The current protests over the brutal murder of George Floyd have led to violence in some situations, with citizens rallying to protect their homes and other property. However, one story has people buzzing about a man’s unorthodox effort to maintain law and order. According to the Gazette Xtra:

Greg Hoeft of Janesville brought 12 boxes of bees to the event.

The bees were on a trailer that he towed into the post office parking lot, just behind the protestors.

Hoeft, whose name was on the side of the bee boxes, posted his plans on Facebook: “The riot control bees are in their holding yard waiting to clear the streets of Janesville and keep peace to this county. I’m willing to bring them in and kick them over if things get out of control.”

Is it possible to use bees for riot control?

Despite Citizen Hero’s willingness to deputize several swarms of bees for the police, law enforcement passed on the offer. The Gazette Xtra story would note “Police learned that he planned to release the bees if the protest became unruly. Hoeft was asked to leave and did,

Now that the coronapocalypse is passe, it seems people are finding new ways to mine comedy gold out of disaster. While it remains unclear whether this beekeeper turned peacekeeper is the start of a new trend or just an isolated kook, you can be certain there will be more instances of people losing their minds in their attempts to bring some down-home justice to town.

One possibility is that Mr. Hoeft was inspired by comic book superheroes with the ability to enlist the help of our insect friends to fight injustice. There’s Yellowjacket aka Ant-Man who has used ants to lend a helping hand.

The debut of Yellowjacket

A more obscure hero is Golden Age crimefighter Red Bee, who had a specially trained bee who assisted him in crime-fighting (and who had the ability to sting without dying, arguably making him one of comic-dom’s first mutant bees). Is it possible that Mr. Hoeft trained every one of his bees? If so, what an incredible story.

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