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Why the National Guard Was Available But Not on Minneapolis Streets Until Too Late

Tom Steward

May 29 2020

The big question following a third night of rioting and looting in Minneapolis is where was the Minnesota National Guard?  After all, media reports all day Thursday trumpeted news that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had asked Gov. Tim Walz to mobilize the guard in support of the beleaguered city.

Minnesota National Guard Major Gen. Jon A. Jensen cleared up the confusion at a tense Friday news conference with the astounding revelation that his unit had assembled from around the state for deployment but was never given its mission, by Frey or city authorities.

Quote

“As we met as a senior team yesterday afternoon, the one topic that continued to be discussed was the lack of clarity and the lack of a mission and a description of what exactly the National Guard needed to do,” Jensen said at the media briefing. “…We never got such a mission assignment. We never got such mission description.”

At the same time, it was common knowledge on the street that some agitators had targeted the Third Precinct police station for attack. An unusually aggressive group of reporters pressed Gov. Walz on why he failed to apply pressure on the indecisive Minneapolis mayor to get the guard out to prevent the station from being overrun and torched.

(Snip)

Walz acknowledged that his advisers discussed the option of sending in the guard on Thursday, but deferred to local authorities with full knowledge the Third Precinct police station was vulnerable.

Quote

“There was a decision during the day, whether, do  you occupy the entire city and shut it down after those 24 hours? In retrospect I’m assuming that yes, we would  say that,” Walz told reporters. “But at the time, and again we’ll not know it as proving the negative, would it have simply started that movement faster and would  we have seen it move out of the third  precinct? But yeah certainly it’s a valid critique and point.”

Not until after the Third Precinct station was abandoned and burning did Frey finally make the call to Walz around midnight Thursday.

(Snip)

 

:wallbash:...:wallbash:...:wallbash:

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Fox News crew harassed, chased by angry mob while reporting on protests outside White House

Rioting crowds stoked by the death of a black man at the apparent hand of a Minneapolis cop turned their rage on journalists early Saturday, attacking a Fox News crew outside the White House in a harrowing scene captured on video.

Fox News reporter Leland Vittert was reporting on protests in Lafayette Park at around 1 a.m. with two crewmembers when as many as a dozen masked protesters surrounded them, in footage caught by the Daily Caller.  After a protester lunged at Vittert while he was reporting on air, the team made a beeline out of the park, with the hostile crowd in pursuit.  Vittert and the crew were pushed and hit with water bottles, and a Fox News camera was broken when a member of the mob tried to grab it. 

 

:snip:

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Minnesota requests more help as riots continue there -- and across US

The state of Minnesota is requesting 1,000 additional National Guard soldiers as rioting broke out once again Friday night following the death of George Floyd earlier in the week.

Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota National Guard Adjutant Gen. Jon Jensen announced the request at a news conference early Saturday, FOX 9 of Minneapolis reported.

Guard personnel already deployed in addition to state and local police just haven’t been able to control the violence and unrest that the Minneapolis-St. Paul area has seen in recent days, Walz said.

"This is the largest civilian deployment in Minnesota history that we have out there today and quite candidly right now, we do not have the numbers," Walz said. "We cannot arrest people when we are trying to hold ground because of the sheer size, the dynamics and the wanton violence.”:snip:

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Minnesota Governor authorizes 'full mobilization' of state's National Guard, says protests no longer about death of George Floyd

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Saturday he has authorized "full mobilization" of the state's National Guard - something that has never been done in the 164-year history of the Minnesota National Guard.

Walz, who has been hammered by residents, critics and the press for his response to the crisis in his state, pushed back on the idea that the protests, which have turned increasingly violent, now have anything to do with George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis killed while in police custody.

"The tactics and the approach that we have taken have evolved and need to evolve the same way, with a sensitivity to the legitimate rage and anger that came after what the world witnessed in the murder of George Floyd and was manifested in a very healthy gathering of community to memorialize that Tuesday night, which was still present to a certain degree on Wednesday," he said, adding, "By Thursday it was nearly gone and last night is a mockery of pretending this is about George Floyd's death or inequities or historical traumas to our communities of color."  

During his Saturday morning press conference, Walz also thanked first responders "who are out there protecting our cities."

"As they were taking incoming fire, improvised explosive devices and a highly evolved and tightly-controlled group of folks bent on adapting their tactics to make it as difficult as possible to maintain that order," he said.:snip:

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Minnesota mayors say those arrested in Friday night riots did not live in area

Mayors in Minnesota said everyone arrested in riots on Friday were either not from the state or from their cities. 

 

During a Saturday press conference, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned the nationwide, violent riots occurring since Tuesday in reaction to George Floyd's death but highlighted that those arrested in their respective areas were not residents. 

"I want to be very, very clear. The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents. They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything that we have built over the last several decades," Frey said about arrests made in his city. "This is no longer about verbal expression. This is about violence. And we need to make sure that it stops."

"Because we had a relative stillness in St. Paul, we didn't make an enormous number of arrests. But every single person we arrested last night, I'm told, was from out of state," Carter said about violence in his city after a curfew was put into effect.:snip:

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MN Gov. Walz: We Estimate 80% of the Rioters Are from out of State

During a press conference on Saturday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) stated that the “best estimate” is that 80% of the people rioting in the state are not from Minnesota.

Walz said, “I want to just be very clear, as I said earlier in the week, this is not about saying, oh, this isn’t us, it’s everybody from everywhere else. We understand that the catalyst for this was Minnesotans, and Minnesotans’ inability to deal with inequality, inequities, and, quite honestly, the racism that has persisted. I am not denying that. But what we’re at right now — and we’re trying to get numbers on this. And I will try, and what I’m asking the media to help us on, we’re going to start releasing who some of these people are. And they’ll be able to start tracing that history of where they’re at and what they’re doing on the dark web and how they’re organizing. But I’m not trying to say that — I think our best estimate right now that I heard is about 20% is what we think are Minnesotans and about 80% are outside. So, I’m not trying to deflect in any way. I’m not trying to say there aren’t Minnesotans amongst this group.”:snip:

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Biden Campaign Staffers Donate to Group that Pays Bail for Antifa and BLM Rioters in Minneapolis

At least thirteen campaign staffers for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have made donations—possibly in coordination with the campaign—to a group that pays bail fees for Black Lives Matter and antifa agitators in Minneapolis.

According to Reuters, the staff members posted on Friday and Saturday that they were donating to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a group that opposes the practice of cash bail.

Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to Reuters that the former vice president opposes the institution of cash bail as a “modern day debtors prison.”

But the campaign declined to answer questions on whether the donations were coordinated within the campaign, underscoring the politically thorny nature of the sometimes violent protests.

From 12:20 a.m. Friday to 11:21 a.m. Saturday, 57 agitators were arrested in Minneapolis, according to Twin Cities.com, and most of them were from Minnesota.

:snip:

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GOP Sen. Tim Scott calls for the arrest of other officers involved in Floyd death

 
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) called for the arrest of the three other officers who were involved in the arrest and death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis.

“4 days later. Still three arrests to go. #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd” Scott tweeted Saturday.:snip:

 


 

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Some Unexpected Voices of Reason Emerge From the Riots

:snip:

While it’s difficult to find much reason for optimism, here are a couple. At the height of the riots so far, rapper Killer Mike stepped up in Atlanta to speak and calm the situation there and nationwide.

“We have to be better than this moment. We have to be better than burning down our own homes because if we lose Atlanta what else do we have?” Mike said.

“If we lose Atlanta, what else we got? We lose an ability to plot, to plan, to strategize, to organize and to properly mobilize,” Mike said. “I want you to go home. I want you to talk to 10 of your friends. I want you guys to come up with real solutions.”

“It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth. It’s time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs,” Mike said.:snip:

:snip:

Rapper Lil Wayne also urged caution and restraint.

Reacting to the death of George Floyd, rapper Lil Wayne said Friday that folks need to be “very specific” when reacting to perceived injustices, warning not to blame the “entire force” or an “entire race.”

Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., noted that he’s unimpressed by “hashtag” and “t-shirt” activism if you don’t actually help the person you’re claiming to get justice for.

The rapper also implored activists to “know” what they’re “protesting about” before they advocate a cause. “It’s a bunch of facts that we think we know that we don’t know,” he said.

He added:

“If we want to place the blame on anybody, it should be ourselves for not doing more than what we think we’re doing.”:snip:


 

 

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May 31 2020

Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency and called in National Guard troops following a fourth day of violent protests in the city, which saw demonstrators clash repeatedly with officers, torch police vehicles and loot businesses.

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