"The Miracle of Mpls", Local Responses & Racial Disparities

[WHS]

I can't decide if this is disturbing or hilarious:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015 ... formation/

"Evidence of the fake Facebook account was found in a cache of files provided by the Mall of America to Bloomington officials after a large Black Lives Matter event at the mall on December 20 protesting police brutality. The files included briefs on individual organizers, with screenshots that suggest that much of the information was captured using a Facebook account for a person named "Nikki Larson.""

"Risdall Public Relations, a firm that works closely with Mall of America, has touted the efforts of mall security to carefully track political protesters. In a case study on the Risdall website titled "Fulminating Flash Mobs," the firm explains how it helped Mall of America deal with the “threat” of a flash mob dance by Idle No More, a Native American rights group."

"According to a 2011 investigation by NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting, featuring reporting from The Intercept’s Margot Williams, the Mall of America created its own private counterterrorism unit called Risk Assessment and Mitigation, or RAM. The report found that the unit had adopted aggressive procedures to pursue mall patrons, often for ordinary behavior. One Pakistani-American named Najam Qureshi was questioned by the FBI after his father had left a cellphone on a Mall of America food court table, prompting the counterterrorism unit to report the father to local authorities, who relayed the incident to the federal government, which then sent an investigator to Qureshi’s home."

It's pretty much Paul Blart, Mall Spy. I'm not sure I really want the folks behind Nickeloden Universe running their own private counterterrorism unit.

[Snelbian]

Pakistani-Americans, Idle No More, Black Lives Matter. No trend there at all...

[trigonalmayhem]

I feel like the more you stifle peaceful protest the more likely you are to end up with violent revolution. But way to go Bloomington, you protected your corporate benefactors.