The riots in response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd don't seem to be diminishing. In fact, they're getting more dangerous and deadly in certain parts of the country. Two people were killed at a Davenport, Iowa protest Monday night. That same evening in Buffalo, three police officers were run over by a perpetrator in an SUV.
These scenes have been hard to witness. But I have to mention one more in Richmond, VA, where a group of agitators set fire to an occupied building on Monday. And then blocked a fire crew from getting inside the building to rescue a child inside. Richmond Police Chief Will Smith got choked up sharing the story during a press conference.
"We had to force our way to make a clear path for the fire department," Smith recalled. "Protestors intercepted that fire apparatus several blocks away with vehicles and blocked that fire department’s access to the structure fire. Inside that home was a child.”
That's when Smith broke down in tears and tried to collect himself.
Richmond Police chief breaks down after rioters intentionally set a home on fire with a child inside of it. The rioters then used vehicles to block firefighters from reaching the home. pic.twitter.com/HlvFv4MGjs
— Matthew (@VhiteHouse) June 2, 2020
“Officers were able to help those people out of the house," he continued. "We were able to get the fire department there safely."
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He apologized, took a sip of water, and continued once more.
”When you take a legitimate issue and hijack it for unknown reasons, that is unacceptable to me. It's unacceptable to the Richmond Police Department and unacceptable to the City of Richmond.”
Mayor Levar Stoney expressed similar sentiments, with similar emotion.
"When you block law enforcement from allowing fire services to get to a home that has caught on fire," Stoney said. "You are not inspiring change. When you knock out windows of businesses that had nothing to do with this, you are not inspiring change. That's an insult to the cause.”
Can someone tell me how trapping a child inside a burning building brings justice for George Floyd?
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