Court documents show wide variety of motives, little, if any, cohesion.
In the months since riots erupted in Minneapolis this summer, state and federal court documents have told a story that largely contradicts the widely disseminated narratives from Republican and Democratic politicians of what happened in that chaotic week.
President Donald Trump blamed the violence in Minneapolis on radical leftists, saying “antifa” led the riots. Gov. Tim Walz warned that Minneapolis and St. Paul were “under assault” by an “organized attempt to destabilize civil society.” Other public officials said waves of out-of-state agitators descended on the Twin Cities and caused the bulk of the violence.
But documents in dozens of state and federal criminal charges, reviewed by the Star Tribune, present a much more complicated narrative of splintered and disorganized crowds with no single goal or affiliation, and in some cases contradictory motives, that vastly outnumbered police and took advantage of a lawless scene. Continue reading.