Black firefighter spent his life savings to open a bar. Then looters burned it down
Andrew Kerr on May 29, 2020
A black firefighter who invested his life savings into opening up a sports bar in Minneapolis was reduced to tears after looters destroyed his life’s work.
Korboi Balla originally planned to open his bar in March but those plans had to be put hold due to the coronavirus crisis. Balla had been gearing up to finally open his bar after Minnesota gave the go-ahead for restaurants to begin reopening on June 1.
But by Friday morning Balla’s bar was little more than a pile of bricks after protests of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis police custody on Monday, led to widespread rioting and looting in the city.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Korboi Balla told CBS News on Thursday morning while holding back tears. “It hurts, man. It’s not fair, it’s not right. We’ve been working so hard for this place. It’s not just for me, it’s for my family.”
While CBS reporters were interviewing Balla on Thursday morning, looters broke back into his bar to try to break into his safe. (RELATED: Minneapolis Mayor Responds To Trump Calling Him ‘Very Weak’ As His City Burns)
“As we were standing in front of the restaurant, people were in the back trying to steal the safe!” Balla’s wife, Twyana Balla, wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. “This just happened an hour ago in broad daylight!”
Twyana Balla added in the post that she and her husband do not have insurance for their business.
“I’m hearing people say F*** the business they have insurance WELL WE DON’T AND THIS IS ALL OUT OF POCKET,” Twyana Balla wrote. “Let someone come run in your home and loot for the cause then let’s see you be ok with it!”
“Justice for George Floyd but not this kind of justice,” she wrote.
Her husband’s restaurant had been reduced to a pile of bricks by Friday morning, Twyana Balla said in a video posted to Facebook.
“There must have been an explosion because the whole front part of the building is gone,” she said.
Balla launched a GoFundMe campaign on Thursday to raise funds to rebuild his bar. The crowdfunding campaign has brought in over $146,000 for the small business owner in less than 24 hours.
More than 170 businesses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have been damaged or looted since Floyd’s death on Monday, police told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
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Solution:
We must clone Rudi Giulliani enough times to work in every city where this garbage exists. Oh, and all the RJ clones must be Republican.
Happy to read that there is a GoFundMe donation going on for them! Now, how do we prevent the next time?
He should sue BLM, antifa and any news outlet that fanned the flames.
This Fire Fighter just found out what his race does. Millions of American’s out here backed the arrest, prosecution of this Police Man. Millions of us have seen the video. We have found out this Thug Cop had a long list of brutality complains. A Liberal Judge chose not to prosecute this COP many years back. But what has happened in the last 48 hours, you’ve lost all of us.
Thugs .not protesters.
I so feel for these people and wish I could help, but I live on $640 a month and struggle to survive! There is no reason for this destruction and looting and using that poor man’s death as an excuse to destroy property and steal is disgusting. I think looters should be shot on sight, they are nothing but POS thieves!
Balla launched a GoFundMe campaign on Thursday to raise funds to rebuild his bar.
Mr. Balla, why would you want to rebuild your bar in that neighborhood among the violent thugs who infest that neighborhood, that city? And why would you even think any sane person would give you money to help you do it? Nothing against you because you seem to be a good guy with a good family and I know what it is to lose your investment, but use your head and get out to that sh** hole the Democrat leadership has turned Minneapolis into.
ANIMALS, THAT’S ALL ONE CAN SAY ABOUT THESE PEOPLE IF YOU WANT TO USE PEOPLE AS A SYNONYM.
There is no need for this. I have lived and been through the Riot’s of the 60’s for Dr. King and other civil unrest. With the destruction of the neighborhood this will led to high unemployment (Business will not come back), (Family breakup), (People who are now homeless). Now all you need to do is now take a look at the west side of the city of Chicago 40+ years ago this was a thriving community after the dust settled and everyone saw all of the business, multi family building, and homes burnt to the ground they all said we will not be back. The community was gone, take a walk down the same street today and you will see this unrest does nothing to remember a love one. This stretch of a major busy street has to this day, a building has not been constructed on or near it. In closing I just want to tell everyone that’s been hurt by this riot, to hang in there and things will get better.
I read the hate comments from fellow whites saying this is what the blacks do in reference to the looting and violence. I do not agree, and I think that is just as wrong to think that as it is to say that all white cops are thugs who show prejudice and kill blacks. We don’t need the riots. They solve nothing while destroying neighborhoods, businesses, and homes in the very black neighborhood their perpetrators claim to be supporting. The riots give support to the stupid, biased claims of those who look for an excuse to spout hatred and discriminatory claims about people of one race or another. We need for the justice system to work and for everyone to calm down and admit there are problems on both sides that need to be corrected. Then, we need to stop being on sides and be Americans, not black Americans, white Americans, or anything else but Americans with a common goal: to allow everyone the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This can only happen when rogue cops are punished and taken off the streets and we learn to respect the law, as well as the rights, property, and lives of other, no matter where they live or what they look like. All lives matter and so do the rights of all.
You call all police in and ask for help from neighboring cities! We need police that know how to take down rioters without killing them. You can learn how to break their feet, and other injuries that won’t kill them. I took down a 6’4″ man when I was age 55. Just one move I learned in Tai Kwan Do, put him on the floor. A choke hold and leg lock held him for as long as necessary. Take them down, use flex cuffs to secure ankels to wrists. Then go get the next one. There are lots of ways, but the Dems want the prisoners turned loose, and business owners jailed.
Amen, Robert, Amen!!!!!
I hope and pray that they do not ruin he’s family’s dream, this man has been a server of he’s Community and the people Who did this don’t care about community and that sad.
In the meantime, how many young black men were killed in Chicago this past year? There is no justice there, just crime. Mpls has gone downhill over the years because of people like those in the streets. They just wanted to rob and destroy. There is no justice in that. In fact, it destroys the legacy of Mr. Floyd.
Thank you for your comment Mr. Sims! Out of all I have read and seen, you have a best perspective of the situation. You speak the truth, with a genuine way, honoring and respecting all.
These people should be a shame if what they have done in the name of justice! You are not doing anything, but hurting your community and the innocent people in your community. How is that getting justice? Who do you think is going to be there to rebuild what you destroyed, it wouldn’t be you that destroyed it! You wouldn’t be the ones putting out the money to recover what you ruined!
These are not Protestors, these are rioters using the death of a citizen to raise hell. Since when is destroying private property and looting a form of protest? My personal feeling is that these hell raisers, should they be involved in property distruction and looting, shot on sight! They are functioning on the level of animals and should be treated similarly. These people are dangerous idiots.
It is extremely sad what has transpired in the days since that punk POS killed Mr. Floyd, and this story should have never happened. When protests turn to riots and looting a Mayor needs to step up for the people of that city… and that didn’t happen in Minneapolis. The Balla family is another victim of Liberal-run cities. The Ballas’ wanted to open a business in a city they love and had their American dream crushed. Socialists don’t respect any form of “capitalism” unless it lines their OWN pockets. So, with no consideration of the heart and hard work behind the business, they’ll allow it to be torn asunder by criminals (not protesters) in order to keep their positions. I am white, I am law enforcement, I am NOT a racist and I am not a Republican, but I did vote for Trump. Wrong is wrong, and I wish I could’ve jumped through the television to throw that cop off of Mr Floyd because this is all his fault. All white Cops are not white supremacists, as all black people are not criminals. My law enforcement family and Mr. Balla
and his family are living proof of both those facts. I pray for peace in the big cities and I pray for the Ballas and I WILL be donating to their Gofundme to hopefully reopen in the same location as soon as they can. God Bless
So very well put. Instead of doing something to honor his death you thugs have destroyed your city & made a mockery of his death. What did you accomplish more hate destroying your city ruining lives of innocent people well you sure have shown the world what your made of haven’t you.
Exactly!
Thus proving the rioters aren’t concerned about the supposed race issue but only destroying property and stealing.
have police fire on criminals just past the 3 minute mark of any phony “demonstration” that is actually a riot..
Right on, mr. Sims, couldn’t be stated better. I like what you said: ALL lives matter and rioting only makes things worse. Remember the Sixties? Just sayin’…
I say it’s time to legalize the shooting of looters and arsonists.
it’s a shame that peaceful concerns are being used by ANTIFA, BLM, ACLU..etc .. violent entities that put their on foot on the neck of George Floyd for their own destructive agendas .. making them even worse than the bad police officer that committed the original crime … killing, destroying, burning, looting … they are NO LIVES MATTER people ….
these are not kids out wilding, they are well informed, organized, and funded from the inside.holdovers from last administration maybe,and others.