Will the tactics work in Mpls

[judeling]

It is an interesting but not unheard of approach.
The set a large perimeter this spread out the crowd and had them focused on the police and not any landmark, although the landmark was an objective.

They retreated into dead ground that had already been looted and was less vulnerable. (Incidentally showing the group the destruction that had been done to familiar places. ) Looking like they had given up the objective. That drew the crowd after them. Then after the crowd was pulled into a narrow area they stopped and drew focus back on themselves as an objective, The teargas was to thin the crowd. After the focus was truly set and the objective was clear they then started the retreat again until the crowd strung out and then disappeared taking the energy right out of it.

There were never going to be mass arrests. The last thing needed now was another log on the fire.

Now as the night goes on we will see if it works.

[bamagal62]

1. Seeing all this happen just breaks my heart.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's an unexpected tactic but they seem to have decided

that not confronting the protesters and avoiding violence (and possible video of cops beating people up or worse) was a better way of dealing with the situation even if there's a lot of property damage. Business owners might feel differently and it was hard to watch the destruction - but nobody is dead or beaten up, besides poor George Floyd.

[judeling]

5. They just did not have enough manpower

800 may sound like a lot but that isn't even 2 for every 1,000 people. You just cannot hope to control the size of the protests with that few.

Unless you truly want to use massive firepower.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. It appears that way. If there are enough people

they can't arrest all of them, and they have evidently decided not to even try to arrest people just for curfew violations. Here's an interesting live Facebook stream by one of the protest leaders: https://www.facebook.com/NinjaBlack47/videos/2568153576732167/?fref=search&__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARBXppfFrnDXpzxREhxT5I8SQqP5YaAY4V9JDEOT_CKLr7VBjTvir46BM1O9Yr7HXr_hRXS3epSfqJzt

[sarisataka]

3. I have watched some livestreams

of marches currently going on in Minneapolis. Those leading the marchers have encountered police roadblocks and spoke with officers. They explained the intent of the march is to keep moving so people do not stop and start repeating the previous two nights.

The police agreed to open paths for the marchers to go and indicated they will not interfere as long as the marches stay peaceful.

Hopefully this rapprochement holds through the night.

[progree]

7. Well in this livestream they've been in front of the Mpls 5th Precinct for about an hour

speechifying and chanting. So far no violence or bad-acting. Someone threw a bottle at a window of the 5th precinct and apparently got chewed out by others in the crowd. (Unicorn Riot)

[sarisataka]

9. I was watching Unicorn Riot while they were around Chicago

I switched to the march in downtown. Every time someone starts moving towards any violence or vandalism (outside of some graffiti) other marchers pull them back. They are very focused on staying peaceful and being heard for justice.

The even told the police there were going to go down to 35 and the police gave them the go ahead

[dubyadiprecession]

4. We need a serious overhaul of how the police act in this country!

I had a cop bark at me, “where are you going!” When I tried to walk down a sidewalk towards a house that had been on fire.
The sidewalk wasn’t taped off. He just yelled that at me from the center of the street, in front of two other cops, that he was talking to.
I know it is nothing compared to what the black community has to deal with, but I felt I was treated more like a prisoner, than a citizen from a democratic nation.
Their culture of what they think their role is and how they act in this society, needs to change!

[judeling]

6. I'd have yelled at you

If this was Minneapolis and I didn't know what you were doing after a night of riots.

[dubyadiprecession]

10. It was broad daylight, and the fire had been out.