Viral video: Man destroys Black Lives Matter signs and George Floyd memorial in Minneapolis
A video uploaded to Reddit Sunday has gone viral for its atrocity. In it, a man can be seen destroying Black Lives Matter signs and a memorial in honor of George Floyd. The short video taken outside of the George Floyd Square in Minneapolis begins with a truck pulling into the memorial site, blocks away from where Floyd was killed.
The pixelated man then begins vandalizing the area by removing barricades, flipping tables, and ripping down Black Lives Matter signs. His violence continues as he retrieves an ax from his truck and targets the Square shed. In the shocking and horrific footage, he can be seen bashing windows, tearing the sign from the front of the “house” and breaking wooden beams.
He even had the audacity to go inside and remove items from there. In the video, his truck’s lights illuminate the inside of the shed as he works on destroying it.
After going back and forth causing damage, bystanders finally come into the area and are heard shouting at the man. After one questions what he is doing there and yells, “get the fuck out of here!”, the man can be seen running away from the scene.
Of course, the man had to be a coward for his actions and the fact that he ran away leaving his ax behind is confirmation of just that. Reddit users took to the platform to share their thoughts on the incident, including suspicions that his ax looked like one a firefighter or law enforcement official would use.
“I bet he is a cop,” one user commented. “Yep, that’s why he took his time. Knew nobody was coming because he forewarned them what he was going to do,” another added.
According to the Daily Dot, a police report has not yet been filed. But many are confident the man will be apprehended soon because of the ax he left at the scene.
“I’m guessing off duty firefighter with the fire axe and pickup truck. He left the axe behind hopefully they can pull prints from it,” one Reddit user wrote.
While the damage is heartbreaking, George Floyd Square’s Instagram account shared a photo of the shed Monday with a caption reading: “We fine.” In the picture, the shed windows are painted with the words “people over property.”
The fact that someone was heartless enough to commit this crime is beyond words. The incident follows days after a jury indictment of Derek Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis police officers on civil rights violations for their roles in the murder of Floyd. According to the three-count indictment, all the former officers were charged with depriving “George Floyd of the right, secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, to be free from an unreasonable force by a police officer” in addition to failure to act when they saw Floyd “lying on the ground in clear need of medical care.”
The announcement of federal civil rights charges came days after Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges against him on April 20. He was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter after kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020.
Floyd’s death sparked a movement of change across the world and calls for an end to racial injustice nationwide.
Disrespecting his memorial shows why the need for racial justice and police reform is so important. “Imagine being so full of hate you tear down memorials of a man killed by police,” a Reddit user commented.