This week someone posted the image below of Branden Michael Wolfe. The image includes some text saying he was charged with setting fire to the 3rd precinct station in Minneapolis. Here’s the image:
The text further claims that Mr. Wolfe tried to discredit the BLM movement by blaming the incident on the other rioters and looters.
This happened in June but since the image is still bouncing around, I’ll comment on it anyway.
This is my comment to the post:
“It’s obvious to me that once he started burning things in the name of the BLM organization, he became a BLM supporter. Probably not his intent but it was the result.”
Not surprisingly, it was countered with disparaging remarks from the Liberal readers of the post. But, I’m actually right.
Since the act of destruction of property has recently become the “go-to” move for BLM followers, it is reasonable for one to assume that any fire set near the protests was set by protesters. No one is going to differentiate between the motives of the one arsonist and another.
In fact, no one can differentiate between the two. Because, the two acts are indistinguishable from each other. So, if a fire gets set somewhere near the protesters, that fire is going to be perceived as being set to support the BLM followers, whether that was the original intent or not.
My statement, while meant to be tongue-in-cheek, is accurate.
But wait, there’s more.
If you read the charges brought against Mr. Wolfe by the U.S. Department of Justice, you’ll see that he’s accused of pushing a wooden barrel into an already existing fire. He’s not charged with starting the fire, he’s charged with helping to keep the fire going. That’s a huge difference.
I can find no evidence pertaining to Mr. Wolfe’s motives. So, it’s entirely possible that he actually was trying to further the BLM cause. I’ll grant you that it isn’t likely, but it is at least possible. Without a statement from either himself or his accomplice , it is impossible to accurately state what his motive was and make the claim that he was trying to implicate the BLM organization by his acts.
And, that’s where the image, and associated text become untrue. The post claimed he was charged with setting the fire. That is not accurate. Since the fire was already started, it is not unreasonable to conclude that it was set by “mostly peaceful” BLM protesters, because they had already set dozens of fires by that point. The post claimed he tried to discredit BLM, there is no proof that is so.
Finally, I feel I must point out that while BLM supporters have no problem with people causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, they seem to have a problem with one or two people adding fuel to an existing fire. A fire that was, in all likelihood, set by a actual BLM supporter.
That’s where they draw the line? Throwing trash into a fire that was already burning is somehow worse than starting the fire in the first place.
To reiterate. This is fake news. It is full of half-truths and guesses. Mr. Wolfe wasn’t charged with starting a fire, he was charged with adding fuel to a fire. And that’s exactly what anyone who posts this image is guilty of doing.
