By John Friend
Nationwide multi-racial protests quickly devolved into widespread looting, vandalism, arson, and violence in the immediate aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man with a lengthy criminal record, while being arrested by Minneapolis police on May 25. The sometimes violent demonstrations led to the destruction of entire neighborhoods, business districts, and other private and public property in cities across the country.
In recent weeks, the protests have spread to Europe and Australia, with protesters there defacing and toppling historic monuments and statues in a worldwide uprising against so-called “systemic racism” and “white privilege.”
In Minneapolis, protests in the days following Floyd’s death degenerated into countless businesses being ransacked, looted, and destroyed. The city’s Third Police Precinct, just a short distance from where Floyd was killed, was overrun and set on fire by a marauding mob after officers abandoned the building. Numerous other businesses in the city were entirely looted, and many were set ablaze afterwards.
The mayhem and madness spread across the country quickly, with rioting, looting, assaults, vandalism, arson, and widespread criminality being reported in virtually every major American city. In many instances, those participating did not even pretend to be concerned about the death of Floyd, and simply used the opportunity to steal, pillage, and destroy with impunity. While looting and violence has subsided over the course of the past few weeks, organized protests led primarily by the Black Lives Matter movement have continued around the country.
Video footage of the rioting and looting has shocked the world. During the criminal mayhem, attacks against mainly white victims has been captured on video and shared on social media, as has the pillaging and looting of countless stores, many owned by minorities. Video images of largely black mobs looting stores and stealing virtually everything in sight were displayed on television and social media around the world, as law enforcement officers stood down, allowing them to ransack with impunity.
Local government officials and dishonest media pundits were quick to falsely blame whites for the looting and destruction, with some even going so far as to blame “white supremacists” for organizing the campaign of criminality.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated that “white supremacists, members of organized crime, out-of-state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors” were involved with organizing and participating in the looting and destruction of the city he governs, despite the endless video-graphic and photographic evidence of almost entirely black mobs doing the marauding. Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz and the state’s police commissioner John Harrington also suggested that “white supremacists” were behind the violence at protests and the subsequent looting when the mayhem first broke out, without providing any concrete evidence.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan insisted that “much of the violence and destruction, both here in Seattle and across the country, has been instigated and perpetuated by white men.”
“These individuals experience the height of privilege and are co-opting the peaceful demonstrations that were organized by and meant to center people of color, particularly black Americans,” Durkan argued.
Not everyone is afraid to identify the true culprits behind the campaign of chaos and destruction in the wake of the death of Floyd. Jesse Lee Peterson, a black conservative pundit and radio host, recently argued that criminals are “using the protests as cover to loot” and that the “riots and looting have nothing to do with justice for George Floyd.”
“For decades, phony black ‘civil-rights leaders’ have been encouraging angry blacks to take the riots and looting to affluent white neighborhoods,” Peterson continued. “Now, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and their radical leftist allies are doing just that. The riots are an organized attack on white-owned businesses and capitalism by thugs who hate America and President Trump. The problem is with black people, not whites. Blacks don’t need more programs or reparations. They need to examine their hearts and repent of their anger and hatred.”
John Friend is a freelance writer based in California.
