Long before this week’s clashes between police and demonstrators protesting police brutality, the Minnesota State Patrol made a request that foreshadowed the shape of the chaos. The Minnesota State Patrol is one of several agencies responding to the Minneapolis protests over the police killing of a Black man. And like law enforcement agencies before them — in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana — some of the officers are outfitted for a battle. Minneapolis police officers wore body armor and carried riot gear to face off with visibly unarmed protesters who were wearing T-shirts and carrying signs. Early Friday morning, Minnesota State Patrol officers in body armor and riot gear swarmed the area around a burning police precinct and arrested members of a CNN camera crew without any obvious cause.

Source: Huffington Post May 30, 2020 01:41 UTC