Five years later......

This was the headline of a front page Star Tribune story five years ago Monday. 

Minneapolis police say 'Umbrella Man' was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting.

A refresher of what was contained in that report. 

A masked man who was seen in a viral video smashing the windows of a south Minneapolis auto parts store during the George Floyd protests, earning him the moniker "Umbrella Man," is suspected of ties with a white supremacist group and sought to incite racial tension, police said.

A Minneapolis police arson investigator said the act of vandalism at the AutoZone on E. Lake Street helped spark a chain reaction that led to days of looting and rioting. The store was among dozens of buildings across the city that burned to the ground in the days that followed.

"This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city," Sgt. Erika Christensen wrote in a search warrant affidavit filed in court this week. "Until the actions of the person your affiant has been calling 'Umbrella Man,' the protests had been relatively peaceful. The actions of this person created an atmosphere of hostility and tension. Your affiant believes that this individual's sole aim was to incite violence."

Police identified "Umbrella Man" thanks to a tip that came via e-mail last week, Christensen said.

Five years later, no arrests have been made. In fact, a Strib story from two months ago indicated that there are still more questions than answers. 

As I read through that initial story from July 2020, I'm still floored by how that qualified as news. I guarantee that if a tipster e-mailed that the agitator was a member of Black Lives Matter, such a story wouldn't have seen the light of day and likely would have been written off as unsubstantiated gossip. 

I still recall a good number of folks in my social media community sharing that original news story while indignantly telling skeptics to let go of their denial. But as my friend Bill Glahn has said on many occasions, the demand for white supremacy has vastly exceeded the supply, so you'll have to forgive progs for believing they were finally seeing their Sasquatch. So imagine the horror that sanctimonious lot would've felt had you told them that not only would Umbrella Man not be arrested five years later but also that the bane of their existence (the eeeeeevil raaaaacist Donald J. Trump) would emerge as President again. 

In the end, I will be glad to acknowledge I'm wrong if indeed the true identity of Umbrella Man is unearthed and we learn he's truly a white supremacist. And that alone would earn me orders of magnitude more integrity than what passes for journalism today. 

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