(LifeSiteNews) — While the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol continues to feature prominently in national media narratives, considerably less national attention has been devoted to violence breaking out Thursday between Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists and police in the Iowa State Capitol.
The Des Moines Register reported that the activists were there to protest proposed legislation that would increase qualified immunity for police officers as well as penalties for certain protest-related offenses. Video shows activists, some of whom had their faces fully covered while others laid on the floor of the capitol building, screaming about the case of Minneapolis man George Floyd, whose death last year in a police altercation sparked a wave of BLM violence and protests that spanned the summer of 2020.
Happening Now: BLM at the Iowa State Capitol building. pic.twitter.com/GnS6EgFmjf
— CIA-Simulation Warlord 🇺🇸🦈🇺🇸 (@zerosum24) April 8, 2021
One video shows a woman with a sign approaching two officers. The words they exchanged are inaudible, but as they start walking toward the crowd another woman holding the camera begins demanding they give the first woman their names and badge numbers. One of the officers begins placing handcuffs on the first woman, at which point the camerawoman attempts to grab the cuffs out of the officer’s hands. At that point, a physical struggle breaks out between several officers and activists:
With audio version. pic.twitter.com/CRiejGDUIf
— CIA-Simulation Warlord 🇺🇸🦈🇺🇸 (@zerosum24) April 8, 2021
The Register reported that the arrested activist was 18-year-old Josie Mulvihill, whom Iowa State Patrol Trooper Dylan Hernandez says “pushed my arm in an attempt to gain my attention.” Further details are unclear at this point, and Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla says the incident is still being investigated, but Mulvihill has been charged with assaulting a police officer.
BLM activists on the scene insist the event was peaceful before that altercation, and 26-year-old protester Ashley Dorelus claims she saw no assault on Mulvihill’s part “whatsoever.” It is unclear whether Dorelus is the one who attempted to take Hernandez’s handcuffs.
The incident is the latest instance of tension between BLM and police, fueled by the left-wing narrative that American law enforcement is “systemically racist,” needlessly and sometimes intentionally killing blacks at a disproportionate rate.
The trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged with murder for Floyd’s death, began last week, during which substantial doubt was raised as to whether Chauvin’s actions contributed to Floyd’s death at all. The autopsy report identified “no life-threatening injuries,” but did find a lethal quantity of fentanyl — a “DEA Schedule II synthetic morphine substitute anesthetic/analgesic” that has been “reported to be 80 to 200 times as potent as morphine” — in his system.
