The Minnesota Freedom Fighters Are Armed and Patrolling Their Own Neighborhoods
The group stepped up to keep their communities safe
A group of about two dozen armed Black men—made up of a retired firefighter, a security guard, a veteran, a health care worker, and others—have started to keep watch over local businesses and offer security to protesters in north Minneapolis.
They’re calling themselves the Minnesota Freedom Fighters, and they stepped up after the local NAACP chapter asked for help protecting local businesses from fallout around the protests of George Floyd’s murder in May.
“You just never know when something is going to happen,” said Minnesota Freedom Fighter Randy Chrisman. “As a Black man, I have the same rights as others to also carry a firearm, and I do it.”
The U.S. government has long resisted Black gun ownership. In 1969, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called the armed Black Panther Party the greatest internal threat to the country, and then-President Ronald Reagan even got the NRA on his side to enforce gun control regulations targeted at Black people.
Read more about the Minnesota Freedom Fighters here:
