It was mid-afternoon when the sport utility vehicles pulled up in front of Tim Mahoney’s downtown Minneapolis restaurant.

It was a sunny Friday in mid-June, a glorious time of year in Minnesota as spring turned to summer. Dining rooms statewide had just reopened after months of mandated coronavirus closures and weeks of protests and riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death during an encounter with four city police officers. Mahoney expected a busy evening at his Loon Cafe.

But the young occupants of the SUVs had their own plans that day.

They took over the patio of the restaurant next door to …