The meaning of terror

In Minneapolis, Minnesota:

The men starting jostling with each other and yelling things that were hard to understand. At least five other cars were driving recklessly through the narrow streets, setting off bottle rockets, their passengers hanging off of the door frames, some even riding on the hood, yelling, “Jihad!”

They ran over some neighbors’ lawns and reportedly beat up one resident’s dog.

“Do you know Shariah law?” one of the older men in robes yelled at Penskey.

Having lived overseas, Penskey knew about Shariah law and its rules for man-woman relationships and Muslim-non-Muslim relationships. “Yes,” she said, walking back toward her garage.

“We can kidnap you and rape you!” the men shouted back at her.

Where were the cops?

Police took up to three hours to arrive. The dispatchers told Penskey they didn’t have enough officers on duty to confront 20 or more men. The police did periodic drive-bys to monitor the situation. When they did show up, the worst offenders were gone.

What's the local media doing?

The local newspaper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, has ignored the incident. And only one TV station, KSTP Channel 5, has covered it. “And so now it’s being said that it’s all being made up. It wasn’t made up; this happened,” Layer said. “Why it was only being reported on Channel 5, I don’t know.”

It's easy to maintain the Narrative when one can simply not report the ugly truth.

“People are too afraid of the backlash, and that’s why people are afraid to say something,” Penske said. “If you do, you’ll either get a backlash or be called a bigot.”

(Originally posted at Isaac Schrödinger.)