Kare 11 spreads disinformation about the 2020 riots
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is, once again, seeking the infamous ‘Umbrella Man’ who played an allegedly catalytic role in the riots in Minneapolis in May 2020. Minneapolis Police had previously identified him as a white supremacist who sprayed the words “free sh*t for everyone” on the doors of an Auto Zone, but now, it seems, he hasn’t been identified at all.
Kare 11 reports:
The man was seen breaking windows at the AutoZone Auto Parts store on Lake Street in Minneapolis and vandalizing the Minneapolis Police Department 3rd Precinct on May 27, 2020, according to the FBI.
It was at the beginning of the riots following the murder of George Floyd. [Emphasis added]
No, it wasn’t.
As my colleague Tom Steward and I wrote in Thinking Minnesota in Summer 2020:
Shortly after Floyd’s death at 9:25 p.m. on Monday, May 25, a video of his arrest began circulating on social media and quickly went viral.
On Tuesday, May 26:
Frey called a 6:45 a.m. news conference with Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. “What we saw was horrible,” said Frey, who appeared on the verge of losing control of his emotions. “Completely and utterly messed up.” He added, “Being black in America should not be a death sentence.” Walz followed suit, issuing a statement at 9:46 a.m. “The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening,” he said. “We will get answers and seek justice.”
The FBI had joined the Minneapolis Police Department investigation at 3:11 that morning, and at 11 a.m., the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office launched an investigation into possible criminal charges.
During the afternoon, hundreds of protesters blocked traffic at the intersection of 38th and Chicago Avenue South, near the Cup Foods store that called in the original police complaint against George Floyd. By that evening, the crowd of protesters, now numbered in the thousands, marched to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct station at Minnehaha Avenue South and Lake Street East. It began peacefully, but as the evening wore on, some protesters tore down fences, smashed windows, attacked squad cars, and threw water bottles at officers. After police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas and rain began to fall, demonstrators eventually fell back. [Emphasis added]
This was the day before Umbrella Man smashed the window of the Auto Zone on Lake Street. Here is how Kare 11 itself reported on the events of May 26 at the time:
Shortly after 6 p.m., organizers led a march to the Third Precinct a few miles away, just east of the Hiawatha and Lake Street intersection.
KARE 11’s reporting partners, MPR News, said that squad cars and precinct windows were broken at some point in the early evening.
Shortly before 8 p.m., with rain beginning to fall, uniformed officers in riot gear began to deploy tear gas, casting a haze over an entire block. Many of the demonstrators began running toward the nearby Target parking lot on East Lake Street, as loud booms filled the background. Police marched into the streets as people began throwing water bottles and other items at them.
I have my own suspicions as to why the local media should want to pretend that the riots of May 2020 started not with the confrontation at the Third Precinct on May 26 but with some guy breaking a window on May 27. But, for now, it is enough to say that, once again, Minnesota’s media is not telling you the truth.