On That Rioting Thing

Branden Michael Wolfe

Mercury News:

A St. Paul security guard was wearing stolen police gear when he was arrested Wednesday, six days after he’s accused of helping to burn down the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct during riots following the death of George Floyd.

Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, was fired June 3 from his security job at Menards on University Avenue after the store learned of social media reports that identified him as a participant in the May 28 rioting.

A Menards employee called police after Wolfe tried to enter the store later that day wearing stolen body armor and a law enforcement duty belt and carrying a police baton, according to a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court.anden Michael Wolfe.(Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

St. Paul police found him in a vehicle several miles from the store, still wearing the body armor and duty belt, which was affixed with handcuffs, a baton, a knife and an ear piece. His name was handwritten on duct tape attached to the back of the body armor, according to the complaint.

In a police interview, Wolfe admitted he stoked the 3rd Precinct fire by pushing a wooden barrel into the flames.

He also reportedly admitted to stealing several items from inside and identified himself in multiple photographs that showed a man standing in front of the East Lake Street precinct holding a police baton as the building burned behind him.

Was the whole "rioting" thing a put on by agents provocateur? Of course not.

But there's an obvious attempt going on to paint the demonstrations as "left wing mob violence", and that's just not true.

“Radical left-wing mobs seek to tear down our monuments & our memorials—everyone from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass & even Gandhi. Misguided movements such as ‘Defund the Police’ seek to leave our communities more vulnerable than ever.” -@PressSec pic.twitter.com/nvbv2lbdgX

— GOP (@GOP) July 7, 2020