As riots in Minneapolis continue in response to the death of George Floyd, some responsibly armed Americans have taken it upon themselves to defend storefronts from looters.
Two such men spoke to local news media about the decision to take up arms and protect local businesses.
“It turns out these guys are out here with machetes and shattered windows trying to keep looters out of the businesses ’cause cops can’t get in here,” said one of the men to MNReformer reporter Max Nesterak.
“So I figured before there were cops, there were just Americans, so here we are. Bottom line, justice for Floyd and I hope they stop looting at some point.”
Carrying AR-pattern rifles, the two men initially set out to join the protesters calling for police to be held accountable for the killing of Mr. Floyd, the unarmed black man who died on May 25th after one officer knelt on his neck for roughly 7 minutes while he was handcuffed lying face down in the street.
Video footage shows Mr. Floyd yelling, “I can’t breathe,” before he eventually goes silent and motionless.
“Basically you see the records that cops keep. And cops are a lot less likely to try and tread on people’s rights when there’re other armed Americans with them,” the other armed citizen told Nesterak earlier in the video. “I figured it’s about damn time that some heavily armed rednecks stood with fellow citizens.”
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The two men initially were there to protect people’s rights against the police and then they tried to protect personal property.
Is this what we have to do in a country where the rule of law has broken down?
David DeGerolamo
h/t Dr. Ley
