Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

tenderfoot

(8,424 posts)
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:17 PM Jul 2020

Police: 'Umbrella Man' was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting

Police say the suspect has been identified, but no charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.

A masked man who was seen in a viral video smashing the windows of a south Minneapolis auto parts store during the George Floyd protests, earning him the moniker “Umbrella Man,” is suspected to be a member of the Hell’s Angels biker gang seeking to incite racial tension in a demonstration that until then had been peaceful, police said.

A Minneapolis police arson investigator said the man’s actions at the AutoZone on East Lake Street set off a chain reaction that led to days of looting and rioting. The building was later burned to the ground.

“This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city,” Erika Christensen wrote in a search warrant affidavit filed in court this week. “Until the actions of the person your affiant has been calling ‘Umbrella man,’ the protests had been relatively peaceful. The actions of this person created an atmosphere of hostility and tension. Your affiant believes that this individual’s sole aim was to incite violence.”

Police identified the suspect thanks to a tip that came via email last week, Christensen said.

At least two people died in the subsequent riots, which eventually spread as far as north Minneapolis and South St. Paul, and caused an estimated $500 million in damage.

Police have also connected the 32-year-old man to a widely-publicized incident in Stillwater late last month, in which a Muslim woman was confronted by a group of men wearing white supremacist garb.

more: https://www.startribune.com/police-umbrella-man-was-a-white-supremacist-trying-to-incite-george-floyd-rioting/571932272/

48 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Police: 'Umbrella Man' was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting (Original Post) tenderfoot Jul 2020 OP
Kick! blogslut Jul 2020 #1
Many of us have said all along that outside agitators/agent provacatuers... brush Jul 2020 #2
Yep. dalton99a Jul 2020 #6
Whaaaaaat? TheBlackAdder Jul 2020 #3
If nothing else, shouldn't he at least be charged for the cost of those windows? Blue Owl Jul 2020 #4
They should identify this asshole. dalton99a Jul 2020 #5
What's his badge number? WhiskeyGrinder Jul 2020 #7
+1 Drum Jul 2020 #36
+1 Vivienne235729 Jul 2020 #38
Crisis actor ? RANDYWILDMAN Jul 2020 #8
Richmond VA Violence Caused By White Supremacists Posing As BLM TheBlackAdder Jul 2020 #9
+1 dalton99a Jul 2020 #10
I'm sure all of the media will have this as their headline story all day and into tomorrow NewJeffCT Jul 2020 #18
Also... WhiskeyGrinder Jul 2020 #11
+1. Clearly preplanned and orchestrated. dalton99a Jul 2020 #13
And was I ever proud of our local girls here in Stillwater. Mister Ed Jul 2020 #24
Wonder if he was also an asset for any other entity. n/t MarcA Jul 2020 #12
I immediately started thinking the same thing. Scruffy1 Jul 2020 #30
There's so much supremacist activity in the Northwest BadgerMom Jul 2020 #14
If white supremacists decided to kidnap or shoot protesters IronLionZion Jul 2020 #26
Portland is littered with previous Proud Boy, Patriot Prayer White Supremacist 'protests' StocktonNative Jul 2020 #31
This message was self-deleted by its author Midnight Writer Jul 2020 #15
? JudyM Jul 2020 #41
An attempt. Didn't nail it, though. I'll just take it down. Midnight Writer Jul 2020 #42
The sarcasm drip emoji is a help JudyM Jul 2020 #43
Kick and recommend. bronxiteforever Jul 2020 #16
finally! musette_sf Jul 2020 #17
Kick this one. Kingofalldems Jul 2020 #19
Whoa !!! uponit7771 Jul 2020 #20
Isn't this the second reported instance of white supremacists doing this this week? uponit7771 Jul 2020 #21
No charges yet? matt819 Jul 2020 #22
Good. Hope it's a televised arrest, with that scumbag white supremacist humiliated on national TV.. SunSeeker Jul 2020 #23
+1 dalton99a Jul 2020 #47
This has to mainstream. It must be or they can pull indies into believing SleeplessinSoCal Jul 2020 #25
Kicked and recommended superpatriotman Jul 2020 #27
Proud Boys member arrested in Oregon nt Nululu Jul 2020 #28
K&R nt PoliWrangler Jul 2020 #29
I saw this video the first day LittleGirl Jul 2020 #32
I thought some woman from St. Paul IDed him as her exhusband, a St. Paul policeman. panader0 Jul 2020 #33
Think Gym Jordan has footage of him? nolabear Jul 2020 #34
Kick! cp Jul 2020 #35
Conspiracy theorists thought there was an umbrella man bucolic_frolic Jul 2020 #37
So, not BLM and not Mary Poppins. Who could imagined Hassler Jul 2020 #39
Please watch the original video. warmfeet Jul 2020 #40
So part of the Trump supporting bikers that Trump keeps touting. nt woodsprite Jul 2020 #44
I wish more people would read this: ret5hd Jul 2020 #45
+1. Trump's bikers: dalton99a Jul 2020 #48
Wonderful! SergeStorms Jul 2020 #46

brush

(53,469 posts)
2. Many of us have said all along that outside agitators/agent provacatuers...
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:24 PM
Jul 2020

were dispatched to cities to create violence to discredit the BLM protests. This verifies that. It's a common tactic by the right.

Blue Owl

(49,913 posts)
4. If nothing else, shouldn't he at least be charged for the cost of those windows?
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:26 PM
Jul 2020

They just gonna let this Nazi sack of shit walk free with no consequences???

dalton99a

(81,065 posts)
5. They should identify this asshole.
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:27 PM
Jul 2020


Christensen wrote in the affidavit that she watched “innumerable hours” of videos on social media platforms like Tik Tok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube to try to identify the suspect, to no avail. Investigators finally caught a break when a tipster e-mailed the Minneapolis Police Department identifying the man as a member of the Hell’s Angels biker gang who “wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors,” the affidavit said.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the man was also an associate of the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a small white supremacist prison and street gang based primarily in Minnesota and Kentucky. Several of its members were present at the Stillwater incident.

TheBlackAdder

(28,073 posts)
9. Richmond VA Violence Caused By White Supremacists Posing As BLM
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:29 PM
Jul 2020

.



This weekend in Richmond, Virginia, police arrested several such saboteurs during a Black Lives Matter protest, according to city Mayor Levar Stoney. “White supremacists” were carrying pro-BLM signs and breaking windows at downtown businesses, Stoney said, but were stopped when BLM protesters pointed them out to police.
.
.
Not only are white supremacists involved in the violence and property damage at the protests, but it’s clear that they are working multiple strategies to leverage the chaos into what they hope will be a democracy-destroying race and civil war. The tactics so far include:

Dressing up in clothing typically worn by antifascist demonstrators, mainly the all-black clothing and masks worn by so-called “black bloc” activists. This has been observed both in Portland and in Seattle, where well-known far-right “Proud Boy” street brawlers have been spotted and reported on social media.

Turning up at protest demonstrations fully armed with body armor, often wearing the Hawaiian shirts that signify participation in the “Boogaloo” civil-war movement, and claiming to be sympathetic to the anti-police protesters (many “Boogaloo” enthusiasts are indeed violently disposed toward law-enforcement officers). This has occurred in a variety of places, including in North Minneapolis, in Salisbury, North Carolina, in Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as in Seattle and Los Angeles. The most notorious case occurred in Denver, Colorado, where a “Boogaloo Boi” was arrested by police at a protest with a large arsenal in the trunk of his car.

Pretending to be antifascists or anarchists on the Internet, primarily with the purpose of duping the public into believing that antifascists were on the verge of attacking communities. One fake flier, spread around Olympia, Washington, offered people $200 to act as “paid protesters,” all of it ostensibly paid for by George Soros and the Open Society Foundation. The most glaring hoax was when a Twitter account calling itself “ANTIFA US” began posting wildly incendiary exhortations: “Tonight’s the night, Comrades. Tonight we say 'F--- The City' and we move into the residential areas... the white hoods.... and we take what's ours …” The account was taken down after Twitter ascertained it was associated with activists involved in the white-nationalist Identity Evropa organization. Despite being a fairly obvious hoax, it nonetheless duped Donald Trump Jr. into repeating the post on Instagram with a message supporting his father’s attempts to blame antifascists for the violence.


https://crooksandliars.com/2020/07/white-supremacists-arrested-while


.

WhiskeyGrinder

(22,145 posts)
11. Also...
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:30 PM
Jul 2020
Police have also connected the 32-year-old man to a widely-publicized incident in Stillwater late last month, in which a Muslim woman was confronted by a group of men wearing white supremacist garb.


This deserved broader coverage, as it was fucking terrifying.

Mister Ed

(5,896 posts)
24. And was I ever proud of our local girls here in Stillwater.
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 02:57 PM
Jul 2020

Teenage waitresses from the ice cream parlor banded together and escorted the terrified Muslim woman and her four-year-old child past the white supremacists out on the streets.

Scruffy1

(3,239 posts)
30. I immediately started thinking the same thing.
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 03:35 PM
Jul 2020

It's certainly not unusual for the feds to have "assets" in biker gangs and other organizations including anti war groups.Police work is not like TV shows. Most crimes are solved by "information". It happened a long time ago but I can remember when the President of the Minneapolis Hell's Angels turned snitch. When youare looking at a possible long sentence, or at least huge legal bills going to work for the feds becomes an appealing alternative. He could very well be doing this to please his masters, but I don't think they would directly ask for such behavior. It's all a wink and a nod. If he was an Angel I am sure the feds have a file and yet it took locals to identify him.

BadgerMom

(2,766 posts)
14. There's so much supremacist activity in the Northwest
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:53 PM
Jul 2020

that I’ve felt all along they could be involved in the violence in Portland that allows criticism of the peaceful protesters.

IronLionZion

(45,256 posts)
26. If white supremacists decided to kidnap or shoot protesters
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 03:09 PM
Jul 2020

people wouldn't know the difference from the federal agents doing it. They could easily impersonate federal agents or protesters or both to create the story they want.

StocktonNative

(120 posts)
31. Portland is littered with previous Proud Boy, Patriot Prayer White Supremacist 'protests'
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 03:40 PM
Jul 2020

...or better yet 'raliies'

And that is a major issue with the Portland public knowing that some of these goons are in the ranks of the police.

At the same time the QAnon types are milling around with the ALT-Right groups.

It is not out of the question that some of these types are causing trouble at these Portland protests. Just the other day a group of white kids were calling out "Nigger" to people in the park, puffing up and pulling out a gun to those who spoke up. One individual being shot in the arm.

FCK TRUMP and his ALT-RIGHT WeakWhyte Racist assholes.

Note: I live in Portland and have been to at least 9 rallies now and make my presence during the daytime to feel what is going on in the city. #PortlandProtest #BlackLivesMatter

Response to tenderfoot (Original post)

matt819

(10,749 posts)
22. No charges yet?
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 02:38 PM
Jul 2020

It they had identified a Black guy, he'd already have been shot while resisting arrest.

SunSeeker

(51,367 posts)
23. Good. Hope it's a televised arrest, with that scumbag white supremacist humiliated on national TV..
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 02:49 PM
Jul 2020

His perp walk needs to be on the evening news.


SleeplessinSoCal

(8,994 posts)
25. This has to mainstream. It must be or they can pull indies into believing
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 03:06 PM
Jul 2020

The ads hundreds of millions of dollars are being produced as we type.

LittleGirl

(8,261 posts)
32. I saw this video the first day
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 03:56 PM
Jul 2020

Glad they identified him. Is he going to jail or is 45 going to pardon him too?

Hassler

(3,321 posts)
39. So, not BLM and not Mary Poppins. Who could imagined
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 06:14 PM
Jul 2020

It would turn out to be a fascist? Answer: anyone with a functioning brain.

warmfeet

(3,321 posts)
40. Please watch the original video.
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 07:47 PM
Jul 2020

This person is very calm, very matter of fact. They are extremely well prepared.

They have been doing this a while.

Always remember, practice makes the perfect fascist. They are good. We need to be better.

SergeStorms

(18,891 posts)
46. Wonderful!
Wed Jul 29, 2020, 12:42 PM
Jul 2020

I knew that SOB was a provocateur of some sort, and so did the people in the area of the auto parts store. I'm glad they found out, ostensibly anyway, who it was. Now I hope they're able to throw the book at him. It's agents provocateur who are starting this shit all over the country, giving BLM protestors a bad name.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Police: 'Umbrella Man' wa...