Who is “the man with the umbrella”? Since Thursday, May 28, a video of a masked rioter smashing shop windows in Minneapolis, umbrella in hand, has fueled an intense controversy on social networks, with many Internet users accusing him of being a member of the forces of the ‘order. Police deny any involvement.
The most populous city in Minnesota, in the northern United States, Minneapolis has been the scene of serious clashes with the police for three days, following the death on Monday evening of George Floyd, African-American, 46, during an arrest policewoman. A police station was set on fire in the night from Thursday to Friday.
His face covered with a gas mask, a hammer in one hand, a dark umbrella in the other, so we see in this video “the man with the umbrella” methodically destroying the windows of an AutoZone store with a hammer. , a retailer of automotive parts and accessories, while around him demonstrators take shelter from tear gas canisters, some responding with projectiles.
Hacked by the demonstrators, the man then walks away, filmed by several people, some asking him if he is “a cop“. His identity is not established, but the local newspaper Bring Me The News points out that the destruction of the store windows was followed by “other acts of criminal destruction in the AutoZone, then by its fire, as well as that of several other buildings in the area».
On social networks, many people quickly relayed messages that this individual was in fact a police officer. Others go so far as to claim to have identified it. According to a tweet posted on the night of Thursday to Friday and shared tens of thousands of times, “the man with the umbrella” would be a certain Jacob Pederson, police officer of the city of Saint-Paul, capital of the State of Minnesota, which adjoins Minneapolis, with which it forms a conurbation.
Chat screenshots Messenger between two people identified as acquaintances of Jacob Pederson were also posted on Twitter. “I’m 90% convinced it’s him: his voice, his walk, everything», Wrote one of the participants in this discussion, described as a former companion of the police officer. The messages have been shared over 10,000 times. Among the responses, many Internet users accused the police of having started the violence to discredit the demonstrators and justify a violent reaction from the police.
The Saint-Paul police reacted a few hours later through the same channel: “We have learned that a social media post mistakenly identifies one of our police officers as the man filmed breaking windows in Minneapolis. We have seen it. We looked at it. And it is wrong. This person on the video is not one of our police officers. We don’t know who he is, but we hope he will be identified and held accountable for his actions. It is sad that people are posting and sharing false information, adding confusion to this difficult time for our community.»
The figure of “the man with the umbrella” is not trivial, and in the American imagination refers to one of the most controversial elements of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963. On the images filmed on November 22, we saw a man opening, closing and waving a large black umbrella. Identified fifteen years later as Louie Steven Witt, this man had claimed to have waved this umbrella to denounce the attitude of JFK’s father, who had supported appeasement with Nazi Germany in the years preceding the Second World War. The symbolism of the umbrella was then associated with Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940 and signatory of the Munich Agreement. But at the time of the assassination, many investigators saw this umbrella as a signal to the shooter, a version retained and immortalized in 1991 by director Oliver Stone in his political thriller JFK.
«It is evident that the attention captured by the Umbrella Man in Minneapolis illustrates distrust of the police, and this for obvious reasons, given what has happened in the Twin Cities. [Minneapolis et Saint-Paul] in recent years with regard to police violenceCommented Aric Toler, open source intelligence analyst and trainer for the Bellingcat site, which looked into the case.
In fact, the dismissal on Tuesday of four police officers involved in the death of George Floyd did not reassure the demonstrators. Among these laid off police officers is Derek Chauvin, who kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck for long minutes. “I can not breath anymoreGeorge Floyd is heard on a recording of the scene, which has gone viral.
«This man has a weird demeanor and very odd outfit, which makes him an easy and logical entrapment suspect, but he could just as easily be a weird guy in heavy gear who wanted to let off steam by breaking Something», poursuit Aric Toler. «Unless high-resolution photos emerge, or this so-called ex from the Messenger conversation comes to the fore, this story will remain just one unsolved case among many.»
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