by Kara Machowski
America has watched in disgust over the past days activities, from the murder of George Floyd on Monday, Memorial Day to protests that have erupted into riots. Both have emerged from major cities all over the country, especially in Minnesota. The Minnesota police department, third precinct was set ablaze on Thursday night while protestors marched and few rioters took opportunity to reek their own havoc on businesses. AutoZone, across the street from the MPD third precinct, had it’s windows smashed and set ablaze, even though rumors have surfaced that it could have been a disgruntled police officer.
Rioters broke through multiple businesses Saturday, including Nike on Michigan Ave., in Chicago, Macy’s flagship store also on Michigan Ave., Nordstrom in L.A., and more. It became hard for many to distinguish a protestor from a rioter, especially in a scene pictured in a video of a masked rioter who was breaking the windows of the AutoZone in Minneapolis while other protestors videotaped and asked him to stop.
On Saturday night CNN reporter stopped a young gentlemen, Tetrick, a twenty-something year old who claimed to an American be from Lebanon. He spoke on camera to America on a level that everyone could understand and really explained and demonstrated the difference between protesters and rioters. He stated;
“If you’re going to take this opportunity to be opportunistic then there is something that is wrong with you. If you cannot stand up and fight the good fight and you’re trying to be a cheater, and (you) go ahead and take what we’re trying to do, something is wrong with you.
What we’re trying to do is stand up for the basic right of humanity and we’re tying to do it in a peaceful way. We do not want to go through this anymore. I want to be able to go into a white neighborhood and I want to be able to (know) when a cop is driving behind me I don’t have to clench and be tense. I want to be able to just be free and not have to think about every step I take. Because at the end of the day; being black is a crime. I don’t understand why, because we're all human.”
What Tetrick stated was a direct example of the difference between peaceful protesters who are marching for a cause versus the people who are trying to take advantage of the police absence.
A fellow protester who is said to have organized the protest in St. Paul, Minneapolis, when asked by the same CNN reporter what he would say to people not only at the protest by across America, he responded;
"Firstly a lot of the looting and vandalism is not done in George Floyd's name. Second-off; When we arrived at the fifth precinct out intention was to go through that crowd and collect as many as we could and infect them with the peace and positivity that we were roaming with that night. I don't think the looting and rioting is being done in George Floyd's name. What is being done in George Floyd's name is this type of gathering right now and we're going to try and keep this peace and moral the way it is. Our goal tonight is to keep the energy high and the tension low."
Another example of protesters trying to keep the peace and even stoppig vandalism from happening is in Detroit where protesters were videotaped blocking rioters and looters from entering the Target, worrying that their vandalism would deface the purpose of the march.
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