Thread by @SophNar0747

This tweet marks the beginning of my Second Annual Minnesota Riot Spectacular. Attached below is my content from just under a year ago if you wanna see what happened then. As for today’s content, who knows what I’ll see but I intend to record as much as I can. See ya in a bit.

She mistook her handgun for her taser. Good god. The city is going to be destroyed for this.

Armed National Guard members are already patrolling the city.

There’s a deeply uncomfortable feeling in the air today. I think tonight will be chaotic.

For now the guard being in the city doesn’t mean much to me. Last year they retreated when the curfew ended and that was the night the city was razed and burned. This thread highlights it all:

I’m outside the Brooklyn Center police station. There’s not much of a crowd (yet) but there’s tables being set up by activists for when they show (bottled water and the like). Currently there’s just a lot of news agencies here and a ton of riot cops and national Guard.

Here’s the strip mall that was ransacked last night. Most stores look picked clean. Especially the Boost Mobile store. Here they’re boarding up one of the shops.

Just a random photo of a bench

Made my way to the government center in the heart of downtown Minneapolis where Derek Chauvin is being tried, and damn is it unsettling. It seems all these riots have accomplished is putting in play the complete militarization of an American city.

Walking by the fencing.

So many places are still boarded up. Welcome to the new normal.

Anyways. It’s raining and I’m cold so I’m returning to my hotel to snag some lunch and warm up. I’ll be going to multiple hot spots tonight to embed myself within the protest groups so I can record footage should things go crazy. I have a long night ahead of me most likely.

In the off chance you wanna support my work, of which I’m doing this independently, there’s various links in my pinned tweet.

There it is:

This is how Im preparing before I go back out for tonight’s chaos. Lol

Heading back to Brooklyn Center. Will be there to see what happens come curfew. Wish me luck.

Normal evening in downtown Minneapolis.

Here we go.

Would be ironic if these cops are Korean.

Lots of chanting.

Pretty sure I’m going to get a contact high. So much pot being smoked here

K.

It’s still a peaceful protest but they just sent out more riot police, non lethal weapons included.

They’re getting ready

Putting up fencing. Curfew in one hour

The crowd grows in size. I

Putting children on the frontline

Two different sides of the protest (listen at the end)

Oh?

The police don’t want no chicken. 😭

Got an emergency alert about curfew on my phone. It begins in 35 mins. The crowd grows in size.

Adding this again. I’ll be staying past curfew for footage.

Curfew in exactly 30 mins.

The crowd grows

Unrelated but fuck it’s cold and wet out here. 🥶

I feel safer already.

Curfew in about 20 mins. There’s so many small children here. Some literal toddlers.

Curfew in 17 mins. It looms like a dark cloud.

Curfew in 15 mins.

10 mins. Police move. Setting up a kettle perhaps.

It’s getting intense.

8 mins until curfew. Zip ties are ready

5 mins

3 mins

2 mins until curfew

And curfew is in effect

Hanging back to see what Police do first.

Police haven’t made a move or yet ordered people to leave

Starting to rain. It’s real cold. Police haven’t moved. Curfew is started. It’s nerve wracking here

More police coming out

Something feels... off

Way more police coming out

43 degrees and raining. I’m soaked through

Okay. I literally can’t feel my hands. Rain soaked through gloves. This is miserable

Fire works

I see the police preparing their kettle. A block of white buses hidden behind the station. Police flanking positions further down. I know what happens next. I’m preparing my exit strategy. Last year and in the fall I avoided every kettle.

I predict 430 arrests tonight.

Kettle motions.

Fuck I’m so damn cold

Weird how nothing much has yet happened.

Yeah. It’s been largely peaceful today.

Last year people shared my face on social media in an effort to get me attacked. Livestreams would tell people exactly where I am. I’m an independent journalist here completely alone. My method of uploading clips when stuff happens is the right method for me

The scene an hour after curfew began.

Police line

Fuck. Took pepper spray

Fuck me

They finally gave the order. Tons of riot police down the way

Crowd doesn’t leave despite dispersal order.

My eyes are on fire. Took pepper spray that was in the air after they sprayed someone else

Another dispersal order

People throwing stuff

To the frontline

Here we go!!!!

Fuck. I took a non lethal round. I want to die

My stomach. Holy fuck

Btw. Looters.

More looters

So curfew was meaningless again. The National guard was useless too. @GovTimWalz cant stop shit. Useless governor. It’s chaos out here

Tear gas

Omg the bruise I’m going to have tomorrow. Abdomen on fire

I had to retreat. No longer in area.