The only thing between several businesses and a bunch of people rioting is a couple of unnamed armed citizens.

As all hell breaks loose in Minneapolis over the lack of action taken against a police officer who killed a citizen on video, some self-titled "free Americans" helped store owners protect their property. They heard that the store owners had boarded up windows and were standing guard with machetes, and they went to help.

But if you think the men were there because they disagreed with the protests, you'd be incorrect. In a statement to Max Nesterak, a reporter for the Minnesota Reformer, the men said:

"Basically you see the records that cops keep," one man told Nesterak in a now-viral video posted to Twitter. "And cops are a lot less likely to try and tread on people's rights when there's other armed Americans with them. So I figured it's about damn time that some heavily armed rednecks stood with fellow citizens."

"It turns out these guys are out here with machetes and shattered windows trying to keep looters out of the businesses 'cause cops can't get in here," one man said. "So I figured before there were cops, there were just Americans, so here we are."

"Bottom line, justice for Floyd and I hope they stop looting at some point. If there were more of us we could go stop them from looting, but it's just us four," said the man on the right.

"We definitely don't agree with the looting, but we agree with the cause of the protests," the other man said. (source)

Watch the interview here:

As of today, the good Samaritans are still unidentified.

This isn't the first time armed citizens protected businesses during times of unrest.

This is not the first time that armed citizens have protected property during riots.