Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has walked back remarks he made Saturday morning in a press conference, during which he boldly claimed “every single person we arrested last night, I’m told, was from out of state.”
According to Star Tribune reporter Torey Van Oot, the mayor acknowledged Saturday evening that he shared incorrect information with the public earlier in the day: “I take full responsibility for that.”
At the time of the original remarks, Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) made a similar assessment, claiming that the best estimates say about 80% of the people arrested for rioting were from out-of-state. After Carter walked back the remarks, Walz was reportedly pressed on the source for his claim, and gave the following response: “I get a lot of reports from what we’re getting on the streets. Some of this is human intel that comes to us, so we’ll see tonight.”
Asked @GovTimWalz about the estimate that 80% of the demonstrators were from out of town. Do they still think that's the case? “We’ll find out when this is over.”
“We’ll have a much bigger data set after tonight and then will be able to see what’s happening,” he said.
See Torey Van Oot's other Tweets
KARE 11 Investigates, a team of investigative journalists in the Twin Cities region, was the first to cast doubt on the St. Paul mayor’s claim, reporting that a “review of all the arrests made by Minneapolis-based police agencies for rioting, unlawful assembly and burglary-related crimes from Friday to Saturday tells a different story.”
As of 11am CST on Saturday, a sample of data from the Hennepin County Jail’s shows that 86% of those arrested provided a Minnesota address to police. Later in the day, St. Paul released arrest information showing that two-thirds of people arrested since Thursday gave police in-state addresses.
However, the news organization cautions that police have expressed concern about rioters providing false information, and that the data analyzed was based on a “small sample.” A spokesperson for the St. Paul police department has also cautioned that arrest records are not necessarily representative of all people at a riot.
Oh, and one other caveat: many/some of the people being arrested are providing false addresses.
UPDATE: St. Paul released its numbers, showing that of the 18 arrested since Thursday, 12 are from Minnesota.
MN12
ND2
TX1
Unknown2
WI1
Total 18
Find the story here: kare11.com/article/news/i…
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“The number of arrests we’ve made is a very, very small percent of the people who are out there causing problems,” Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman, told the Pioneer Press on Saturday. “We’ve been focused on protecting people and firefighters so they can protect property. I don’t think you can look at 18 people and say it reflects the total number of people out there causing problems.”
During a press conference on Saturday evening, Attorney General William Barr warned that “it is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting.” President Donald Trump also expressed willingness Saturday to send military assistance to Minneapolis if asked, reports NBC News.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington explained the deteriorating state of the George Floyd demonstrations over the last several days, noting that the response warranted an assembly of “the largest civil policing authority in the history of Minnesota.”
The safety commissioner also emphasized that the transition from protests to riots has occurred over the last several days, noting that initial demonstrators were peaceful, but that the new scene has been filled with rioters who don’t show “any empathy or any heart” for the community.
“That little group that started out embedding themselves into George Floyd’s memorial service is no longer the little group,” Harrington told reporters later in the press conference. “It is in fact the group that is throwing projectiles, throwing batteries, firing into crowds, and setting fires and attacking firefighters, EMS, law enforcement, sheriff’s department and national guardsman as they seek to provide safety in our communities.”
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