A pair of heavily-armed white men were filmed standing outside of a Minneapolis tobacco shop on Wednesday night as looters destroyed nearby property and stole from businesses during massive protests over the killing of an unarmed black man by city police earlier this week.
“Basically you see the records that cops keep. And cops are a lot less likely to try and tread on people’s rights when there’s other armed Americans with them,” one of the unidentified men says in a video taken by Max Nesterak, a local citizen journalist. “I figured it’s about damn time that some heavily armed rednecks stood with fellow citizens.”
The men explained they agree with the outrage expressed by many protesting the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, who was killed by police on Monday, but will not stand for looting in their community.
“So I figured before there were cops, there were just Americans, so here we are,” they said.
Local police arrested Floyd Monday on suspicion of using counterfeit money. Multiple videos from the scene show Floyd never resisted arrest, and one officer knelt on his neck for several seconds.
Floyd is heard on the video telling the officer, “I can’t breathe,” and pleading with him to get off. All four officers involved in the incident have been fired, and the mayor has asked local prosecutors to file murder charges against the officer who knelt on Floyd’s throat.
The incident has sparked outrage across the African American community, with large demonstrations taking place in cities such as Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
Video circulated overnight Wednesday of some protesters in Minnesota burning American flags while others looted stores and attacked people.
At least one person was killed during the eruption of violence in Minneapolis.
“It turns out these guys are out here with machetes and shattered windows trying to keep looters out of the businesses ’cause cops can’t get in here,” one of the men said.
These guys say they support the protests but not the looting. Showed up to help this tobacco store owner stop people from breaking in pic.twitter.com/x2FMQiQwVK
— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) May 28, 2020
