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This is a thread about Kenosha, Wisconsin.
I just want to note that I've been following the arrests of arsonists from the Minneapolis riots in late May, and ... they have been overwhelmingly NOT people from Minneapolis and St. Paul. https://twitter.com/joshglancy/status/1299734448615886849
I just want to note that I've been following the arrests of arsonists from the Minneapolis riots in late May, and ... they have been overwhelmingly NOT people from Minneapolis and St. Paul. https://twitter.com/joshglancy/status/1299734448615886849
Arrested arsonists have also been overwhelmingly white, but there was one Black guy, who set fire to a pawn shop. He's from freaking Rochester. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/rochester-man-charged-with-arson-of-minneapolis-pawn-shop/89-eb22ab8d-1399-47ee-af14-6382be60e99f
One of the early arrests was some guy from Illinois who livestreamed himself. I looked up his Facebook and he didn't appear to be left-wing or right-wing, actually, he mostly appeared to be really excited by the prospect of arson.
When people have been arrested for arson during the riots and I've been able to track down their social media, that's mostly what I've found: apolitical dumbasses. (From the suburbs. Mostly outer-ring suburbs.)
Were there neo-Nazis running around as well? Hell, yes. Umbrella Man, for example, who was identified a month ago and yet somehow I've seen nothing about an arrest? https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/us/umbrella-man-associated-white-supremacist-group-george-floyd/index.html
Anyway, having been through this, I 100% believe the Kenosha residents saying that THEY are not the people starting fires.
They are protesting. They are probably looting (the looting in Mpls/St. Paul included plenty of locals). They aren't burning shit down.
They are protesting. They are probably looting (the looting in Mpls/St. Paul included plenty of locals). They aren't burning shit down.
("Having been through this" in the sense that I was living in a city with riots, with a lot of friends close to the center of the rioting, just to be clear.)
Anyway, here's something I think we learned this spring: when there's significant civil disorder, people will show up opportunistically to do all kinds of stuff, and one of them is, firebugs will come to burn stuff down because they think they can do it & not get caught.
And I STRONGLY suspect that "why did they burn down their own neighborhood" was ALWAYS the wrong question to be asking. ALWAYS.
Also, if you're a well-insured landlord with an aging property with low rent, and you've got connections to a guy who knows a guy, etc. ... Normally, an excessively convenient fire is suspicious. Less so during riots.
(I saw speculation about that in St. Paul. We'll probably never know, because if you know a guy who knows a guy, probably that second guy is sufficiently clued in to know to cover his face, wear gloves, and use materials that can't be easily traced.)
Oh, and one additional note.
You know who else is overwhelmingly a bunch of white suburbanites filled with contempt for the community they're rolling into?
The Minneapolis Police Department.
You know who else is overwhelmingly a bunch of white suburbanites filled with contempt for the community they're rolling into?
The Minneapolis Police Department.
The four people indicted for burning down the third precinct were ALSO not from Minneapolis. One was from Brainerd, one was from Staples, and two were from St. Paul. https://www.startribune.com/4-minnesota-men-indicted-on-arson-charges-in-third-precinct-fire/572221482/
But in that case, I think they were acting with genuine support from a large swath of the local community.
I keep thinking of more things I want to say here.
The reporter I RT'd said that it was a blanket consensus but there was no evidence.
You know, when everyone who lives in a place tells you something, that really strikes me as a legitimate piece of evidence.
The reporter I RT'd said that it was a blanket consensus but there was no evidence.
You know, when everyone who lives in a place tells you something, that really strikes me as a legitimate piece of evidence.
In the days after the riots I saw a really thoughtful analysis from the woman who owns Elsa's House of Sleep. She said that the looting was locals; the arson was not. She offered two pieces of evidence for this.
1. The looters, she said, wanted to keep their hands free to GRAB stuff -- they weren't hauling around jugs of accelerant.
2. The young people in her community (by which she meant young Black men from the St. Paul neighborhoods in the area) could barely start a charcoal grill or a bonfire, they're not going to successfully burn down a whole entire building!
I had not previously thought of arson as something requiring skill, but having screwed up starting a charcoal grill and a camp fire on multiple occasions I can assure you that starting a fire is not as easy as you might assume.
Anyway. The protests, to be clear, were locally-driven. And most of the people coming in from suburbs and exurbs were here to protest. The rage was entirely legitimate, in Minneapolis and in Kenosha (and everywhere else) and the response from those in power, totally inadequate.
The beginnings of the rioting was deliberately provoked by the police (which bombarded a peaceful crowd with tear gas and less-lethal projectiles). And the police then deliberately let huge sections of the city burn to punish the residents.
