Minnesota Using ‘Contact Tracing’ to Determine if Agitators ‘Organized Cell of Terror’

Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington told reporters on Saturday that his agency is using “contact tracing” to identify the associations of rioters arrested in the state on Friday.

“We have begun analyzing the data of who we’ve arrested, and begun actually doing what you would think as, almost very similar to our COVID. It’s contact tracing,” Harrington said.

“Who are they associated with? What platforms are they advocating for? And we’ve seen things like white supremacist organizers who have posted things on platforms about coming to Minnesota,” he said.

“We’re checking to see if people that we have made arrests on and that we have information, are they connected to those platforms. We’ve seen flyers about protests where folks have talked about they’re ‘going to get their loot on tonight,'” Harrington said.

He said Minnesota authorities are looking into whether the individuals are “part of an organized criminal organization, and if so, what is that organization and how are they organized,” he said.

Harrington said all levels of government are analyzing whether it is “organized crime.”

“Is this an organized cell of terror?” he said.

Gov. Tim Walz said they were talking about it to get “the media” to do additional investigations on the individuals and their connections to organizations.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays. Listen to segments on YouTube. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook.