The Minneapolis riots are over, but the devastation is immense. Our own Julio Rosas was there when the chaos erupted, covering, among other things, the looting and the torching of the city’s third police precinct headquarters. The rioting was over the officer-involved death of George Floyd. The officers involved have been fired, the one who kept his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck as he laid prone to the ground handcuffed, Derek Chauvin, was charged with second-degree murder. The three other officers involved were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. It has led to a resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests/riots, looting, and historical revisionism through the prism of the ‘woke’ among the Left. As you’d expect, it’s absolute mayhem in the cities. Far left-wingers seized portions of Seattle. New York City has been engulfed by the lefty mob. Rosas is there, by the way, covering the Big Apple’s autonomous zone.
I've been in Minneapolis for five days and no sign of these antifa tough guys yet. I thought they were going to run me out of town? Losers ?? (By the way, most of the minorities here hate you) pic.twitter.com/w6YCW6vmRO
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 1, 2020
Yet, we seem to have moved on from Minneapolis, or at least covering the extend to the destruction of the city. Michael Tracey decided to venture into Mill town, braving threats of violence from Antifa. Tracey, who conducted interviews with folks sifting through the rubble of their community, noted that minorities hate Antifa, but that’s beside the point. In a lengthy Twitter thread a few days ago, he documented the aftermath and it’s eye-opening. We knew it was going to be based off what Rosas saw the night all of this went down. Julio is a veteran of covering such demonstrations, especially Antifa, and he said he never saw anything like what he witnessed when Minneapolis was burning.
I’m in Minneapolis. First place I stop, most of the block is still boarded up. This grocery and tobacco store is owned by an Iranian, neighbor tells me. “They took everything.” Owner is deliberating whether to permanently close after the riots pic.twitter.com/RzgNrbeogv
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 28, 2020
Nearby a Halal market is boarded up. Its next door neighbor, a child care center, has signs in the windows asking to be spared pic.twitter.com/Lzsi7lmCog
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 28, 2020
One order of cheesy bread please pic.twitter.com/bnPX2t3mMa
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 29, 2020
What remains of the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct building, looks like Bosnia or something pic.twitter.com/QJAUsLfvt2
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 29, 2020
Healthy society pic.twitter.com/NBAiuLjOah
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 29, 2020
Metro PCS store owner says it took him a month to get his windows replaced after trying to go through two different companies. They are still backlogged in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area pic.twitter.com/UYQaiWRM81
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 29, 2020
Gas station owner put signs in the windows of the convenience store begging to be spared. Now the property is closed and up for sale pic.twitter.com/aMJl42arDy
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 29, 2020
Entire inventory was stolen from this wig shop (owned by an Asian guy) which shares a lot with a former rental car place pic.twitter.com/SlpWm5AEeG
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 29, 2020
Talked to the Somali owner of this small deli. He says his security fired shots to fend off the rioters. The ones who instigated the attack were primarily white, he says, while the blacks hung back. Note the “Anarchy” symbol scrawled on the plywood, popular among white leftists pic.twitter.com/Tm2aFB9a1P
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 1, 2020
The police eventually came, the deli owner tells me, but they were “scared.” (I still have not seen one police officer or patrol car in the entire five days that I’ve been in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area.) Here’s what his block currently looks like pic.twitter.com/hbOgNhIPhz
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 1, 2020
This used to be a dentist’s office that provided care to underprivileged children and the uninsured pic.twitter.com/hj5SThslmv
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 1, 2020
Weeks later, Tracey walked by the police headquarters, noting that the place looked like Bosnia. He also said that the breadth of the destruction is probably not being covered by the media because it could be seen as helping President Trump, who has promised to maintain law and order during the chaos. He found one dentist’s office that was used to give care to the uninsured in the community that was utterly destroyed.
Seems pretty obvious that a big reason why the scope of the violence and destruction wrought be these riots hasn’t gotten the attention/coverage it probably warrants is because journalists think this would help Trump
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 11, 2020
Minneapolis won’t be back for a long time.