How Minnesota Police Fueled Insane Conspiracy Theory About Assassin
Elon Musk, US Senator link Vance Boelter to Gov. Tim Walz
Within moments of the killing of one Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, and the attempted assassination of two others by the same gunman on Saturday, conservative world decided that the alleged gunman was a member of the left.
The main reason was a single photo, released without explanation by the Minnesota police, showing the interior of Vance Boelter’s car with a bunch of printed pages containing one phrase in big bold letters: “NO KINGS.”
Countless people took the photo to mean that Vance Boelter was somehow connected to the anti-Trump protests. Then came the news that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz reappointed Boelter to an obscure state advisory board, leading to deranged conspiracy theories that Walz was somehow behind the killings.
Many in the pro-Trump crowd jumped on the narrative, including, most prominently, Senator Mike Lee of Utah. “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way,” Lee tweeted. An hour later, he posted a photo of Boelter along with the text, “Nightmare on Waltz Street.” The post racked up 13 million views.
“The far left is murderously violent,” Elon Musk posted on X, garnering an eye-watering 52 million views.
The alleged shooter is a Trump supporter, conservative Christian, anti-abortion activist, and Walz hater, according to all accounts. Boelter would “be offended if people thought he was a Democrat,” a childhood friend and roommate of his has said.
While Lee is rightly facing plenty of criticism for his quackery (which he doubled down on today), none of this would have happened were it not for the carelessness of the Minnesota State Patrol.
When I inquired why they were so quick to release the photo, Drew Evans, Superintendent of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, told me in an email:
"We had an absolute obligation to release that image as part of our effort to protect Minnesotans. We knew that thousands of people were planning to attend rallies across Minnesota and we needed to provide them with information so that they could make informed decisions about their own safety.
Outside of what was publicly shared, we were not in a position to provide context about the image to refute anyone's statements about it because we didn’t have context to provide. We had a known armed killer who had already committed at least four acts or targeted political violence on the loose and no information to verify whether he supported rally-goers or intended to target them as well."
The explanation makes some sense, except when you think about the photo itself. The police didn’t just warn potential protestors; they also released the image, believing it would have greater impact. It sure did.
By not providing any context to explain what the words meant (the photo was released without a caption even), people assumed it must be a statement of support for the protests. A lot of people assumed that.
The matter came up during a briefing for state legislators on Sunday, in which Minnesota law enforcement updated them on the manhunt.
Evans, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension official, was asked if they could issue a statement clarifying that there wasn’t any evidence that the alleged shooter was in league with Walz or the state Democrats, a person present in the meeting told me. Members of the legislature expressed frustration with the harassment and threats they were receiving as a result of the confusion, I’m told, but Evans would not agree to issue a clarification.
Evans, for his part, told me the issue wasn’t raised at the meeting. When I asked Evans whether a clarification would be forthcoming, the answer was no.
If law enforcement lacked any context for the picture, maybe they shouldn’t have rushed to release it! Surely there are other ways to communicate public safety information. And if a threat justified them publicly sharing the photo, why doesn’t the flood of threats lawmakers have gotten since justify a clarification?
I don’t doubt that law enforcement’s intentions here were to help keep people safe, as Evans said. But that’s the problem with the national security state: it overreacts and behaves unthinkingly, reflexively. And instead of being held accountable like any other profession, people respond just as reflexively, saluting them, thanking them for their service, and so on. Google the story and you’ll see endless references to how heroically law enforcement carried out “the largest manhunt in Minnesota’s history,” a phrase appearing ad nauseam. State law enforcement officials couldn’t stop patting themselves on the back at a press conference about the arrest this morning.
As I write this, countless people online, still confused about what happened, are asking that Boelter’s writings be released to shed light on his politics. Minnesota police have been quick to rule that out, saying that his notebook, containing the names of others targeted for assassination, isn’t a “manifesto” per se, and though it contains some of his writings and views, it wouldn’t be released.
— Edited by William M. Arkin
There’s something so beautiful about these psychos (like Jan 6 guys) being true believers, acting on beliefs, willing to die for the king and cause and then they turn on newsmax and get called a Marxist homo boyfriend of tampon Tim that’s trying to make Trump look bad.
Right wing accounts I follow seized the opportunity to disown Boelter, painting him as another deranged leftist friend of the governor on his way to a No Kings protest. Everyone is on edge so it's very effective. Nobody stops to ask if the story makes sense.