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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

During the riots, there was a great deal of speculation about who the bad guys were. Trump obviously wanted to blame everything on Antifa, but there was not much evidence that Antifa had a significant presence in the Minneapolis riots. There was evidence, however, that at least some of the rioters were white nationalists who thought the riots would be a good opportunity to sow unrest, and maybe start the race war that white nationalists always seem to be dreaming about starting. One of the intriguing mysteries of the Minneapolis riots was video of an unknown agitator dubbed “Umbrella Man.” Clad entirely in black with an industrial gas mask and a black umbrella (to prevent being identified from drone footage), he smashed out the windows of an AutoZone in South Minneapolis. What was unusual was that this man did not appear to be acting out of spontaneous rage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KVAMZZEBzI

In fact, in a different video I saw early on in Forbes online (that video was apparently taken off of YouTube), he actually looks kind of bored, like he’s finishing up a long shift of window smashing and just wants to get these last few windows so he can call it a day and kick back with some Molotov cocktails. In the video linked in the Forbes article, protestors stop him and chase him off, accusing him of being an undercover cop. The Star Tribune is now reporting that police have identified him as a white nationalist in the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, which has a presence in Minnesota and Kentucky, and that he was there to try to instigate rioting.

The AutoZone he smashed was the very first building to burn on the very first night of the fires.

Likewise, we all remember that the guard who was killed at the federal building in Oakland early on was shot by a right-wing nut using protests as cover.