The law enforcement officers of Kenosha, Wisconsin have been busy arresting “protestors” (read: rioters) and Sheriff David Beth has revealed that more than half of the people arrested haven’t been locals. WISN reported:
The Kenosha County Sheriff says 205 people have been arrested since protests began last week.
The suspects have not been identified, but Sheriff David Beth said they were from 44 different cities.
“There were 40 law enforcement agencies from throughout the state here,” he said. “I don’t know the exact states that people came from.”
Beth said 114 suspects were from outside of Kenosha.
Spent the last 36 hours walking around Kenosha in a daze. Large swathes of the city are indistinguishable from a war zone.
The destruction in places is total, the locals dazed, shocked and trying to be brave.
Here are some pictures /1 pic.twitter.com/d7JSNXrmX0
— Josh Glancy (@joshglancy) August 29, 2020
Suspects were arrested for everything from breaking curfew to weapons charges:
“I know some were arrested for burglary, some were for weapons complaints,” Beth said. “We had some people who were felons who were carrying guns.”
Police said they seized more than 20 guns.
“Those would be processed evidence,” Beth said. “I don’t have those. I don’t know what kind of weapons they were.”
Beth said some suspects were arrested for making death threats.
“I don’t know how we found out about that group of three that was coming down from northern Wisconsin, I don’t know how we found out about that one,” he said. “I want the people of Kenosha to know there’s a huge amount of resources here to protect you.”
Every single local I spoke to blamed “out of towners” for the worst of the destruction. They didn’t offer a huge amount of evidence for this, but it’s a blanket consensus /4 pic.twitter.com/vboZYrRK9y
— Josh Glancy (@joshglancy) August 29, 2020
The LEOs of Kenosha still have backup in town:
About 1,500 National Guard troops from Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Alabama remain in Kenosha.
A curfew there has been extended until at least Thursday morning.
Every single local I spoke to blamed “out of towners” for the worst of the destruction. They didn’t offer a huge amount of evidence for this, but it’s a blanket consensus /4 pic.twitter.com/vboZYrRK9y
— Josh Glancy (@joshglancy) August 29, 2020
This answers some questions regarding whether or not rioters were locals. Unfortunately, Sheriff Beth remarked only on their coming from 44 different cities, but declined to address the issue of what states they were from (as you can see above).
I couldn’t even work out what this building used to be /3 pic.twitter.com/f3b7iBP54w
— Josh Glancy (@joshglancy) August 29, 2020
It also raises some interesting talking points regarding how common it is for protestors — specifically rioters — to be from other cities and states than the one they’re busy looting and burning down. From past protests/riots we know participants are often out-of-towners. Does this make it less surprising some of the guys trying to protect businesses would also be from out of town?
Would you travel to another city or state to protect local businesses, especially smaller mom-and-pop type stores, from rioters? How far would you go? Would you go armed? And for the rioters who traveled to, well, riot…should they be charged more aggressively than the locals who were arrested?
Discuss. That’s what the comment section is for.