Social media users have insisted rioters who ransacked a Chicago Blackhawks store amid the ongoing protests surrounding the death of George Floyd are "white people", reasoning that African-Americans would not steal NHL gear.
Protestors smashed through a pane of glass and decimated the flagship store of Chicago’s NHL franchise during a weekend of destruction in the city which saw widespread looting and violence in response to Mr Floyd’s death in police custody.
The incident happened after gangs of laughing looters gutted a Nike store in under 60 seconds on the same stretch of high street shopping stores on the city's Michigan Avenue.
In the footage of the break-in, the store’s glass window can be seen collapsing on top of one of the protestors. It was later reported by local journalist Jeremy Ross, who posted the video of the looting to Twitter, it was possible the group had shot at the glass before it came down.
Despite the race of the protestors in question not being clear from the footage, some social media users immediately branded them "white people" and bizarrely insisted it could not have been the work of African-American rioters, as they would not be interested in looting an ice hockey store due to the sport's lack connection to their culture.
The rioting has been condemned by many who say that they understand and endorse citizens' rights to protest what they view as police inequality but that the message is entirely undermined by the violence which sometimes comes with it.
In an unusual twist, the rioters have received additional criticism online for the attack on a Blackhawks store, which was seeming to go against the grain of targeting businesses considered to represent ‘the establishment’, given the team bears the name and serves as a beacon of preservation of Native American heritage.
Almost all popular stores on the city’s main shopping strip fell victim to looting over the weekend, including Macy’s, Zara, CVS and Walgreens.
Also on rt.com WATCH laughing looters clear out Chicago Nike store in UNDER A MINUTE