Minnesota citizen journalist exposes chaos, failed leadership, and lies during anti-ICE riots
"It seems to me that our leadership wants to promote conflict and to get people in trouble," said Alleister, a citizen journalist who discussed some of the viral videos he's captured over the last few weeks.
Alleister, a citizen journalist from Minnesota, joined Liz Collin on her podcast to talk about what happened behind the scenes of some of the viral videos he recorded.
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He’s been on scene for weeks now documenting what’s been going on throughout the Twin Cities.
In some of his recent videos, Alleister captured a man being beaten with a flagpole by an angry mob after an anti-ICE protest, a viral fist-fight outside ICE headquarters at the Whipple Building, and more.
He also spoke about how his work was inspired by the George Floyd riots back in 2020.
Alleister lived in Minneapolis back then and witnessed the riots for himself. Amid the chaos, Alleister said he was bothered by how the mainstream media made it seem as if everything was a “peaceful” movement back then.
“I lived right by the University of Minnesota … I advocate for protest, healthy protest, and peaceful protest,” he said, but he also recalled how “there were people throwing bricks at my building.”
“At the time I lived on the ground floor. So I was worried … I called my management company and I said, ‘One of these bricks could go through my window.’ And then all of a sudden there’s essentially no protection for me,” he explained.
“The police can’t even get down here,” he added.
But Alleister also spoke about something else that bothered him: “Everybody was kind of afraid to go out because of widespread riots, looting, fires. And I really regret not doing what I do now back then.”
This partly explains why after working his day job, Alleister picks up his camera, pinpoints likely trouble spots, and heads out to document what’s happening.
That’s how Alleister managed to record more than a few videos that have since gone viral on social media.
A knack for finding and filming trouble
During one incident, outside ICE headquarters at the Whipple Building, where protests have been going on for weeks, Alleister recorded what has become an iconic video.
“A couple of patriots showed up to voice their support for ICE and were immediately followed, surrounded with noise, had people pushing their bodies up against them and one of these gentlemen had essentially no other choice after he backed up several times, had no other choice but to throw a punch. And so that started a larger brawl,” Alleister explained.
In another video, Alleister recorded a man being surrounded by a mob of protesters and beaten with a flagpole inside a parking garage in Minneapolis.
“There have been a few times where I’ve seen things like this, but the man was followed into the parking garage … They were attacked in the parking garage and had their flags and some other things they were holding ripped away from them and as the crowd followed them, all the way up, about halfway up the parking garage, down the stairs, back outside, around the building, in front of what looks to be a police officer or a security guard while he’s bleeding from the head,” Alleister recalled.
“We get back into the parking garage where some of the people start to ask everybody to cut their reporting, cut their live streams, and you can hear another gentleman start to issue death threats,” he added.
A lack of response from the Minneapolis Police Department
In yet another parallel to 2020, Alleister told Collin about the lack of response from leaders of the Minneapolis Police Department.
“We thought that we were leaving 2020 behind, but there have been several circumstances recently where armed protesters take over the streets of downtown Minneapolis or other neighborhoods,” he said.
In reviewing some of the recent incidents he’s recorded, he explained that “they set up autonomous zones where they block off the streets. Sometimes they interrupt traffic with rented U-Hauls, things of that nature.”
But Alleister was more concerned about something else: “One thing that I’ve noticed is that the police often will evacuate. As we saw during that day after the protest downtown a couple of weeks ago, they were very outnumbered downtown and they had to evacuate. They had no backup,” he said.
“It’s very concerning. It essentially means that we’re all on our own. It doesn’t matter who you are, and it shouldn’t matter your political affiliation. There’s just not enough law enforcement locally to handle things like this,” he added.
Alleister also spoke about “dangerous” rhetoric coming from Minnesota’s elected officials like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, Gov. Tim Walz, and city council members in Minneapolis.
“They’re essentially all saying very similar things, if not the same thing … It seems to me that our leadership wants to promote conflict and to get people in trouble,” he said.
Alleister’s videos and commentary can be found on social media on Facebook, and X.
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