Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls Minneapolis unrest 'unacceptable'

[woodsprite]

9. I have a friend who lives less than a mile from the 3rd precinct,

and she said the protest was peaceful until the cops incited the violence. Here's a portion of her message from 10 hrs ago:

"...my city is literally burning down around us because yet again, a cop murdered a Black man. I can’t begin to describe to you what it looks like, it’s like a war zone. We are less than a mile from the 3rd precinct where the largest things went up in flames. There is debris all over our yard and helicopters have been overhead for more than 24 hours. We can hear the police shooting the rubber bullets, gas on people, etc. The protestors were there in the thousands and it was non violent. The police incited this. I don’t say this lightly.

And, now with literal video of the whole thing that clearly shows the cop was a murderer, the FBI and Mike Freeman (county attorney) have declined to press charges today. They don’t have enough evidence.

The streets are outraged. The peaceful demonstrators have taken over a large portion of downtown, outside of Mike Freeman’s house, outside of the 3rd precinct (by us) and the outside of the cop’s house.

There are fires burning and looting happening throughout St Paul now like there was in Minneapolis last night, and they are spreading to the suburbs.

I can’t tell you with words how scary and exhausting this is. And it’s NOTHING compared to being a person of color in this country. NOTHING."



Adding her update from 2 hrs ago:
"...got about an hour sleep before national guard cut our power. There are tanks at the end of our street. The air color has been WRONG and the smoke is acrid and awful. So many more buildings close to us are burning. They were trying to get people out of the apts above Aldi down the street from us because of fires. Hi-lake strip mall where Savers was is burning. The whole chunk of buildings where Town Talk Diner was is burning. hexagon bar. Now Ivy Building. I’m sure there are others, that’s just what’s close to me.

...The protests have been peaceful - there is evidence coming forward that many people outside of our city, including cops and white supremacists have been starting these fires and looting. The Ivy Building is an important cultural community gathering place and landmark. It is a loss for many communities, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA2+ folks. This isn’t corporate Target or something, this is community space.