Five Shot at Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Protest; Police Search for White Suspects

Rachel Maddow with the context for the shooting discussed below, plus updates

by Gaius Publius

Short and the opposite of sweet, but with two points to make. First is a news point, per the headline. Five people were shot at a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest in Minneapolis. Police are looking for several white suspects, likely white supremacists.

The story via Adam Johnson at Alternet:

5 Shot at Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Protest; Police Search for White Suspects

Multiple witnesses say white supremacists attacked the peaceful protest.

Five protesters were shot Monday night outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th Precinct, allegedly by three white males who witnesses described as white supremacists. The protesters had been peacefully demonstrating against the recent shooting of 24-year-old Jamar Clark by Minneapolis police. Clark was allegedly shot and killed while in police detention on November 15.

White supremacists were spotted stalking the protesters late Friday night and even posted a taunting video on Facebook of themselves wielding handguns and making veiled threats.

The shooting took place, according to the Washington Post, around 10:40pm Central Time. None of the victims are said to have life-threatening injuries according to Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder, although one was reportedly shot in the stomach and rushed to surgery.

More from the StarTribune report:

Miski Noor, a media contact for Black Lives Matter, said “a group of white supremacists showed up at the protest, as they have done most nights.”

One of the three men wore a mask, said Dana Jaehnert, who had been at the protest site since early evening.

When about a dozen protesters attempted to herd the group away from the area, Noor said, they “opened fire on about six protesters,” hitting five of them. Jaehnert said she heard four gunshots.

The shootings occurred at 10:45 p.m. on Morgan Avenue N. about a block north of the precinct station.

The attackers fled. ...

Seems the police used mace after the shootings — against the demonstrators. Alternet again:

Several organizers of the protests alleged that police sprayed demonstrators with mace following the shooting to control the crowd. The police have not responded to the allegations.

So that's the first point — this happened, and it happened in the current Trumpian, beat-up-the-dark-guy context.

The second point is this — imagine the attackers are American citizens of Syrian origin and Muslim faith. Now imagine the wounded are anyone at all, at a gathering in Minneapolis. Would that be called an act of terrorism? If so, how is this not an act of terrorism? 

Not that we don't know the answer ... but still, I want to watch the mainstream twist out the explanation.

GP