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Who's Gaming The George Floyd Protests / Riots?

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AnonyJ

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NOTE:
This thread has been stripped of the substantial number of postings that addressed "politics" and other matters not directly related to parties leveraging the current wave of George Floyd related protests and riots to their own ends. This housekeeping exercise was the only (I repeat - only ... ) acceptable way to avoid simply trashing everything that had been posted about the protests / riots and whose interests may be served.
  • This thread is dedicated to conspiracy aspects of the protest / riot events. That's why it's in the Conspiracy section.
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This is something I came across over the past couple of days when reading news media relating to the protests and subsequent civil unrest in Minneapolis-St Paul.

There are reports that alt-right and/or white supremacist people from out of town or out of state have been instigating the damage, looting and arson that was seen after the largely peaceful protests earlier in the week.

From Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergei...as-from-out-of-state-mayor-says/#6257f600264d

"“I want to be very, very clear: The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey added. “They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything we have built over the last several decades.”

According to Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, every person arrested in the city last night was from out of state: “We don’t know these folks,” he reiterated.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington confirmed evidence of white supremacist groups trying to incite violence; Many posted messages online that encouraged people to go loot in Minneapolis and cause mayhem.

Walz, who also announced that he would fully mobilize the Minnesota national guard for the first time in 164 years, called the unrest “an organized attempt to destabilize civil society with no regard for civil life or property.”

The dynamic has changed over the last couple days, Walz, Carter and Frey said. Protests gradually shifted from being peaceful on Tuesday, but as more people came from outside of the city, they’ve turned increasingly violent in recent days."


From MPR [Minnesota Public Radio] news https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/...among-those-fomenting-violence-in-twin-cities :

"DeVario Bogenholm, a 23-year-old who’s lived in Minneapolis for most of his life, blames outsiders, who are mostly white, for turning peaceful protests violent Friday night. He turned to Facebook to post a video of him and a friend confronting a group of young, white men who were smashing out storefront windows.

“Who’s destroying these buildings? These white dudes and we’re stopping them,” his friend, Noah Saba, said to the camera, then waved the phone to show footage of a group of white men on bicycles in front of a group of vandalized and burning buildings, “They’re setting these fires.”

Bogenholm said the video doesn’t fully capture the mob, with people of color largely at the back of the crowd and young white men initiating the damage to buildings.

Bogenholm and his friend demanded the men apologize for vandalizing the buildings and making black people look bad and then told them to leave. He said more people in the crowd turned on the men, and they rode off on bicycles.

“They knew they were in the wrong,” Bogenholm said. “And it was making us look bad.”

Hundreds of buildings across the Twin Cities have been damaged in the riots. A native youth cultural center, neighborhood bars and a building full of artist studios are among the structures that have been set on fire.

Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison spent Friday night driving around his ward to ensure people stayed safe. He said property destruction at protests, which he doesn’t support, normally is focused on symbols of power like police cars.

“When you see no protest, there’s no mob sweeping through the north side, yet you see these fires popping up the main business corridor, that’s the thing that rang odd to me,” Ellison said. “Burning down small black- and immigrant-owned businesses, that doesn’t seem in lockstep with the tone of the protests.”


There are allegations that one particular vandal 'the umbrella man' is a policeman (unverified) acting as agent provocateur.

https://www.ajc.com/news/police-deny-link-mysterious-umbrella-man-who-broke-windows-during-riot/3j8cSrRBHjvnvX0PRwIYIP/#:~:text=Speculation had social media buzzing Friday after an unidentified man,the man was an impostor.

umbrella%20man1.jpg


There are real overtones of the recent Hong Kong protests (to me at least) with what sounds like volunteer or paid agitators taking advantage of the situation to foment something very nasty.

*Please don't let this thread veer off into politics*
 
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Never knew the Yank Far Right were 18-22/30 mixed race Students...might be Agent Provocateur/CIA..who knows in these meant to be normal times ????
 
Never knew the Yank Far Right were 18-22/30 mixed race Students...might be Agent Provocateur/CIA..who knows in these meant to be normal times ????
Nobody knows what race you are in full protest gear.

In the London riots of 2011, I got a good view of the action from my bedroom window. There were black bloc types (anarchist extremists) who obviously had little to do with the young, disaffected, mainly black council estate lads doing the rioting, trying to steer the action. 'come on, let's burn down the police station!'.
 
Never knew the Yank Far Right were 18-22/30 mixed race Students...might be Agent Provocateur/CIA..who knows in these meant to be normal times ????

The Umbrella Guy looks to be an older white man, maybe 30s. He's doing a very odd thing at a very odd time in a very calm and orderly fashion. He also has a very super-duper issue respirator. From what I understand of the video that @kamalktk posted, the younger people were taking issue with him breaking the windows and were trying to stop him.

Edited to add:

The Umbrella Man is also a 'character' in the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of JFK (interesting little tidbit!) and that a black umbrella was used in satirical cartoons to signify pre-WWII appeasers such as Neville Chamberlain and Joseph Kennedy.
 
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The Umbrella Guy looks to be an older white man, maybe 30s. He's doing a very odd thing at a very odd time in a very calm and orderly fashion. He also has a very super-duper issue respirator. From what I understand of the video that @kamalktk posted, the younger people were taking issue with him breaking the windows and were trying to stop him.

Edited to add:

The Umbrella Man is also a 'character' in the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of JFK (interesting little tidbit!) and that a black umbrella was used in satirical cartoons to signify pre-WWII appeasers such as Neville Chamberlain and Joseph Kennedy.

The respirator is not unreasonable in the current circumstances, it also partially obscures his face. The umbrella is odd though, he could easily be mentally ill rather than "special ops" or something. Being mentally ill doesn't preclude him from a nefarious purposes beyond causing damage, if he does have "issues" he could for example be an Alex Jones follower or someone of that type and want to stir things up or paint the protestors as being worse than they are or trying to goad them into looting.
 
This is something I came across over the past couple of days when reading news media relating to the protests and subsequent civil unrest in Minneapolis-St Paul.

There are reports that alt-right and/or white supremacist people from out of town or out of state have been instigating the damage, looting and arson that was seen after the largely peaceful protests earlier in the week.

From Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergei...as-from-out-of-state-mayor-says/#6257f600264d

"“I want to be very, very clear: The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey added. “They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything we have built over the last several decades.”

According to Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, every person arrested in the city last night was from out of state: “We don’t know these folks,” he reiterated.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington confirmed evidence of white supremacist groups trying to incite violence; Many posted messages online that encouraged people to go loot in Minneapolis and cause mayhem.

Walz, who also announced that he would fully mobilize the Minnesota national guard for the first time in 164 years, called the unrest “an organized attempt to destabilize civil society with no regard for civil life or property.”

The dynamic has changed over the last couple days, Walz, Carter and Frey said. Protests gradually shifted from being peaceful on Tuesday, but as more people came from outside of the city, they’ve turned increasingly violent in recent days."


From MPR [Minnesota Public Radio] news https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/...among-those-fomenting-violence-in-twin-cities :

"DeVario Bogenholm, a 23-year-old who’s lived in Minneapolis for most of his life, blames outsiders, who are mostly white, for turning peaceful protests violent Friday night. He turned to Facebook to post a video of him and a friend confronting a group of young, white men who were smashing out storefront windows.

“Who’s destroying these buildings? These white dudes and we’re stopping them,” his friend, Noah Saba, said to the camera, then waved the phone to show footage of a group of white men on bicycles in front of a group of vandalized and burning buildings, “They’re setting these fires.”

Bogenholm said the video doesn’t fully capture the mob, with people of color largely at the back of the crowd and young white men initiating the damage to buildings.

Bogenholm and his friend demanded the men apologize for vandalizing the buildings and making black people look bad and then told them to leave. He said more people in the crowd turned on the men, and they rode off on bicycles.

“They knew they were in the wrong,” Bogenholm said. “And it was making us look bad.”

Hundreds of buildings across the Twin Cities have been damaged in the riots. A native youth cultural center, neighborhood bars and a building full of artist studios are among the structures that have been set on fire.

Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison spent Friday night driving around his ward to ensure people stayed safe. He said property destruction at protests, which he doesn’t support, normally is focused on symbols of power like police cars.

“When you see no protest, there’s no mob sweeping through the north side, yet you see these fires popping up the main business corridor, that’s the thing that rang odd to me,” Ellison said. “Burning down small black- and immigrant-owned businesses, that doesn’t seem in lockstep with the tone of the protests.”


There are allegations that one particular vandal 'the umbrella man' is a policeman (unverified) acting as agent provocateur.

https://www.ajc.com/news/police-deny-link-mysterious-umbrella-man-who-broke-windows-during-riot/3j8cSrRBHjvnvX0PRwIYIP/#:~:text=Speculation had social media buzzing Friday after an unidentified man,the man was an impostor.

umbrella%20man1.jpg


There are real overtones of the recent Hong Kong protests (to me at least) with what sounds like volunteer or paid agitators taking advantage of the situation to foment something very nasty.

*Please don't let this thread veer off into politics*

"The overwhelming majority of people arrested in connection with the Minneapolis unrest have Minnesota addresses, a search of the online Hennepin County Jail log shows.

Of the 45 people arrested for rioting, unlawful assembly, stolen property, burglary or robbery on May 29 and May 30 so far, 38 had Minnesota addresses, according to publicly available jail records.

A searchable jail roster is available online."

https://www.fox9.com/news/jail-reco...in-minneapolis-riots-have-minnesota-addresses

'There are anarchists': Minnesota officials say 'outside agitators' are hijacking peaceful protests

Drifting out of the shadows in small groups, dressed in black, carrying shields and wearing knee pads, they head toward the front lines of the protest. Helmets and gas masks protect and obscure their faces, and they carry bottles of milk to counteract tear gas and pepper spray.

Most of them appear to be white. They carry no signs and don't want to speak to reporters. Trailed by designated "medics" with red crosses taped to their clothes, these groups head straight for the front lines of the conflict.

Night after night in this ravaged city, these small groups do battle with police and the National Guard...

“The real hard-core guys, this is their job: They’re involved in this struggle," said Adam Leggat, a former British Army counterterrorism officer who now works as a security consultant specializing in crowd management for the Densus Group. "They need protests on the street to give them cover to move in.”

Leggat said intelligence reports from his colleagues indicate most of the hard-core protesters in Minneapolis are far-left or anarchists, and that far-right groups have not yet made a significant appearance."

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...olent-outside-agitators-minnesota/5291658002/

maximus otter
 
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Nobody knows what race you are in full protest gear.

In the London riots of 2011, I got a good view of the action from my bedroom window. There were black bloc types (anarchist extremists) who obviously had little to do with the young, disaffected, mainly black council estate lads doing the rioting, trying to steer the action. 'come on, let's burn down the police station!'.

Exactly.
The description of the garb seems pure black bloc anarchist. Take a look at this article from 2017:
https://dcist.com/story/17/01/20/black-bloc-explainer/

Of course it could be argued that anarchy is a form of libertarianism or even neo-liberalism taken to its ultimate extreme. These violent activists want no state and no law whatsoever. Ideologically, this makes them diametrically opposed to all totalitarian, big state ideologies, such as fascism, communism, nazism or indeed socialism. The irony though is that such anarchists seem to have allied themselves to communist or hardline socialist activists - who would bring in a big state given the opportunity.
Media is playing right into the anarchists' hands by speculating at police involvement.
As the number of police casualties mount (no confirmed deaths yet, but dozens of hospitalisations) the anarchists will be high-fiving. Finally, don't forget that around 25% of USA police are from ethnic minorities. Chauvin's suspended colleagues also under investigation were non-white.
 
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It seems whenever something like these riots kick off people are always seeking to place the blame on others.
If anyone is inciting the rioting I would suggest it is News Channels like CNN who seem to revel in showing the rioting, arson and looting but hardly, show the peaceful protesters. They were running an article this morning where a journalist who had been detained by the police before being released without charge was stating that America has been in the grip of a cold civil war, white on black, for years and that civil war has now gone hot, the way he delivered this message seemed to me an incitement to violence and,in my view, was inflammatory.
 
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It's the solar flares! Created by the Illuminatti?

With so many dramatic and consuming events taking place in our world, it’s easy to forget that as human beings we are deeply affected by all of the cosmic events taking place in the universe around us. We are beings of frequency in a universe made of energy.

Major civil unrest, protesting and rioting began to foment in the United States on the 28th of May, and on the night of the 29th, the unrest spread to over 30 American cities, marking the most significant incident of unrest many of us have ever seen.

While these events are deeply rooted in societal tension that has been building for decades, the timing of recent flare ups of unrest happens to coincide with a new wave of solar activity including the strongest solar flare we’ve seen in three years.

https://www.wakingtimes.com/2020/05...0cFmMG9L4VD2-_76sEs_7TkLKuQyerh1SWjWclV8Qxtg8
 
Shouldn't this go into a conspiracy thread.
It seems to me that whenever the locals start rioting it is the far right behind it, or maybe the illuminati, or the Freemasons, or anyone other than the people rioting.

This thread was started in 'Conspiracy' sub-board :confused:
 
You could see this rioting happening a mile off. What the fuckwits don't understand is that once you start wrecking peoples neighbourhoods and disrupting their way of life then the argument is lost, for good. The vast majority of people just want to be left to their own devices and get on with life, fucking them about will just piss them off and any sympathy they had for the initial protest evaporates. This goes for any incident similar to this one. And on a personal note if anyone starts getting preachy at me or 'celebrities' pop their heads over the parapet then I switch off totally and cease to give a shit about the subject whatsoever.
 
You could see this rioting happening a mile off. What the fuckwits don't understand is that once you start wrecking peoples neighbourhoods and disrupting their way of life then the argument is lost, for good. The vast majority of people just want to be left to their own devices and get on with life, fucking them about will just piss them off and any sympathy they had for the initial protest evaporates. This goes for any incident similar to this one. And on a personal note if anyone starts getting preachy at me or 'celebrities' pop their heads over the parapet then I switch off totally and cease to give a shit about the subject whatsoever.

Understood. But the rioting isn't driven by celebrities, it's driven by an underclass which is self-selecting.
 
For what it's worth, I've just received an email from an old friend who lives in Minneapolis. He's given me a lot of specifics to look into, but they involve chunks of identifying information, and his job has a public profile, so to speak, so I won't get into those.

His opinion, I haven't yet formed one:

Of the most destructive rioters in both of the Twin Cities, very few are justifiably angered people of colour (his phrase). A large proportion of those burning, looting and assaulting are open anarchists who have seized upon the opportunity to create chaos and enrich/entertain themselves. Most of this element are white and live outside both city and state (there are lots of new arrivals in the camps of both protestors and rioters), but there is also a much smaller number of local black opportunists (not of disproportionate size to the bad element in any community, he'd estimate).

Further, there certainly is a faction of white supremacists within this more violent group, but it remains unclear how many because they are far more circumspect in their behaviour. They are mostly not wearing symbols of affiliation, chanting racist slogans or throwing 'sieg-heils' as they wish to conceal their identities, but politically-minded friends know enough to have spotted them (as organised groups, not drips and drabs). Their aim (he opines but could not swear to) is to discredit legitimate protest by the black community and further stoke racial tensions.

He isn't politically active, but he's an intelligent chap and lives close enough to the site of the riots that he has been able to count the military vehicles passing by his house shortly before the evening curfew takes force, and several of his colleagues in South Minneapolis are close enough that they're posting photos of the smoke-filled skyline and are now personally acquainted with the effects of tear-gas.

I don't pretend this is any great revelation, but it bears the hallmark of truth and the source is very reliable.
 
Perhaps the thread title should be renamed to 'Minneapolis Protests/Riots & Alleged Extremist Involvement' to avoid politics altogether?
Just a suggestion.

Same thing crossed my mind earlier. Thanks for the second opinion prompting me to go ahead and make the revision.

Done.
 
For what it's worth, I've just received an email from an old friend who lives in Minneapolis. He's given me a lot of specifics to look into, but they involve chunks of identifying information, and his job has a public profile, so to speak, so I won't get into those.

His opinion, I haven't yet formed one:

Of the most destructive rioters in both of the Twin Cities, very few are justifiably angered people of colour (his phrase). A large proportion of those burning, looting and assaulting are open anarchists who have seized upon the opportunity to create chaos and enrich/entertain themselves. Most of this element are white and live outside both city and state (there are lots of new arrivals in the camps of both protestors and rioters), but there is also a much smaller number of local black opportunists (not of disproportionate size to the bad element in any community, he'd estimate).

Further, there certainly is a faction of white supremacists within this more violent group, but it remains unclear how many because they are far more circumspect in their behaviour. They are mostly not wearing symbols of affiliation, chanting racist slogans or throwing 'sieg-heils' as they wish to conceal their identities, but politically-minded friends know enough to have spotted them (as organised groups, not drips and drabs). Their aim (he opines but could not swear to) is to discredit legitimate protest by the black community and further stoke racial tensions.

He isn't politically active, but he's an intelligent chap and lives close enough to the site of the riots that he has been able to count the military vehicles passing by his house shortly before the evening curfew takes force, and several of his colleagues in South Minneapolis are close enough that they're posting photos of the smoke-filled skyline and are now personally acquainted with the effects of tear-gas.

I don't pretend this is any great revelation, but it bears the hallmark of truth and the source is very reliable.

Thank you Yith, and thank your friend from me too :) Statements from people directly witnessing events are very valuable.

Elsewhere in the articles I linked to are photos and statements related to the 'Three Percenters' and the 'Boogaloo Bois' - both loosely affiliated with with alt-right/internet white supremacy sentiments and scattered geographically - travelling into the city protest/riot areas.

These kind of groups - both right- and left-leaning/anarchist - are no longer operating on the standard 'membership list and dues' model (cf the KKK in their last resurgence 1950-1980, or the good old Socialist Workers party) which makes them hard to track and assess. They are using the online methods and software/apps used by radical groups such as Daesh since 2005 ish.

I sincerely mean this: God help the USA.
 
But the rioting isn't driven by celebrities, it's driven by an underclass which is self-selecting.
And the mental media fanning the flames for their ratings, plus a couple of other groups using it to further their own agendas. As far as I'm concerned now, all this is about various unhealthy political agendas and nicking 55 inch TV's. Every society comes to an end eventually and this one seems like it's on it's last legs.
 
As per @Yithian #56 and @AnonyJoolz #78 in their above posts, my opinion is that each side blames each other for turning protests into riots.

The Left will blame the Alt Right - i.e. most of the Boogaloo Boys, White Supremacist Groups and covert government agents.

The Right will blame Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

My opinion is that extremist people from both sides have an interest in turning protests into riots just six months before the Presidential election...the left want to discredit Trump, the right want to "show" the population what America will look like under a Democrat leadership.


There is along explanation of this blame game in this New York Times article dated May 31st 2020.
A left-of-centre newspaper, but a non-partisan article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-protests-white-supremacists-antifa.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage



As for those arrested for some of the violence, but not yet sent to trial, they include a Princeton educated lawyer.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...d-throwing-Molotov-cocktail-NYPD-cruiser.html



These protest are not unique, the USA has seen numerous race riots in it's cities.

There is also a history of bussing in protesters and troublemakers to exploit a potential flashpoint, at the time a Lubavitch Hasid very familiar with Crown Heights, Brooklyn, told me that the 1991 Crown Heights Pogrom was largely carried out by people brought in from outside Brooklyn by Sonny Carson, that relations with the local African-American community were generally OK prior to the violence, though there certainly were tensions after that needed to be calmed by an action group formed from both communities.



And whereas this Sunday saw a large protest outside the American Embassy in London, there was also a large protest outside the American Embassy (at that time in Grosvenor Square, now it is in Nine Elms) in 1968.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/march/17/newsid_4090000/4090886.stm
 
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As per @Yithian #56 and @AnonyJoolz #78 in their above posts, my opinion is that each side blame each other for turning protests into riots. ...

I tend to agree. This sort of opportunistic spinning of a bad situation to suit one or another group's agenda has been an increasing problem as the decades have gone by. If anything it's worse now than ever before, given the widespread means and expertise in creating and broadcasting BS via mobile networks and "social" media.

However ... There's always been a certain element that exploits the protests as a cover for looting without necessarily participating in the protest action. The desperation motivating opportunistic looting is probably as high or higher than ever before owing to the lockdown conditions, the general angst / stress of the pandemic conditions, and the massive losses of jobs and income nationwide.
 
This new CNN report summarizes the complicated and confusing situation regarding who's actively aggravating the protests so as to incite rioting and who is engaged in organized looting.
What we do and don't know about the extremists taking part in riots across the US

Law enforcement and federal officials say outside elements from both far-right and far-left groups are helping fuel the violent and damaging confrontations that have marred protests across the country in recent days, despite President Donald Trump's focus just on Antifa and the far left.

Although interference in this way may be happening, federal and local officials have yet to provide evidence to the public.
Local and federal officials are still trying to quantify how significant a role the outside groups are playing in the unrest that has spread to cities all over the US. Officials are scrambling to identify the affiliations of the extremists taking part in the riots, property destruction and attacks on police, and allegations of foreign influence stoking the unrest online are being actively tracked. ...

Federal law enforcement officials tell CNN they are aware of organized groups who are seeking to carry out the property destruction and violence, using the cover of the legitimate protests in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Those domestic extremist groups include anarchists, anti-government groups often associated with far-right extremists and white supremacy causes, and far-left extremists who identify with anti-fascist ideology.

In the past, some of the groups have been known to organize and travel specifically to confront police and destroy property, according to federal law enforcement officials, who say they've seen a similar pattern in Minneapolis and other cities where protests have turned violent in recent days. ...

The FBI and other federal agencies are working with local authorities to track social media posts and other communications to identify those who have crossed state lines to carry out violence. Federal officials say they believe there is an amalgam of groups showing up in protests from the extremist left and right that normally oppose each other but see common cause in attacking the police and the government. ...

Acting Senate Intelligence Chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said Saturday that the outsiders included "a rogues gallery of terrorists from Antifa to 'Boogaloo' groups encouraging and committing violence." Boogaloo is a group often associated with far-right extremist ideology that wants to initiate a civil war. Rubio tweeted that the groups were not "ideologically compatible but share a hatred of govt & police & are taking advantage of the protests."

"Many of these professional agitators don't fit a simple left vs right identity," Rubio said. "They are part of a growing anti-government extremist movement. They hate law enforcement & want to tear the whole system down even if it requires a new civil war." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/outside-influence-extremists-riots-us/index.html
 
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However ... There's always been a certain element that exploits the protests as a cover for looting without necessarily participating in the protest action. The desperation motivating opportunistic looting is probably as high or higher than ever before owing to the lockdown conditions, the general angst / stress of the pandemic conditions, and the massive losses of jobs and income nationwide.

But surely looting is only the poor black folk getting what the white folk can get with their money ?

Before you reach for the red pencil I am quoting a black Pulitzer Prize author.

INT21.
 
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