Riot 4: Rocky Vs. Ivan

Sure. Just like some Neo-Nazis that show up to Republican events are planted by leftist groups. Always going to be extremists around trying to infiltrate and stir things up to make the other side look bad, but in this case the legitimate rioters are doing enough damage on their own.

Minneapolis (CNN)Minneapolis police have identified a suspect whom they believe helped initiate the riots and destruction in the city following the killing of George Floyd.

According to a search warrant filed earlier this week, which was obtained by CNN affiliate WCCO, the man is associated with the "Aryan Cowboys," which the Anti-Defamation League lists as a White supremacist prison and street gang. The warrant does not label them as a White supremacist group, but describes them as a "known prison gang out of Minnesota and Kentucky." On its Facebook page, the group says it does not care, "about a person's color."

CNN is not naming the suspect, who was dubbed "Umbrella Man" following the demonstrations, as police said no charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon....

(Newser) – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says she has reached a deal with administration officials that will see the "occupying force" of federal agents removed from downtown Portland. Brown said Wednesday that agents from the US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Protection will begin a phased withdrawal Thursday ... Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler—who was tear-gassed by federal agents last week—hailed what he called the end of an "illegal occupation."

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf confirmed that an agreement had been made, although he described it in very different terms. "We are not removing any law enforcement while our facilities and law enforcement remain under attack," ... President Trump said ... "Either they’re gonna clean up Portland soon, or the federal government is going up, and we’re gonna do it for them," ...

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best revealed at a Wednesday news conference that police discovered explosives, smoke bombs and other weapons in a van stationed at the weekend protests.

Saturday’s demonstration, promoted by the Youth Liberation Front in support of protesters in Portland, erupted in violence. Best said over the weekend that officers used blast balls, pepper spray and 40mm sponge-tip rounds, while some in the crowd of protesters broke windows and started fires. At one point, she said, someone threw an explosive that blew an 8-inch hole through a wall of the Police Department’s East Precinct.

Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins said Saturday evening that his team responded to multiple fires, including one that destroyed four trailers at a construction site.

On Wednesday, Best told reporters that officers saw a van following a group of protesters around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, before it stopped outside the East Precinct. At about the same time, she said, explosions started going off outside the precinct.

Best said a witness later told police they had seen baseball bats and explosives inside the same van earlier in the day.

Police later impounded the van and, after obtaining a search warrant, discovered firework pyrotechnics, smoke bombs, stun guns, bear and pepper spray, makeshift spike strips and gas masks, Best said.

No arrests have been made in connection to the explosives in the van, she said.

But she called what was found in the van “evidence that not everyone who comes to these protests are peaceful. Peaceful protesters do not show up in a van full of … explosives.”

Most of the crowd protested peacefully, Durkan later said, but the group associated with the explosives seemed “well-organized with this kind of destructive power.”

Seattle Police Sgt. James Lee, who works with the department’s arson/bomb squad, said his team also found remnants of a Molotov cocktail that exploded near King County’s juvenile detention facility, which is under construction.

“(The bear spray) is causing burns and itching and stinging to (officers’) face and exposed skin,” Lee said at the news conference. “This lasts much longer than the … type of pepper spray that police use and is much stronger. It is not safe for use on humans.”

Best said 59 officers were injured during the weekend protests.

“We have been in an unprecedented time in our city,” Durkan said at the news conference. “And one of the unprecedented things we’re experiencing is the historic civil rights reckoning, not just in Seattle but in this country. … Peaceful protests are good for America and good for our city. They push us to be better. They are a core tenet of who we are as a country.”

But, she added, “arson, destruction and violence have occurred and they undermine the push and need and voice for systemic change.”

Durkan ended the news conference by asking protesters to keep the peace in the city, noting that the violence is “sowing those divisions that the president wants” and “playing right into his hands.”

She also spoke of her commitment to making changes to law enforcement in the city.

“I believe wholeheartedly in reshaping the Police Department,” she said. “Chief Best and I have talked about how we can re-imagine policing and make sure that this city leads the way for the nation. … But again, we must stop engaging in hateful language and destruction. We have to move beyond that.”

The city’s Office of Police Accountability will continue to investigate the weekend complaints made against officers in hopes of holding police accountable, Durkan said.

“2020 has been a tough year,” she said. “And it’s going to continue to be tough. But the way we get through it, the way we come out the other end, is if we find a way to say, ‘We do not just come back, but we come back better.'”

Durkan is facing a recall movement led by people who have been protesting for racial justice and police accountability. On Wednesday, the King County judge who ruled earlier this month that the petition against Durkan could proceed stuck by that decision.

In response to the petition, Durkan said Wednesday, “I was elected to be Mayor of Seattle. It’s a democracy and if some time the voters decide they don’t want me, that’s alright, too.”

Yes, I would be surprised because I don't think it falls within the realm of reality.

You, on the other hand, seem to expect it. Almost to the point of hoping.

You don't think it's within the realm of reality that alt right groups are sewing chaos in these cities? Despite numerous arrests of members of said groups, you think it's just one side that's responsible?

Also, there goes another fake allegation of hoping for a certain outcome.

I thought we already acknowledged that this was a common tactic for extremists on both sides. Don’t even pretend that a sizable majority of the rioters are far right-wing plants, though.

I did too. You'd have to ask KN, who earlier said that all the rioters were Antifa.

... on May 29, two days before Trump tweeted that antifa would be labeled a terrorist organization and Barr issued his DOJ statement, the president’s own DHS analysts issued an open source intelligence report detailing how a white supremacist channel on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service, was encouraging followers to capitalize on the unrest by targeting the police with Molotov cocktails and firearms.

“The use of firearms greatly influences the scale and intensity of these events,” a source in the group, titled “National Accelerationist Revival,” wrote on May 27, advising followers to break police lines “with cocktails, chainsaws, and firearms.” At the time, DHS reported, the group included more than 3,400 subscribers. “Looting and shoplifting are both cool and whites should be doing it way more,” the source went on. “When the laws no longer benefit you, break them for personal gain. If you don’t feel like buying something, steal it. If you don’t feel like driving slow, drive fast. If you don’t like someone, hurt them.”

“We ought to revel in the destruction of the police state,” they wrote. “It is just as necessary to break down the police state and the system of control as it is to spread racial hatred.” ...

Antifa has been the scapegoat since day 1 when Trump first poured gasoline on the fire during the Minneapolis protests, despite having almost no presence there.

I did too. You'd have to ask KN, who earlier said that all the rioters were Antifa.

I can't wait for the usual suspects to paint this as an "alt-right attempt to destroy Seattle" or whatever excuse is in vogue now.

Seriously, very reasonable demands. Give more jobs to social workers and more programs, more homelessness aid etc etc etc use the cut funds from the PD to do it. Just like they want. Protests stop, riots go away "like a miracle" they'll just go away.

If you don't "like" that answer: have the police put on their gear and arrest the rioters. without assaulting them, with their god damn cameras on. arrest any protester who specifically interferes they will have proof, wear your camera. It's that simple.

"taking years" it's not that you implement it, it's that you agree to the demand to do it, right now.

As long as it's on camera, that you acted accordingly, there is no problem.

You targeted a proven "rioter" and met the occasion with the necessary level of "force".