Chilling videos are going viral this week, one portraying Black Lives Matter rioters showing up at a police union leader’s home and battering an effigy of his journalist wife (like someone would take a bat to a piñata) simply because she is married to him.
On Saturday, the protesters showed up at the Minneapolis home of Minneapolis Police Officers Federation President Bob Kroll to demand his resignation, according to The Blaze. Once there, the rioters proceeded to hoist up a piñata with the visage of his wife, Liz Collin, who is a news anchor at WCCO-TV.
Hundreds of #BlackLivesMatter protesters drove to Trump Supporting Minneapolis Police Union leader Bob Kroll & @lizcollin house.
We were led by @nvlevy, future State Rep. Thompson, and @CAIRNational leaders
Police & Trump supporting neighbors surrounded & flashed guns at us pic.twitter.com/GdmigGXrSf
— Nathan Irons Roberts (@Nathaniroberts) August 15, 2020
The rioters were joined at Kroll’s house by CAIR leaders as well as John Thompson, a Democrat campaigning for State House in Minnesota. In a vicious tirade outside the home, Thompson accused Kroll of being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
The protesters brought along piñatas made up to look like Kroll and his wife, beating both of them with bats. On the back of the Collin caricature was a quote indicating that her marriage to a police union leader meant she could not report the news objectively.
“Is it a conflict of interest for me to be a journalist married to the Minneapolis police union boss?” she asked. “My answer: No.”
WCCO-TV anchor Jason DeRush defended his coworker Collin in a statement condemning the protests.
“Protest. Complain. Advocate. Speak out. Picket my station again!” he said. “But making a piñata out of a journalist and beating it is disgusting, offensive and sad. This is where we are? That all of these intelligent people thought this was ok?”
Former Minnesota GOP Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb slammed the riots as well.
“The violent destruction of an effigy of a Minnesota journalist – @lizcollin – by protesters standing in the driveway of her home needs to be immediately denounced by the @mnspj and other journalists,” Brodkorb said. “This behavior is dangerous, harassing, and threatening.”
Kroll has been the target of numerous protests ever since the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody back in May in Minneapolis.
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