Apparently, Minnesotans are rioting outside of the Republican National Convention. A concert on the capital lawn yesterday turned into a protest march led by Rage Against the Machine’s Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello. Later on, the crowd was teargassed by riot police. Earlier this week, possible protestors’ houses were searched by local police, simply because they were suspected protesters.

It hurts me to see my countrymen treated in such a way by law enforcement. Sure, there are going to be some bad apples in every congregated group of people. There always is. Some asshole always has to stir the pot and drop rat poison into the brew.

Look, Minnesotans, even those from down-state, are pretty laid back people. Sure, we get riled up now and then, everyone does. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to action. We usually cool down and go back to eating lefse and gossiping about the Englebertsons up the road instead of letting our emotions get the best of us.

But this seems to be different. If you rile up a bunch of mild-mannered Minnesotans enough for them to brave riot police, pepper spray, “safety rounds” (rubber bullets and bean bags shot from modified guns…which still really hurt and have been known to cause blunt-force trauma if they strike the chest, head or throat) and tear gas, then something must be really wrong. We don’t stop listening to A Prairie Home Companion for just anything.

In this case, it appears that some residents are taking offense to the GOP, the party responsible for the economic collapse, quagmire in Iraq and multiple scandals of various sorts- including but not limited to: closeted gay sex, paying for sex, laundering money, bilking taxpayers, unqualified appointees, etc. has finally started to get under the skin of the people that they claim to govern.

The RNC is still going on, so I’m betting that we haven’t heard the last of these riots. Minnesotans may be slow to anger, but once we’re riled, we’re dogged and persistent.