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Some people you just can't reach
[Star Tribune] A liquor store was one of the first buildings touched by the rage of a crowd that had watched a white police officer press his knee into George Floyd’s neck until he died.Looters hit Minnehaha Lake Wine & Spirits twice the first night of protests as Steve Krause, the owner, watched by surveillance camera from his home across town. Two nights later the store burned down. Flames flung the red marquee onto a pile of mangled metal in what used to be the basement. Krause plans to rebuild what is now a third-generation business, but "there are bigger issues in society," he said from the sidewalk on E. Lake Street, a place still ringing with the echoes of Floyd’s death and the public’s furious response. He gestured at the hole in the ground that was his store. "If this is a sacrifice to accomplish a greater good, so be it," Krause said. Good luck getting insurance, idiot On May 28 — the night the Third Precinct police station and the liquor store and many other buildings burned — Ruhel Islam cooked food for protesters and offered bottled water in front of his restaurant, Gandhi Mahal, down the block and around a corner from the police station. Medics set up a spot to treat injured protesters in a community space adjacent to the restaurant. Later that night, someone set a fire that consumed Gandhi Mahal. The next morning, Islam’s response went viral: "Let my building burn," he said. "Justice needs to be served." Islam was a student demonstrator in Bangladesh in 1990 when a mass uprising toppled a military ruler. Those protests were not always peaceful. Dozens died, and students and other demonstrators clashed with police repeatedly before the president resigned. Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-30 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=575611 |