Police say bricks staged near protests were ‘to be used during a riot’

By Chuck Ross

Kansas City police officers found bricks and rocks staged near protest sites around the city, stoking concerns that individuals or groups had pre-planned looting and destruction that hit the city over the weekend, the department said Sunday.

“We have learned of & discovered stashes of bricks and rocks in & around the Plaza and Westport to be used during a riot,” the department said in a tweet on Sunday.

As in most major cities across the United States, protesters gathered in Kansas City over the weekend over the police-involved death of George Floyd. The 46-year-old black man died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes during an arrest involving a non-violent incident, video showed.

What began as peaceful protests in many cities over the past several days has devolved into looting and rioting. Looters hit Kansas City’s Plaza, a high-end retail district, on Saturday and Sunday.

A spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department said he had not identified the source for the bricks and rocks found near the protest sites, but they were likely intended for “nefarious use.”

“I don’t know who would have put them there. I don’t think they’re doing any type of construction or anything like that. I sense that they’re probably there for nefarious use,” Capt. David Jackson told reporters on Sunday.

Kansas City police deemed protests near the Plaza unruly on Sunday night after demonstrators began throwing debris at officers.

Fires were also set during the riot. A reporter for KSHB, a Kansas City TV station, said her car was set on fire near the protests.

Piles of bricks and rocks have been spotted by social media users in other cities across the United States, stoking concerns that groups are staging much of the rioting and looting. So far, only the Kansas City Police Department has linked the discovery of pallets of bricks to pre-planned rioting.

President Donald Trump and the Justice Department have asserted that Antifa, the loosely organized left-wing anarchist group, is behind much of the looting and rioting. Trump plans to declare Antifa a domestic terror group, he said Sunday.

Democrats have downplayed Antifa’s role in the protests. Some have asserted without evidence that white supremacist groups are behind much of the violence. Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice went as far Sunday as claiming that the Russian government was funding some of the violence in order to sow discord over Floyd’s death.

The New York Police Department’s top counterterrorism official said Sunday that the agency has analyzed the tactics of anarchist groups. John Miller, the deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said Sunday that anarchist groups have organized medical teams near protest sites in anticipation of violence and confrontation with police.

“They prepared to commit property damage and directed people who were following them that this should be done selectively and only in wealthier areas or at high-end stores run by corporate entities,” Miller said, according to NBC News.

The groups use bicycle scouts to direct violent demonstrators to parts of the city that are not patrolled by police, he added.

The scouts were able “to direct groups from the larger group to places where they could commit acts of vandalism including the torching of police vehicles and Molotov cocktails where they thought officers would not be,” Miller said.

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7 thoughts on “Police say bricks staged near protests were ‘to be used during a riot’

  1. It must be coincidental that all these bricks, rocks and fire implements are found at these “spontaneous” peaceful demonstration sites. Guess someone must have misplaced them.

  2. Don’t all peaceful protesters arrange for piles of bricks to be waiting at the place where the demonstration is going to take place?
    And carry hammers, chisels, crowbars and water bottles full of gasoline in backpacks with them, just in case?
    Seems odd that our very own socialist senator is strangely quiet about these peaceful protests. These are the progressive / liberal Bernie Bros’ in action, aren’t they?

  3. It’s more likely that the bricks were placed there by people who wanted to divert the public anger and frustration from the lockdown measures to anger toward “the establishment.” Let them vent a little, let people get distracted.

    Then, after people vent a little and maybe relax a little and maybe vent a little more in the summer, in the fall we can have our “second wave” which will likely lead to food shortages in the winter– forget about toilet paper. Perhaps then, when governments around the world are in chaos, will we be ready for Happytalism? https://unnwo.org/

    I keep wondering about the statement by members of the Catholic clergy who warn that all this is in preparation for a new world order “beyond control.” It’s perhaps because members of the Catholic church know of the eugenics experiments that have been conducted, without consent, in countries such as Kenya–under the auspices of the WHO– that they’re one of the first to see the implications of what might be going on. People like Bill Gates, a major funder of the WHO (which has played a major role in this pandemic) have long complained that there are too many people on the planet. Once mandatory vaccination is in place, the sky’s the limit, no? That’s how the eugenics delivery system worked in Kenya.

    With the new world order in place we can save the planet, can’t we? After all, we only had what, twelve years left to act? Wasn’t it long past time for drastic measures?

    Track, trace, control: we already have the technology, we just need the population to agree to these measures. Out of fear of coronavirus, we will. Sound like a world of freedom, or something closer to tyranny?

    To my mind, members of the Catholic clergy, and the signatories to their statement (I am one) are rightly concerned. We all hope we’re wrong, but fear we’re not.

  4. If Antifa is Designated A Terrorist Group, There Are A Lot Of Possible Charges Coming
    Posted at 4:06 pm on May 31, 2020 by Sarah Lee
    Once Trump declared his intent Saturday to name antifa a terrorist organization — thought by many observers on the ground to be one of the main groups responsible for inciting the looting and rioting — celebrity calls to provide material support through bail donations began to look a lot different since providing material support to a named terrorist group violates federal laws such as the PATRIOT Act. Basically, if someone wanted to make that case, it’s not outside the realm of possibility they could.
    Oops.
    https://www.redstate.com/slee/2020/05/31/if-antifa-is-designated-a-terrorist-group-there-are-a-lot-of-people-who-could-possibly-be-charged-under-the-rico-statute/

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