Dollar Tree ransacked amid BLM protests in Brooklyn Center becomes focus for latest Twitter war of words

Amid a second night of rioting and clashes between police and protesters in Minnesota, Twitter found its own battleground – reacting in a morally superior and politically convenient way to the ransacking of a Dollar Tree store.

The latest spree of racially charged protesting and violence in the US was triggered by the death of African American man Daunte Wright, who was shot by a police officer while trying to drive away from a patrol. The second night of protests on Monday was fueled by the release earlier in the day of body-cam footage of the incident. The police suggested that the officer pulled out her firearm instead of her taser by mistake.

The police department in Brooklyn Center, a community northwest of Minneapolis where the incident happened, was the focus of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, but other parts of the neighborhood have seen their share of turmoil, as raging crowds vandalized and looted properties.

One of the targets was a local branch of Dollar Tree, a discount retailer. The chain sells food and household items as cheaply as possible, serving as a major supplier for poorest communities. So it’s no wonder that the outlet’s demise was soon picked up by conservative commentators as the latest example of how BLM protesters don’t really care about black communities and only want looting and chaos.

Their ideological opponents appeared en masse to explain why a bit of property damage was OK when done for the right cause. Dollar Tree is a rich corporation exploiting black people, they suggested, so you can’t possibly value some store more than the life of Daunte Wright, and, most of all, what about the Capitol Hill riot? Or so the arguments went.

The spree of violence in Brooklyn Center is happening while the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former police officer charged with murdering black man George Floyd last year, is underway in Minneapolis. Some predict that if the verdict is not satisfactory to BLM protesters, buildings will burn again.

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