Last week was the 5 year anniversary of the violence in Minneapolis and the assault on Minneapolis Precinct 3, so for people who like re-watching old action movies, John Carpenter’s classic 1976 movie is a good movie to re-watch. The events of Minneapolis in 2020 should be discussed by store owners and their staff, law enforcement, police labor unions, historians, parents and their children, etc for years to come in order to learn from history. The violent events provide a background for ethics and political philosophy discussions, and I’m going to mention some of those things here. Anyone who wants to live in a society where all people can exercise freedom of speech and freedom of association without fear should want to think about and discuss these things.
There was one mistake after another that happened on May 25, 2020, including these three mistakes:
From what I read, the store clerk messed up and accepted a $20 bill that he thought may be counterfeit, but according to one article I read he thought he’d be doing a favor for George Floyd and took it anyway, but then soon realized he shouldn’t have done that and so an employee called 911. (Side note, a government digital currency shouldn’t be “the solution” to the problem of counterfeit money as I posted at https://brandoncoale.blog/2025/05/24/transcript-of-video-the-danger-of-digital-currencies/)
George Floyd appears to have been intoxicated, and pills containing the dangerous substances methamphetamine and fentanyl were found in his vehicle, and pills with his saliva and DNA were found in the back of the police car. If he had been sober, he likely would have kept both of his hands clearly visible where officer Lane would have seen them, and therefore may not have been asked to step out of the car. Whenever I have been pulled over by police for traffic violations (hasn’t happened in many years) such as expired license tag or speeding, I wisely keep my hands where the officer can see them.
Officer Lane’s instinct was that Floyd was experiencing excited delirium and he suggested to veteran officer Chauvin that Floyd should be rolled on his side because of the excited delirium, but Chauvin made the fateful decision to leave him face down while they waited for EMS to arrive. Podcaster Malcolm Gladwell stated that if they would have rolled Floyd on his side, then he wouldn’t have died.
It is possible that even some of the training materials the officers were given were not clearly illustrated and had misleading pictures. (If that is the case, I would surely hope that after Floyd’s death all of the training materials have since been improved as well as include links to videos that demonstrate how to properly administer restraint techniques. Also like CPR techniques, restraint techniques should be regularly practiced on fellow officers or practice dummies so they remember the proper techniques if they are actually needed to be used in the field). Michael Huemer in his 2024 book “Progressive Myths”, in the non-myths section about individuals shows a training slide he took from the documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis”, and Huemer mentions about the slide: “The slide contains an image of an officer kneeling with his knee on a suspect’s shoulder and neck (so it is misplaced)” (Huemer, Progressive Myths, page 56)
The documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” produced by Liz Collin, available at thefallofminneapolis.com and on Rumble and YouTube the last time I checked provides opinions about the situation from some police officers. Collin’s documentary basically says the same thing about George Floyd/Derek Chauvin as what Peter King said about Eric Garner/Daniel Pantaleo, which is that Floyd wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t been in poor health. It is indeed true that Ben Crump was badly mistaken when he said “George Floyd was a healthy young man”, but Michael Huemer in his book “Progressive Myths”, in the non-myths section about individuals, points out:
“The Maximal Restraint Technique calls for the officer to kneel on the suspect’s shoulder, not his neck. Although these superficially appear similar, the difference is crucial for a suspect who is having difficulty breathing. Pace Liz Collin, I am unable to see what she sees in the bodycam footage; on viewing her documentary, I could not make out exactly where Chauvin’s knee was. However, in the bystander cellphone video that originally went viral on the internet, one can clearly see Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck. Even if there was a moment when it was placed on the shoulder, it was on the neck when he was filmed by the bystanders.” (Huemer, Progressive Myths, page 55)
Patrick Swayze’s character Dalton in the movie Road House says when he fires bouncer Morgan: “You don’t have the right temperament for the trade”, and that is basically what Malcolm Gladwell said about Derek Chauvin in his two part podcast about the events of May 25, 2020. Gladwell said if Derek Chauvin had been fired earlier, Floyd wouldn’t have died that day.
It is sad that some people resorted to vandalism and rioting instead of doing peaceful protesting and non-violent civil disobedience as taught by activists like Mahatma Gandhi. I agree with musician Jason Aldean that it is wrong to “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face”, and the Fall of Minneapolis documentary shows the disrespect shown to police officers and the destruction to the Precinct 3 station and to many businesses. Some people in the crowds took the time and money to obtain pigs heads, which was of course meant as an insult. Video clips show people smashing police cars with rocks as well as a skateboard. Officer Scott Creighton said some people threw bottles and rocks and he got hit in his mouth and 3 of his teeth were broken. Officer Al Williams said “we were dodging water bottles, bricks, roman candles”. Officer Creighton said at one point “the fire department wasn’t responding and we were trying to put out fires, and cars were trying to run us off the road when we were trying to do that”. Officer Williams said “as we were were driving down the line, every window got broken out of the squad car, driving the gauntlet”. One video clip shown near the end of the documentary shows an officer by himself about to get into his car and then someone throws a metal hubcap to the back of his neck that knocks the officer to the ground.
Because of the human condition (religion traditionally calls this “original sin”, and I remember seeing a discussion between pastors about violence and one pastor pointed out that “ultimately, we have a sin problem”), sadly there will always be some people who will do crimes like intentionally damage other people’s property, steal, assault people, rape, and murder. So police or some kind of accountable security protection staff are necessary for communities because of this; I’m not a simplistic “de-fund the police” advocate. When rioters destroy property, they just end up causing the taxes of all citizens and business owners to be increased, and discourage future business owners from investing in the city, so the rioters didn’t do any favors to the citizens of the city. In some countries, rioting can lead to governments becoming more authoritarian as government officials get tired of the destruction to their cities and so they end up militarizing their police. Some environmentalists might also point out that destroying other people’s property will result in more fossil fuels being used to rebuild that property. According to the The Fall of Minneapolis documentary, crime has greatly increased as police officers felt disrespected and unappreciated and resigned or have left Minneapolis to work elsewhere. If people are unable to find jobs, or are healthy enough to work but simply won’t work, having police officers patrolling around in crime prone areas acts a deterrent to crime, so it isn’t surprising that crime jumped as police officers retired or left.
Most sensible people don’t want to live in an authoritarian police state, so we do need to hold police accountable if they abuse their power, and it was great to see in the fictional, yet believable 2011 movie “Courageous”, police officers holding each other accountable- in the movie one officer is caught stealing illegal drugs from police evidence to resell on the streets for money, and the other officers turn him in and the officer is sent to jail. As a side note, unfortunately there are past examples of some FBI agents who seem to care more about their power than the truth, the 2019 movie Richard Jewell based a real life events shows the living hell Jewell and his mother went through until he was eventually found to be innocent. The famous movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had both recommended the documentary “Waco: the rules of engagement” that shows another well known FBI/ATF blunder.
I can see how government digital currencies can lead to authoritarian police states. In the comments for the YouTube video The Danger of Digital Currencies I mentioned earlier, one commentator remarks as follows (I’ve slightly edited the comment to shorten it): “I live in the UK and the country is becoming more authoritarian day by day. If you speak your mind (or just expressing an opinion) on social media such as Facebook, or belong to a fringe group (such as climate change monitoring) you risk losing your bank account. We once used to see ‘Big Brother Is Watching’ as some future dystopia, well we are living in it here and now, and less and less British people trust the police, who have arrested people just for expressing an opinion as [I wrote] earlier, which just adds to the feeling of fear and powerlessness.”
Small government libertarians rightfully point out that we all should remember that bureaucrats and politicians have their own self interest and want to have job security, so it is usually in their job security to have as many laws on the books as possible. John Stossel has pointed out on his YouTube channel things like this many times, and in one disturbing video that I linked to below, he showed a police officer arresting a mother for letting her 8 year old son walk half a mile by himself to their home in the daylight in a nice neighborhood (we also need to remember this is the 2020s and most homes in the neighborhood would have security cameras facing the street that act as a crime deterrent). Fortunately we still have the 1st amendment so people like Stossel are even able to show these videos, and we should all regularly watch videos such as the ones Stossel puts out so we can see what laws the bureaucrats and politicians keep coming up with and want to unleash on us, and how we can push back and support activists like Lenore Skenazy in their efforts to reform the bureaucracy. Some interesting YouTube comments on this Stossel video include “So the cop kidnapped the kid AND the parent AND stole their money. Wow, what a benefit to society” and “The scariest thing about raising a child is the government”.
I’m sure police officers who do work in dangerous situations would agree that the world would be an easier place for both police and citizens if all of us would always be trying to improve our personal character (as author and educator Lawrence Reed has mentioned) as well as our children’s through religion and/or other methods. I posted a transcript of a Lawrence Reed interview at https://brandoncoale.blog/2025/05/23/transcript-of-good-lawrence-reed-interview/
Additionally, some libertarians have pointed out that a lot of the problems that exist today came as a result from the central banking systems that governments created. In 2009 congressman Ron Paul(R – Texas) published his book “End the Fed” on this topic. I’m interested in economist Saifedean Ammous’s upcoming edutainment history book called “The Gold Standard” about an alternate 20th century where “A new de-centralized modern gold standard is built around peer-to-peer airplane gold clearance, and an entirely different twentieth century unfolds”. He has a free preview of his book available at https://saifedean.com/tgs and he points out that “Part I of this book is based on our real world’s history, and it covers the period leading up to 1915. All the historical facts mentioned there are correct, to the best of my knowledge. The alternative history begins in Part II”.
After watching the documentary “Corporate Welfare: Where’s the outrage?” that I linked to below, I can see why hard working ambitious people wanting to start new companies which would create jobs for people needing work, would be hesitant to start companies. This documentary shows several examples of how many corporations and politicians have colluded together to maintain their own job security by intentionally stifling free market competition from smaller companies and startups. This of course helps these corporate executives and politicians become very wealthy, but this does not help our communities overall. Their attitude and actions doesn’t help the world become a better place by allowing healthy competition, and we would all be better off if corporate executives and politicians would just allow genuine free market competition. (Even these narcissistic executives and politicians could potentially be personally better off by being able to use a superior product created by a competitor, but sadly more often than not, they choose to snuff out the smaller competitor with their collusion). The documentary does give some inspirational examples of where some politicians are occasionally principled and won’t collude with corporations. One example is with the Hawkins Farm. As farmer Zach Hawkins said at the end of their segment, “We were braced for things to unfold the way they usually unfold, you know, for the small farm to lose the battle. But because people joined in the process, people called their representatives, they shared our story online, and I think that was to the surprise of everyone involved.” Another example is shown of the trucking business. I’m no fanboy of either Jimmy Carter or Ted Kennedy, but they do deserve some credit for passing the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 that fully deregulated trucking. At the time Kennedy said “The truck deregulation legislation will get the heavy hand of the federal government out of the area of the private sector. It’ll mean new opportunities and new jobs”, and that is exactly what happened to the trucking business as the documentary shows.
Getting to the subject of my blog post title regarding the 1976 movie Assault on Precinct 13, John Carpenter must have been the Frank Zappa of 1970s movie directors. For a Christmas present my brother gave me a copy of Alex Winter’s 2020 documentary about Frank Zappa, and watching the documentary it is impressive on how well rounded Zappa was. I found it interesting in the documentary when Zappa pointed out that Paul McCartney really had no curiosity of the business side of the music industry; McCartney just left that up to his management. Ignoring important things like that was not an option for Zappa- Zappa’s mind had way more curiosity than McCartney’s, and his knowledge was much more well rounded in other aspects of life than McCartney’s. Both George Harrison and John Lennon seemed more intellectually curious, spunky, and interesting than McCartney and Ringo Starr, so it’s a shame that Harrison and Lennon didn’t live longer so we could have seen how their philosophies would likely have changed and developed over time, and of course it would also have been great to have Zappa live longer to see how he would have continued to develop.
I do need to mention that while I greatly respect Frank and Gail Zappa’s interest in business, I don’t endorse all of their business ideas. I had heard gossip that Frank felt that due to up and coming technology, eventually there would be no reason to sell physical media such as vinyl and CDs to fans. If he felt that way, I strongly disagree with him on that. There is of course nothing wrong with streaming music from internet streaming services, but it is very important long term to offer physical media sales. I documented some reasons why in the post https://brandoncoale.blog/2024/04/07/some-thoughts-on-kurt-cobain-music-collecting-and-economics/ Also, I had heard that Gail at least initially was against stores like iTunes, which I don’t agree with her with. I understand her concerns about music piracy, but as long as they sell DRM free digital files, I highly support sites like Amazon MP3 sales and Bandcamp that sell DRM free digital files that can be bought once and then easily be copied among all of the purchaser’s MP3 playing devices. As long as the musicians sell their music at reasonable rates, they should still get a good amount of sales, and they can tell their fans that if they want them to be able to afford to keep creating music, to not pirate their music. Musicians can also do fundraisers for the cost of their next album and offer bonuses to those who contributed, and can use services like Patreon to get regular income. I had also heard that Gail was against Frank Zappa tribute bands, which is absurd. Most people realize that it is a tribute band and won’t sound as good as the real thing, and tribute bands just end up helping to keep the legacy going of the original artist.
When it came to 1970s/1980s movies, John Carpenter must have been the most well rounded filmmaker there was. I am not aware of another director from that time period who could write the script, direct, as well as create the music for their movies, talk about well rounded! Even the casting in this movie was well rounded for the time, with both an African American and female co leads, and Austin Stoker and Laurie Zimmer do a great job. (and I admit that Laurie Zimmer is pleasing on the eyes).
One of my friends gets easily depressed after watching sad scenes in movies, for instance for Saving Private Ryan, he always has to fast forward past the scene when Mellish is stabbed to death, or has to change the channel. So when we discuss movies, I would never recommend a movie like Million Dollar Baby to him, and I wouldn’t recommend Assault on Precinct 13 to him because of the scene where a gang member intentionally shoots a child. What the father does after this happens is very irresponsible (if this was real life he obviously should have called 911), but it is a fictional movie, and the father’s actions set up the gang assault on the precinct.
In the 1970s and 80s Carpenter was clearly on a roll and had hit after hit of good movies back then. Other good Carpenter movies that come to mind are Halloween (1978) and Christine (1983). I remember when I was in the 6th or 7th grade our school library had a hardcover copy of Christine by Stephen King, and I read the book and then my dad had later rented the VHS cassette from the local video rental store and it was great to see what I had read on the TV screen.
Brandon Coale Notes 
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