The images are distressingly familiar. We have seen sights like this from all corners of the globe. A low cloud of dense smoke hangs in the sky as a small group of hapless citizens walk down rubble-strewn streets past burned-out buildings and what was once a car.
But per Max Nesterak, a reporter at Minnesota Reformer who recorded this video, this ostensible war zone is right here in our own backyards.
Welcome to Minneapolis the day after the city was besieged by rioters and looters claiming to be outraged over the death of a black man at the hands of admittedly overzealous police. A question worth contemplating is whether the victim, George Floyd, would be pleased to see the wanton acts of destruction and boundless greed that have been perpetrated in his memory.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The questions being asked are the same ones that were raised following similar scenarios in Ferguson and Baltimore. And, now as then, the motivation for these crimes is hard to fathom. The pictures certainly cast the rioters and pillagers in a negative light.
This is James, standing in front of the place he’s called home for 19 years. It’s right across the street from the apartment building construction site that was set on fire. #wcco pic.twitter.com/2Xcut8hyc0
— Christiane Cordero (@ChristianeWCCO) May 28, 2020
This morning, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called upon Gov. Tim Walz to activate the National Guard, CBS affiliate WCCO reports. The mayor also has a message for his constituents. “Please, please Minneapolis,” he begged. “We cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy.”
Yet even as Frey pleads, new messages are popping up on social media, urging residents to continue to take to “the man.” And CNN’s Don Lemon has already blamed Donald Trump for George Floyd’s death.
