So I got there yesterday around 5:30 they was already shooting off tear gas and flash bangs etc. maybe 15 minutes after I arrived, this dude in a black pickup truck pulls up. All over his truck he has Trump 2020 stuff, a trump and confederate flag etc. ppl start grabbing bricks and throwing em at his whip. He can’t drive fast bc it’s a crowd of ppl around him. He’s going slow enough that they pull him out the whip and boom a huge crowd surrounds him and are audibly kicking his ass. Somehow he gets back into his car and drives past me, still going slowly, you can see the blood all over his face and boom more ppl run up and throw rocks into his whip, at damn near point blank range. Worst part about it is the dude wasn’t even white he was some type of Latino.
fast forward a couple hours, we just protesting, getting gassed and flash banged. ppl go behind the liquor store and grab big ass trash cans for a way of defense (hide behind). Eventually ppl start grabbing those cardboard signs that you see in the liq store, and after that the looting began. Somehow the back door of the liquor store got opened and ppl started running in taking shyt. Boxes and boxes of liquor whatever they could grab.
After the hit the liquor store, everything was down hill. They blew up the auto zone and I came to find out at least 2 other buildings caught on fire, they looted Wendy’s, Arby’s, Aldis, the dollar store, target, the planet fitness, the cub foods, and even took it blocks up lake street where everything was going down. By the time I left which was maybe 11:45 there were looters everywhere
I’m upset this morning though because now it’s not about the fact that George Floyd was killed anymore. It’s not about the fact that this is the second black man that has died in this exact same county by the hands of the police in less than 6 years. It’s not about how MPLS and St. Paul have some of the highest police brutality rates in the entire country, no it’s about the small businesses that were hurt. The business with insurance that can be rebuilt.
I guess people were fine with seeing us get flash banged and tear gassed, people might’ve even been fine with the deaths and consistent police brutality, but once people started to react, then it was too much. The only thing I’m upset about concerning the looting is that they decided to do it in their own neighborhoods.
I’m sick of seeing my people die bruh. As of today black men are 1 in 1,000 likelihood to be killed at the hands of the police man. I’m a young black man this is my every day reality. I’m gonna have kids one day and I would hate for it to be theirs too