Closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin trial will begin today, and it’s likely that we’ll see a jury verdict returned at some point this week. Authorities and business owners in Minneapolis are already prepping for a violent response, and with good reason. Even before the jury has started its deliberations, the threats of violence are readily apparent, including an incident over the weekend in California where the former home of defense witness Barry Brodd was targeted by several people.

Police were called to the home just after 3 a.m. by the new homeowners, who told officers they were awakened by a group of people dressed all in black, who threw a severed pig’s head on their front porch and splattered blood on the front of their house, officials said.

“It appears the suspects in this vandalism were targeting Mr. Brodd for his testimony,” the police statement reads.

About 45 minutes later, a statue of a giant hand outside the Santa Rosa Plaza shopping mall was also found coated in blood, police said. The vandals also left a sign in front of the statue that included a picture of a pig and the words “Oink Oink,” police said.

That’s right. In the name of “justice” these idiots targeted the wrong home with their violent message. It would be funny if it weren’t another sign of a serious problem on the Left; a lynch mob mentality that doesn’t give a damn about the rule of law if it affords police officers their day in court and a competent defense. That’s why huge sections of the Twin Cities are already boarded up, with both residents and officials preparing for the worst.

Minneapolis looks like a military fortress ahead of the George Floyd murder trial verdict — with fears heightened by a drive-by shooting targeting some of the thousands of National Guard members trying to protect the city.

The Minnesota city had already dramatically increased security ahead of the trial of ex-cop Derek Chauvin — ramping it up even further following the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb just 10 miles from where Floyd was killed.

As jury deliberations are set to start Monday in Chauvin’s murder trial, dramatic photos show huge chunks of the Twin Cities completely boarded up, fenced off and swamped by armed troops and military vehicles.

The National Guard has activated more than 3,000 troops to back up more than 1,000 law enforcement officers already involved in the multi-agency “Operation Safety Net” protecting the troubled area.

Guard members in fatigues are stationed across the city, in front of regular buildings as well as the heavily fortified police and court buildings, the Star Tribune noted. Law enforcement agencies from Ohio and Nebraska have also been called in to bolster security.

Two National Guard members were injured in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning, and Gov. Tim Walz is under pressure from activists to remove the Guard from city streets, claiming that residents are suffering “trauma” from seeing soldiers stationed throughout the city.

Of course those soldiers wouldn’t be needed if Minneapolis hadn’t been rocked with riots, arsons, and a staggering increase in violent crime ever since George Floyd’s death last year. I agree that it’s disconcerting to see armed National Guard members standing watch outside of City Hall, but it’s also been troubling to see the continued destruction and rampant violence in Minneapolis that we’ve witnessed for almost a year now.

While the National Guard is out in force, there are also plenty of small business owners who are protecting their livelihoods by exercising their Second Amendment rights, and I don’t blame them. Heck, I’d be doing the same thing if would-be revolutionaries were intent on destroying my business or home.

The vast majority of residents in Minneapolis are praying for peace, but that doesn’t change the fact that a small but significant segment of the population is readying for war after the verdict is released. In fact, I don’t know that the actual verdict matters all that much to them. Regardless of what the jury decides, those bad actors seem intent on providing the rest of us with a compelling argument about the need to keep and bear arms for self-defense.