Julio Rosas - Fiery (But Mostly Peaceful): The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America

Fiery (But Mostly Peaceful)

The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America

Julio Rosas

Copyright 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-1-956007-10-7

Cover design by David Fassett
First Edition

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Contents

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

Chapter

BLM Cares About the Black Community
and Wokeness of COVID 159

Chapter

Chapter

1

Its Not, Generally Speaking, Unruly

Waking on the morning of Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Los Angeles, where I was sheltering from COVID-19 with family, I performed the a.m. ritual of the 21st-century journalist: I immediately reached for my phone to check Twitter.

The social-media platform was blowing up, consumed with outrage over an incident in Minnesota the evening before.

Furiously making the rounds were videos of a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on the neck of a black man named George Floyd for nearly ten minutes.

The videos showed onlookers begging Chauvin to stop; Floyd, under arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill, was already in handcuffs and said he was having trouble breathing. Making matters worse, the videos showed three other Minneapolis police officers standing by watching, doing nothing to intervene.

Floyd was pronounced dead at the Hennepin County Medical Center an hour later.

Right away I knew there were going to be protestsand possibly riotsover the incident. Still, I thought these would take time to develop because, I believed, people would be reluctant to gather in large groups over COVID-19 fears.

I was wrong. That very night in Minneapolis, as news about Floyds death spread, protests broke out with angry mobs flooding the streets. These soon turned violent.

Protesters initially gathered at the 3rd Police Precinct, where Chauvin and the other officers involved in the Floyd incident had been assigned. (All four were fired the day after Floyds death.)

The situation quickly spiraled out of control, with some protesters sparking fights with officers. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flashbangs in futile attempts to control order. Rioters, meanwhile, broke into the precinct motor pool and began destroying police vehicles.

By Wednesday night, crowds again gathered at the 3rd Precinct. Tensions, already high, soared further. Looting and rioting spread to nearby businesses: An AutoZone, a Wendys, and an apartment complex serving low-income families were all set on fire.

Local news showed looters ransacking the Target across the street from the 3rd Precincta particular irony since Targets corporate headquarters are based in Minneapolis, and the corporation is heavily identified with the Twin Cities.

Watching the videos of buildings being set ablaze made me realize this was not going to be like anything I had covered before.

I needed to get on the ground in the Twin Cities as quickly as possible.

I hardly slept the night before my flight, my mind racing with worry thinking about the maelstrom into which I was about to be dropped.

May 28th

Getting to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport was the easy part, of course. Getting from the airport to the epicenter of the unfolding chaos was going to be a lot harder.

Luckily, a friend of a friend, a Twin Cities native named Jon, agreed to act as my guide. Picking me up from the airport, Jon gave me the lay of the land and tips of potential places rioters could hit next. We decided to head to the area of the 3rd Precinct.

My first stop after getting dropped off was the heavily looted and damaged Target.