Out-of-Town Antifa Members Descend on Minnesota as Chaos Continues for a Third Night
Antifa was on the scene in Minnesota as a third night of rioting ripped through a Minneapolis suburb.
Police said more than 60 arrests were made Tuesday during the third night of protests over the death of Daunte Wright, 20, who was shot by police during a traffic stop.
Wright, who had been pulled over for driving with expired tags, was found to have an arrest warrant related to a “gross misdemeanor weapons charge,” according to a statement from the Washington County Attorney’s Office cited by Lead Stories, which prompted the attempt by police to take him into custody. Wright resisted and was shot by Officer Kimberly Potter, who, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, thought she was firing her Taser at Wright when in fact she fired her gun.
As the third night of unrest roiled Brooklyn Center, correspondent Mike Tobin went live on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” to explain that the dynamic on the streets had changed.
“I can tell you this. The makeup of the population out here certainly changed tonight. I think Sunday night it was all about the locals who were here, and they were genuine and they were angry,” he said.
“As it goes on, you get more people coming in from out of town,” Tobin said. “I had a lot of people, several people I spoke with who identified themselves as antifa — and angrily so. So you had that crowd out here.
“And again, tonight, I saw an increased number of the kids ‘wearing the uniform,’ if you will, the black hoodies, the backpacks. I saw leaf-blowers out there, different kinds of … makeshift shields and things of that nature. It was changing dramatically in terms of the makeup, and certainly the numbers of the crowd.”
Unlawful assembly declared flash bangs going off. Crowd tossing items over fence – police telling crowd to leave pic.twitter.com/Aaxv0RCCjF
— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) April 14, 2021
And that’s basically a wrap in Brooklyn Center. Major rush sent antifa fleeing. Though many captured including quite a few ripped out of cars, windows smashed etc… only media remain on scene… pic.twitter.com/gFJ4OqyjRj
— Jqhnny ElbOws (@OttoMaddox84) April 14, 2021
As Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott feared in a tweet, out-of-towners are using the incident as an excuse for their own agendas.
Daunte Wright’s death will not be exploited.
Some outside elements may be planning to show up to infiltrate peaceful protesters and cause mayhem, we will not allow that. We ask folks to protest peacefully then please go home before the curfew goes into effect this evening.
— Mayor Mike Elliott (@mayor_elliott) April 13, 2021
Despite calls from various officials for calm, “there’s still looting and violence,” Tobin said.
NOW: FIRE BROOKLYN CENTER HUMBOLDT AND 70th pic.twitter.com/wEkDTDodcH
— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) April 14, 2021
Daily Caller correspondent Jorge Ventura also appeared on Ingraham’s show from the scene. “We have seen some antifa flags,” he said. “We’ve seen a mix of Black Lives Matter activists as well, as well as some locals.”
“We have seen some Antifa flags. We have seen a mix of Black Lives Matter activists as well.”@VenturaReport appeared on @IngrahamAngle live from the unrest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/OJ10tyEB7L
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 14, 2021
Col. Matt Langer of the Minnesota State Patrol said more than 60 people were arrested Tuesday night, according to KARE-TV.
“The behaviors we continue to see are unacceptable, and we are not going to tolerate them,” Langer said.
“We encourage you to be peaceful and come and exercise your first amendment rights, it is not acceptable and will not be tolerated if you choose to come and do criminal activity and destroy property and throw objects and make it unsafe for people to come and exercise your first amendment rights,” he said.
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
Brooklyn Center Minnesota last night; Antifa fire flashbangs at the Police Forces, while Police launched volleys of tear gas and used stun grenades to disperse protesters , pic.twitter.com/NRx8nrGiPp
— @KassMedefer (@KMedefer) April 12, 2021
Tobin noted that Elliott had disparaged the curfew that had been imposed.
“Then you had the mayor, Mike Elliott, of this town suggest, as you noted, that if there was a curfew and it was to be enforced — essentially what it sounded like what he was saying is that you’re drawing a line in the sand — it gives them something to defy and then it creates a dynamic — he said, an excuse — for more arrests,” Tobin said.
“In terms of gearing up for mass arrests, I think that’s what riot cops always do. Every time you see riot cops, you see the zip-strips with them,” he said.
CORRECTION, April 16, 2021: This article originally misstated the charges on the warrant that was open at the time of Wright’s death. That single sentence has been changed to include a statement from the Washington County Attorney’s Office.
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