American Minneapolis police officer shot and killed Justine Damond, a white woman, in her back alley and four years since a Hispanic police officer in a nearby suburb killed Philando Castille, an African American man, during a traffic stop which was broadcast live on Facebook.
After a particularly brutal act of police violence is publicly exposed—inevitably because it chanced to be caught on film—the politicians, Democrat and Republican, engaged in handwringing and promises of an investigation. Almost always, these investigations fail to lead to prosecutions and convictions.
State power, Lenin noted in his The State and Revolution is composed of “special bodies of armed men having prisons, etc. at their command.” Citing Friedrich Engels, Lenin noted that the state is fundamentally “a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms,” and that the power and violence of the state “grows stronger… in proportion as class antagonisms within the state become more acute.”
With the coronavirus pandemic, these class antagonisms are entering a new stage. The corporate and financial oligarchy, after doing nothing to protect the population, has used the pandemic to transfer trillions of dollars to itself, unanimously endorsed by the Democratic and Republican politicians.
This has been followed by a campaign to “reopen the economy” and force workers to endanger their lives to pay off Wall Street. At the same time, the ruling elite plans on using mass unemployment and the bankrupting of the state to increase exploitation, slash social programs and impoverish the population.
The conflict between the financial aristocracy and the working class is the fundamental source of the brutality and violence of the state. The same conflict creates the objective foundation for a political movement that can put an end to this brutality: the independent and united movement of the entire working class, to take political power into its own hands and put an end to the capitalist profit system.











Video: Fires Rage Across Minneapolis Overnight in George Floyd Protests

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man hoses down the side of a house across the street from a large fire consuming a construction site on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A number of businesses and homes were damaged as the area has become the site of an ongoing …
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
1:56

Multiple buildings in Minneapolis burned through the night Wednesday as protesters turned to riots over the death of George Floyd, who died Monday after a police officer was seen on video putting his knee on his neck, according to reports.
Protesters set fire to businesses, including an Autozone and Cub Foods, while an apartment complex under construction was also reportedly damaged by flames.
In addition to several buildings being lit on fire, stores like Target store on Lake Street were ransacked by dozens of apparent looters who stole televisions and groceries, according to videos shared to social media by Fox 9 reporter Karen Scullin.
Other reported looters were seen at Dollar Tree, a liquor store, and a tobacco store, reported ABC 5.
The protests came as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for the arrest of the police officer seen in a video kneeling on Floyd’s neck before his death. 
The mayor urged Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to file charges against the officer, whom the city identified as Derek Chauvin. In a video taken by a witness, Chauvin can be seen kneeling and putting his weight on the neck of George Floyd, who struggled and said he could not breathe.
The Minneapolis Police Department fired Chauvin and three other officers involved in the arrest — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao.
“Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?” Frey asked during a news conference Wednesday. “If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now and I cannot come up with an answer to that question.”
The mayor said his call for charges against Chauvin is based on the footage from the scene.
The UPI contributed to this report. 











Video: Reported Looters Ransack Target Store Amid Minneapolis Protests



Looters
Twitter/@kscullinfox9
1:55
Dozens of apparent looters stole televisions and groceries from the Target store near Minneapolis Police’s 3rd Precinct building as protests continued Wednesday over the death of George Floyd, according to local reports. 
Fox 9 reporter Karen Scullin shared several videos showing purported looting occurring at the Target store on Lake Street after a tense standoff with police boiled over.














A Target spokesperson said in a statement: “We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing our community. We decided to close our Lake Street store earlier today and worked to ensure all of our team members were accounted for and safe. Our focus will remain on our team members’ safety and helping our community heal. Until further notice, our store will remain closed.”
Other looters were spotted at Dollar Tree, a liquor store, and a tobacco store, according to ABC 5.
Earlier Wednesday, Police officers deployed tear gas and sponge bullets after the 3rd Precinct building’s windows were shattered by projectiles from protesters.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday called for the arrest of the police officer seen in a video kneeling on the neck of  Floyd, who later died.
The mayor urged Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to file charges against the officer, whom the city identified as Derek Chauvin. In a video taken by a witness, Chauvin can be seen kneeling and putting pressure on the neck of Floyd, who struggled and said he couldn’t breathe.
Police called an ambulance for Floyd after he became unconscious. He later died at the hospital.
The Minneapolis Police Department fired Chauvin and three other officers involved in the arrest — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao.
The UPI contributed to this report. 


Thousands continue to protest in Minneapolis over the brutal police murder of George Floyd

By Anthony Bertolt
28 May 2020
Protests continued for a second day in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the neighborhood where 46-year-old George Floyd was choked to death by police officers on Monday. Thousands of people gathered at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue Wednesday and blocked traffic, demanding justice for Floyd and the arrest of the cops responsible for his murder.
Protests began in the morning Wednesday, with hundreds of demonstrators occupying the block where the brutal killing of Floyd took place and continuing throughout the day and into the night. For the second day in a row police responded with volleys of tear gas, rubber bullets and sandbags as demonstrators who had moved up Chicago Avenue to surround the Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct headquarters.
Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz tweeted late Wednesday night that the protests had “evolved into an extremely dangerous situation” and called for everyone to leave the area. An Auto Zone automotive store across the street from the 3rd precinct had been set on fire during the chaos of the police crackdown.
Police watch from the roof as people protest the arrest and death of George Floyd (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Floyd was confronted Monday evening by the police who were responding to a “forgery in progress” after the owners of a local restaurant called to report that he had tried to pass what they believed was a counterfeit bill.
A video from one of the onlookers’ cell phones shows that Floyd complained that he could not breathe as officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck. Another officer, Tou Thao, helped keep the crowd at bay as the two others helped Chauvin pin Floyd on the ground.
As a result of the video going viral online and sparking national outrage all four of the officers involved in the killing were fired Tuesday by Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey. However, as of Wednesday no arrests had been made.
Private security footage published by the Washington Post Wednesday captured some of the events leading to the police killing of George Floyd. The video was provided by Rashad West, the owner of a restaurant near the 38th Street and Chicago Avenue intersection.
The footage refutes the narrative spun by Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder that Floyd “physically resisted officers” after stepping out of his car. After being handcuffed, Floyd can be seen cooperating with the police, sat up against the wall of the building where the camera is recording, before he is dragged in front of the restaurant where Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin then murdered him by kneeling on his neck for almost 10 minutes.
The two other officers involved in the killing, along with Chauvin and Thao, have been identified as Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng.
While Lane and Kueng were relatively new to the police force, starting in 2019 and 2017 respectively, both Chauvin and Thao were veterans with rap sheets. Chauvin, a 19-year-veteran of the Minneapolis police force, was involved with five other officers in the 2006 police killing of 42-year-old Wayne Reyes and in 2008 shot and wounded Ira Latrell Toles during a domestic assault call. Thao was sued in 2017 for the use of excessive force after he stopped and searched a man without cause, cuffed him and then threw him to ground and beat him up.
Mayor Frey responded to the protests Tuesday by calling for the arrest of Chauvin but not his accomplices. "I've wrestled with, more than anything else over the last 36 hours, one fundamental question: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail," Frey said. He continued, “I’m calling on Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman to act on the evidence before him… I’m calling on him to charge the arresting officer in this case.”
Along with the demonstrations in Minneapolis, protests over Floyd’s killing and against police violence have erupted across the nation, including in Los Angeles, California, where hundreds of protesters blocked traffic on the 101 Freeway Wednesday evening.

The ongoing demonstrations are taking place in the backdrop of a deepening social crisis caused by the American ruling class’s negligent response to the COVID-19 pandemic and growing anger over the February murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia and subsequent law enforcement cover up.


Baltimore police officer shoots man dead, injures another after nuisance call

By Dominic Gustavo
25 May 2020
On the night of Saturday, May 17, a Baltimore County police officer shot two people at the Cove Village town home complex in Essex, Maryland. The police department confirmed that Robert Johnson Jr., 29, died from his injuries. Johnson’s 20-year-old brother, Freddie Jackson, was also shot by police and suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the incident.
Johnson, an expectant father whose friends and family said lived by the motto of “family first,” had been celebrating the 15th birthday of a cousin when police arrived. According to eye-witness reports published by the Baltimore Sun, Johnson had gotten into a minor traffic incident with a neighbor when police responded to a noise complaint that had been made about a crowd gathered in the parking lot.
According to officer Jennifer Peach, a county police spokeswoman, the crowd had largely dispersed by the time the police arrived. The first responding officer “was confronted with an armed suspect and discharged his weapon.” Johnson had apparently exited a car brandishing a gun when he was shot. He died after being taken to the hospital, and a gun was recovered at the scene, Peach said. The police officer who shot Johnson and Jackson, identified as Police Officer First Class Knight, a 24-year veteran, has been placed on routine administrative leave.
However, the official statements given by the county police have been contradicted by the accounts of several neighbors who witnessed the shooting. Kayla Stokes, a neighbor, told the Sun she was sitting near her window when she observed a police car pull up near a group of about 10 neighborhood children and teenagers. According to Stokes, the officer immediately pointed his flashlight and gun at the group and began shooting and chasing them within a minute or two. The man holding a weapon threw it down and ran away.
Regarding the officer, “He didn’t wait. He just started shooting. I told my child’s father, ‘They shooting him for no reason.’ Police seen him throw it down. ... I don’t understand why he would shoot him in the back. It was clear as day he was running away from him.” Stokes disputed the police department’s statement that the crowd had dispersed before the officer arrived: “Any of them young kids could’ve got shot. They were hiding behind freakin’ cars.”
Stokes condemned the police shooting as unjustifiable, “The police had no right to do what they did to that boy at all. Now, some mother doesn’t get to kiss their kid goodnight. That’s all I could think about.”
Stokes’ version of events was supported by others. LaKisha Chase, mother of one of the victims, told the Sun that she had witnessed Johnson exiting his vehicle with his hands up when a firearm fell from his car. “Shots were fired as soon as she heard Johnson’s gun hit the pavement,” the Sun wrote.
Another neighbor, a 46-year-old woman, was awoken by the sound of gunshots. When she opened her door moments later, she found a bleeding young man sprawled over her front steps, and police officers with guns drawn shouted at her to “Close the fucking door!” The woman, who declined to give her name out of fear for her safety, added, “I have a 5-year-old. She saw that. She’s distraught. She was crying, upset, shaking all night.”
The recklessness of the officer’s shooting spree is further shown by noting that Jackson, the second victim, was shot while inside a nearby house.
According to the Sun: “Johnson’s younger brother … was inside their home with several children who watched the incident from their front window. … Freddie Jackson was trying to escort the children upstairs when one of Knight’s bullets pierced the door frame and hit the 20-year-old in the leg, relatives said. The children carried the man upstairs and applied a tourniquet to his leg using a T-shirt…”
The Baltimore Police Department has a long history of abuses, outright corruption, and a callous disregard for the lives of ordinary working class people. Last month marked the five-year anniversary of the killing of Freddie Gray. On April 12, 2015, Gray was arrested and charged with possessing a knife. He was given a “rough ride” in the police van and died a week later of a severed spinal cord. Mass protests erupted in the city over the mishandling of the case, prompting the governor of Maryland to impose martial law and deploy the National Guard in the streets of Baltimore.
In response to the nationwide outpouring of popular anger, the federal DOJ was ordered to conduct an investigation into the practices of the Baltimore Police Department. The investigation concluded that Baltimore police routinely violated the civil rights of city residents. The abuses included unjustified stops and searches; arrests without proper cause; racial profiling; use of excessive force; sexual discrimination; and retaliation against actions protected by the First Amendment.
Despite the uncovering of these routine abuses, all officers involved in Gray’s murder were cleared of all charges by state and federal prosecutors.
In July 2017, bodycam footage revealed that a police officer had planted drugs, sending an innocent man to jail. In August, video footage was released which showed several officers colluding to plant drugs during a traffic stop. As a result, 41 drug and gun cases that relied on the officers’ testimony were dropped.
In February 2018, two Baltimore police officers were convicted of racketeering, robbery and fraud. The two officers, along with at least six others, were involved in a wide range of criminal activity, which included repeated armed home invasions of city residents where they stole money, drugs and guns. The drugs and guns were later sold on the streets.
In November of last year, three men were exonerated after a wrongful murder conviction, which came about as a result of coerced evidence. They had already served 36 years behind bars. The men were just teenagers when they were arrested in 1983, when they walked out of prison they were in their 50s.
This sampling of cases is merely the tip of the iceberg of corruption and abuse of power that occurs within police forces in Baltimore and more generally. According to killedbypolice.net, police in the United States have killed at least 376 people so far this year.
The latest string of killings in the United States includes the February 23 killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Arbery was chased down and shot dead by a former police officer and his son while out on a jog, and local authorities subsequently attempted to cover it up. Only with the release of dashcam footage of the killing and growing popular outrage, did the police finally arrest the killers in early May.
On May 7, protests broke out in Indianapolis over police killings the previous night. In three separate incidents, two men were shot dead and a pregnant woman was struck and killed by a police car. In New York City, video footage showing the brutal arrests of people for violating the social distancing ordinance has sparked outrage.
The barbarism and backwardness pervading police departments across America and the corruption of a legal system that tolerates it, is undoubtedly a symptom of the advanced breakdown of society under a decaying capitalist system.







Minneapolis Riots: Man Shot Dead Outside Pawn Shop

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A portrait of George Floyd hangs on a street light pole as police officers stand guard at the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The station has become the site of an …
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
3:27

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Fires burned and looters struck Thursday after violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody rocked a Minneapolis neighborhood for a second straight night, with damage stretching for miles across the city and Mayor Jacob Frey appealing to the governor to activate the National Guard.
Amid the violence, a man was found fatally shot Wednesday night near a pawn shop. Asked to confirm reports that he had been shot by a store owner, police spokesman John Elder said that was “one of the theories.”
Pockets of looting continued Thursday at stores where windows and doors were smashed. KSTP-TV reported some fires at businesses continued to burn with no firefighters on scene. A liquor store employee displayed a gun as he stood among the debris of broken bottles and beer cans inside the business.
Protesters began gathering in the early afternoon Wednesday near the city’s 3rd Precinct station, in the southern part of the city where 46-year-old George Floyd died on Memorial Day after an officer knelt on his neck until he became unresponsive. Protesters also skirmished with officers, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas in a repeat of Tuesday night’s confrontation.
On Thursday morning, smoke hung over Minneapolis and looters carried merchandise from a damaged Target store with no interference by police. Video of the store’s interior showed empty clothing racks and shelves and debris strewn about. Obscenities were spray-painted on the exterior of the store.
Protests spread to other U.S. cities. In California, hundreds of people protesting Floyd’s death blocked a Los Angeles freeway and shattered windows of California Highway Patrol cruisers on Wednesday.
It was a second and much more violent night in Minneapolis since the death of Floyd, whom police were seeking to arrest outside a Minneapolis grocery store on a report of a counterfeit bill being passed. A bystander’s cellphone video showed an officer kneeling on Floyd ‘s neck for almost eight minutes as he eventually became unresponsive.s
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI in Minneapolis said Thursday they were conducting “a robust criminal investigation” into Floyd’s death and was making the case a priority. The FBI had already announced it was investigating whether Floyd’s civil rights were violated. The new announcement came a day after President Donald Trump tweeted that he had asked an investigation to be expedited.
Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted for calm early Thursday. “Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy,” he said on Twitter. He also asked for the public’s help in keeping the peace.
The officer and three others were fired Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Frey called for him to be criminally charged.
Frey asked Gov. Tim Walz to activate the National Guard, a spokesman confirmed Thursday. The governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Walz tweeted for calm Wednesday night, calling the violence “an extremely dangerous situation” and urging people to leave the scene.
On Wednesday night, officers responding to a reported stabbing near the protests found a man lying on the sidewalk with what turned out to be a bullet wound, Elder said. The man was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Elder said a suspect was in custody but said the facts leading up to the shooting were “still being sorted out.”

Video: Minneapolis AutoZone Set on Fire Amid George Floyd Protests





Autozone on Fire, Minneapolis
Twitter/@Boydenphoto
2:30

A Minneapolis AutoZone near the area where protesters reportedly looted nearby businesses has been set on fire Wednesday evening as demonstrators take to the streets over the death of George Floyd, who died Monday after a police officer put his knee on his neck while detaining him, according to reports.  
Several journalists shared photos and video of the burning Autozone, which is also near Minneapolis Police’s 3rd Precinct, where protesters and police officers engaged in a tense standoff in the afternoon. Des Moines Register photographer Zach Boyden-Holmes noted that the blaze was started by protesters. 
Earlier Wednesday evening, dozens of apparent looters stole televisions and groceries from the Target store on Lake Street, shows multiple videos shared to social media by Fox 9 reporter Karen Scullin.
A Target spokesperson said:
We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing our community. We decided to close our Lake Street store earlier today and worked to ensure all of our team members were accounted for and safe. Our focus will remain on our team members’ safety and helping our community heal. Until further notice, our store will remain closed.
Other reported looters were seen at Dollar Tree, a liquor store, and a tobacco store, according to ABC 5.
The protests came as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for the arrest of the police officer seen in a video kneeling on Floyd’s neck before his death. 
The mayor urged Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to file charges against the officer, whom the city identified as Derek Chauvin. In a video taken by a witness, Chauvin can be seen kneeling and putting pressure on the neck of George Floyd, who struggled and said he couldn’t breathe.
The Minneapolis Police Department fired Chauvin and three other officers involved in the arrest — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao.
“Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?” Frey asked during a news conference Wednesday. “If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now and I cannot come up with an answer to that question.”
The mayor said his call for charges agains Chauvin is based on the footage from the scene.
he UPI contributed to this report. 






All Hell Broke Loose In Minneapolis and 'Armed Rednecks' Stepped In to Protect Businesses

Beth Baumann
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Posted: May 28, 2020 1:39 AM





All Hell Broke Loose In Minneapolis and 'Armed Rednecks' Stepped In to Protect Businesses
Source: Twitter/Screenshot
Chaos erupted in Minneapolis Wednesday night, with people looting and rioting following the death of George Lloyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer.
Two men decided to utilize their Second Amendment rights to prevent people from looting nearby stores.
"Basically, you've seen the records the cops keep and the cops are a lot less likely to tread on people's rights when there's other armed Americans with them. So we figured it's about damn time – or at least I figure it's about damn time – for some heavily armed rednecks stood with fellow citizens," the one man explained. 
The two men were asked why they were protecting the particular businesses they were in front of. They said they had been patrolling businesses nearby and ended up in that parking lot because the smoke shop was closed but the owners were having the defend their business. 
"We heard that and figured 'Well, we better get up and go see if these guys need help,'" the second man said, pointing to the smoke shop behind him. "It turns out these guys are out here with machetes and trying to keep looters out of their business because the cops can't get out here. And so, I figured, before there were cops there were Americans. So here we are."
The men referenced the Los Angeles riots in 1992 following the arrest and beating of Rodney King. 
"They were there protecting their own stuff. You got Rooftop Koreans," the first man said, referencing the Korean business owners in L.A. who defended their businesses. 
"Bottom line: justice for George Floyd but I hope they stop looting at some point. If there were more of us, we could stop them from looting," the second man explained. "But it's just us four."

The first man made it very clear that they don't agree with looting and destroying the neighborhood but they agree with protestors wanting justice for George Floyd. 
What these men are doing is a prime example of why the Second Amendment is extremely important and why so many fight to keep it alive. The Rooftop Koreans relied on firearms to protect themselves, their families and their businesses during the Rodney King riots. The same thing is happening in Minneapolis. The police can't be at all places at all times. 

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