Twitter User Compiles List of Victims of Recent Riots

“THEIR LIVES MATTER”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jun. 3, 2020) — On Tuesday Darren J. Beattie assembled a thread containing links to media reports of those killed in riots and accompanying violence perpetrated in the wake of protests over the May 25 death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

Floyd had been arrested by members of the Minneapolis Police Department and was subdued, then reportedly suffocated, when then-MPD officer Derek Chauvin placed his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

During the ordeal, Floyd could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe” as three other officers looked on and cell-phone video was taken, then rapidly distributed around the globe.

The four officers were fired.  On Friday, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, although the murder charge was reported as upgraded to second-degree as this article went to press.

The three others have also been charged, Fox News reported shortly after 3:30 p.m.

Protests to Floyd’s death arose in Minneapolis, in scores of locations across the country, and even overseas.  However, beginning last Wednesday, looting, shootings and other violence erupted resulting in a now-inestimable amount of property damage, injuries and loss of life.

“Since there seems to be a media blackout on the victims of the riots, this thread will serve as a reference and tribute. THEIR LIVES MATTER,” Beattie tweeted late Tuesday evening.

The first victim, Beattie reported, was David Patrick Underwood, a 53-year-old contract security agent for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shot in Oakland, CA on May 31.

The list Beattie provided contains 38 deaths, with 23 occurring in Chicago over the weekend out of a total of 84 shot.

Some of those killed were in their 20s, while retired St. Louis police captain David Dorn was 77 when he was killed on on June 2.  Four active-duty officers were shot in the same city last night, Q13Fox reported.

More than a dozen police officers have been injured, some catastrophically, including a 29-year-old Las Vegas officer who was placed on life support on Tuesday, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Since May 27, rioting, looting, explosions, gunshots and hurled objects have marked many of the instances in which private businesses were ransacked and/or destroyed, individuals were killed, or both.

Late last week as the riots increased, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that “white supremacists” and individuals from outside Minnesota were fueling the violence, a claim repeated by Gov. Tim Walz, while U.S. Attorney General William Barr identified the perpetrators as “far-left extremist” and “anarchic groups.”

Around the country, numerous governors have activated state National Guard units to reinforce police units as well as curfews to restore order, a commitment to which President Trump made on Monday evening from the Rose Garden.

As of this writing, no mainstream outlet appears to have compiled a list similar to Beattie’s.

Beattie’s Twitter profile states he is a “former White House official”; an alumni of The Hudson Institute, a right-leaning public-policy non-profit organization; and a “moderate rebel.”