Get ready for a look at how Tim Walz governed Minnesota ... even if it's not in the context people think. A video has begun making the rounds on social media showing police and/or National Guard shooting paintballs at Minneapolis residents to force them back into their own homes -- from their own porches. People have associated this with Walz' enforcement of COVID-19 lockdowns, and that's not the case. 

The video is authentic, however, and bears some discussion:

Here is a clean downloadable video of Tim Walz enforcing his 2020 Covid lockdowns by having police shoot civilians with paintball guns… pic.twitter.com/5aOmCPYi5P

— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) August 13, 2024

Last night's Final Word included the tweet that originally published this on the night it happened -- May 30, 2020. At some point last night, the account on which this published deleted the tweet without comment, but perhaps because the intent of publishing it differed from the use it's getting now. Here's the text of the tweet, for reference:

Share widely: National guard and MPD sweeping our residential street. Shooting paint canisters at us on our own front porch. Yelling “light em up” #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorge #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/bW48imyt55

The person that tweeted out this video clearly had sympathies in a different direction than those publicizing it now. Furthermore, the publication of this video and others like it generated contemporaneous media reports about the complaints of excessive force. The local CBS affiliate WCCO reported on it late that night. Their video captured the correct context -- the riot curfew, not COVID:

A video posted to Twitter Saturday night is going viral after apparently showing law enforcement in Minneapolis shooting paint rounds at residents on their porch after curfew went into effect.

Tanya Kerssen posted the video to Twitter shortly after 9:30 p.m., showing what she says is the Minnesota National Guard and Minneapolis police sweeping her residential street in the Whittier Neighborhood.

In the video, the officers are seen approaching the residents and repeatedly yelling at them to get inside their house. After a few demands, one can be heard yelling "light 'em up!" That's when one officer appears to fire a paint round at the residents, who run inside.

One thing to remember is that the National Guard only deployed for the riots, not COVID-19 pandemic management. That vehicle in the video clearly belonged to them, too, rather than the MPD.  This may have been the first hours of the National Guard's authorized general use of force in the Twin Cities; Walz called them out on May 28 but restricted them to only first-responder protection for two days. It wasn't until the fifth night of rioting -- May 30 -- that Walz fully authorized them to quell the rioting.

However. Even with that as context, this video shows an appalling use of force against residents who weren't even on the street. At this point, the curfew required people to be off all Minneapolis streets by 8 pm, which the residents obeyed. They still sat on their porches and stood in their yards, which is their right and which wouldn't have violated any lawful curfew order. The law-enforcement agents (probably a blend of MPD and NG) opened fire with non-lethal force on people who were lawfully on their own properties. They had no legal obligation to get off their porches and back into their houses. 

Furthermore, as the video shows, there wasn't any unrest in this neighborhood to quell. The streets were empty, and the residents were peacefully abiding on their own property. The Whittier neighborhood is located within the general area of the rioting (north of Lake Street and east of Lyndale Ave), and certainly some rioters may have passed through it to avoid law enforcement. The only people disturbing the peace in this video, though, are those enforcing an illegitimate version of a curfew. It's such a bizarre act that one can see how people misinterpret it as a COVID-19 enforcement mechanism

Who gave the order that instructed these forces to apply force against people on their own property? Did that order come from Walz? Probably not, but Walz is responsible for their actions, and for not allowing them to take action that could have forestalled most of the riot damage. It took him five days of rioting to authorize their use in ending the violence and destruction in the Twin Cities, and Walz apparently didn't do much to ensure that they operated rationally and effectively, especially in areas where no violence was taking place.

The entire episode speaks to Walz' utter incompetence as an executive in the public sector. He's an authoritarian whose instincts run to either inaction or over-reaction. His pandemic management speaks volumes in that regard, especially his COVID-19 Snitch Line and his vicious punishment for those who dared defy his authoritarian rule by decree. Just ask Lisa Hanson, who served most of a 90-day jail sentence for trying to re-open her coffee and wine bistro:

A mother of eight children and soon to be 18 grandchildren, Hanson said besides a speeding ticket she received as a teenager, she had always been a law-abiding citizen and owned businesses with her husband for more than 30 years. At the time the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing in 2020, Hanson said the Interchange Wine & Coffee Bistro in Albert Lea, about 90 miles south of Minneapolis, had been open for eight years. 

Her wine and coffee bistro initially complied with the shutdown ordered that March. However, Hanson said she watched for months afterward as Walz never fully re-opened the state when it came to businesses deemed nonessential, such as the bars, restaurants, gyms, dance studios and hair salons. By contrast, the governor never shut down liquor stores, big-box stores or even strip clubs. 

"He shut down a lot of the mom-and-pop shops, those folks that were just trying to make a living and provide a great product and a great service," Hanson told Fox News Digital. "In contrast, he allowed big-box stores, etc., to stay open. Really incredible, an incredible use of tyranny against the people." 

Hanson eventually decided to re-open her business and defied Walz's renewed shutdown order for bars and restaurants six times between December 2020 and January 2021. 

She was convicted in December 2021 on misdemeanor charges and received the maximum sentence of 90 days and a $1,000 fine. Hanson ended up serving two-thirds of her sentence, 60 days.

The Walz administration was still prosecuting these cases in December 2021. By that time, practically the entire country had reopened. Even most of Minnesota had reopened by that time. Rather than drop the case as moot, the state threw a business owner in jail for two months, which is about two months longer than nearly all of the rioters got. 

That's how authoritarian Walz is by nature, and that's the Tim Walz that Republicans need to expose.