Despite the fact that Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is dropping out of the race, one recent event on the campaign trail is still worth examining. It ties into one story we covered in January, when we looked at one of the oppo research attacks that was launched at Klobuchar when she started showing some viability in the primary polling. It dealt with the 2002 murder of a young woman named Tyesha Edwards in Minnesota. Klobuchar, then a county attorney, prosecuted the original case against sixteen-year-old Myon Burrell. Following a second trial, Burrell was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Facts that emerged later suggested that Burrell may have been innocent, something he has consistently maintained. Klobuchar is now being blamed for a possible miscarriage of justice. That flared up again this week when the candidate was preparing for a rally in her home state. Black Lives Matter protesters stormed the stage, leading the crowd in chants about freeing Burrell and how Klobuchar “has to go.” The situation became so tenuous that the event had to be canceled. (WaPo)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) canceled a campaign rally in her home state of Minnesota Sunday night after dozens of protesters occupied the stage for more than an hour, demanding that the Democratic presidential candidate drop out of the race over her past involvement in a controversial murder conviction of a black teenager.

The rally, scheduled to take place at 8 p.m. local time in St. Louis Park, Minn., was derailed when protesters affiliated with Black Lives Matter, the Minneapolis NAACP and other civil rights organizations stormed into the event, as seen in videos uploaded to social media. Toting signs and banners, the activists chanted, “Klobuchar has got to go,” and “Free Myon,” in reference to Myon Burrell, who was sentenced to life in prison following the 2002 shooting death of an 11-year-old girl.

Attendees posted video of the mayhem on the stage to social media.

ST. LOUIS PARK, MN — Protesters in Senator Klobuchar’s home state have stormed the stage at her campaign rally, with dozens chanting, “Free Myon!” and “Klobuchar has got to go!” pic.twitter.com/n0MLZK3mO7

— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 2, 2020

First of all, as I have pointed out in the past, these are the efforts of misguided members of the public. Some people clearly read a headline and don’t dig any deeper before fueling up the outrage machine and taking it to the streets. At the time Klobuchar was handling the case where Burrell first went to trial, none of the potentially exculpatory details had come to light.

On top of that, the conviction she obtained was thrown out. It was only later when her replacement prosecuted Burrell that he was sent up the river for life. Klobuchar was in the Senate by then. So she wasn’t the one who put him away and the basis for his possible release wasn’t known for years afterward. Demanding she withdraw from the race (which she wound up doing anyway) based on that accusation is pointless and unfounded.

But even if the protesters had some sort of legitimate beef with her, that doesn’t answer the question of how things broke down so badly at the event. Where was the security staff? The public is entitled to show up at public events and make their voices heard, even if it’s rude to shout down the speakers to the point where you effectively end the rally. But once you rush the stage, everything is different. That’s not your stage. You didn’t pay for the facilities to put on the event.

Even worse, those were not just “peaceful demonstrators.” People were acting in a very aggressive manner in a spot where they shouldn’t have been. The event was canceled because the staff perceived a genuine physical threat to the candidate. If this had been a general election rally and Klobuchar had been there as the nominee with Secret Service protection, those people would have been in handcuffs and on the way to jail until everything was sorted out.

The only thing left to learn is how liberals will figure out a way to blame all of this on conservatives, the Tea Party or something similar. This was a liberal candidate for the Democratic nomination holding a rally for Democrats and being invaded by Black Lives Matter. And yet I can assure you, this will all turn out to be Trump’s fault because it’s 2020.