Photographer for major paper says protesters ordered him 'no more pictures,' threatened to destroy his equipment — and it appears he obeyed

Antifa and other violent left-wing protesters and rioters say they're against fascists. But we've seen time and time again through their behavior that they're truly the fascists. One look at what went down in Minneapolis on Thursday night is a prime example.

What happened?

A staff photographer with the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper wrote that protesters in ordered him to take "no more pictures" and threatened to steal and destroy his equipment if he didn't fall in line:

"Protesters chanting 'no more pictures' as they march along S. 4th Street along US Bank Stadium," Aaron Lavinsky wrote. "An organizer just came up to me demanding I turn my cameras off. She threatened to snatch my camera [from] me if I didn't comply."

And in the end it appears Lavinsky did just that.

"Folks, I'm backing off," he added in a follow-up tweet. "Multiple people threatening to take and break my cameras. Been berated most of the night by a small group of organizers and anarchists."

Lavinsky send subsequent messages noting that while some protesters were fine with him being there it's "unfortunate that not all value the free press."

Here's one of the videos Lavinsky recorded for the Star Tribune's story:

The paper's piece — for which Lavinsky shares a byline — noted that Minneapolis police faced off with about 100 people who "gathered ... to protest local and national issues."

Besides "no more pictures," the Star Tribune said other chants included, "No justice, no peace, kill all the police" and "Die, Donald Trump."

Lavinsky's run-in with the mob was documented in the story as well: "Some protesters shouted at a Star Tribune photographer, telling him to stop taking photos and threatening to take cameras away. They chanted, 'No more pictures,' as they walked."

How did folks respond to the photographer's tweets?

A couple of commenters seemed sympathetic to the protesters:

• "This is for their own safety," one commenter wrote. "You can actually endanger them by creating video/photo evidence."
• "Yeah dude you need to make sure you don't accidentally photograph someone in an identifiable way," another commenter said, soon adding that "you could cause a lot of problems for them including death."

But it seems most responders weren't happy with the fascist threats:

• "Be safe," one commenter implored. "Is the @StarTribune still going to call this a peaceful protest? Or are they going to call a spade a spade for once?"
• "Fascist liberal bastards," another commenter wrote. "What is happening in Louisville, Portland, Seattle, New York, and Washington DC is Joe Biden's America. This is what will happen nationwide if Biden is elected."
• "What more proof is needed that these are not protests," another commenter added. "In a real protest the protestors want video to spread their message. Only people that plan on criminal activity demand videos be shut off. #MAGA2020."
• "We can't back down. This is what Communism looks like," another commenter said. "What next? We will be told what books we can read and which ones we can't? Checkpoints? Guard tower's?? We fought to hard against the Soviets to have it end up in our own country. We need to wake up!!!