The group is responding to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s and Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo’s extension of an olive branch to the community with promises to include it as advisors in helping to develop structural reform and transparency in the police department.
Minneapolis Police Lieutenant Bob Kroll, president of the Police Federation, seemed intent on sabotaging the mayor and the police chief’s efforts to make concessions to the community.
The majority of the marches and rallies have been called by a coalition of Communities United Against Police Brutality, St. Paul Black Lives Matter (a group independent of the national organization), Racial Justice Network, CAIR Minnesota, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar Clarke, and several individual activists.
While the motives of the White supremacists appeared to be the destruction of Black property and to cause the police to shoot at Black people, the motives of the anarchists are unclear, since they consider themselves a revolutionary group.
“When the streets calm and people suggest once again that we hire more Black police officers or create more civilian review boards, I hope that we remember all the times those efforts have failed.”
