Report from Minneapolis

[LAS14]

Last edited Sat May 30, 2020, 10:10 AM - Edit history (1)

I got this from a friend in Minneapolis two days ago (the 27th). Some of it may be out of date.

There is a level of rage right now in Minneapolis and in the larger African American community throughout the Twin Cities that has produced non stop demonstrations, property damage to police cars and the 3rd Precinct police station ( which is about 1/2 mile from where we I live ). There is looting happening at a nearby Target store and liquor store with a nearby Auto Zone company set on fire tonight by some demonstrators. The police are periodically escalating their response with rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bangs. One sign I saw today said: “GEORGE FLOYD IS LAYING IN THE MORGUE WHILE HIS KILLER IS EATING DINNER AT HOME. WHY?” That is a question on everyone’s minds.

There are three and four helicopters that have been in the air most of the day today, above our house as they circle around giving each other access over the site. It feels like we are living in a combat zone. I have heard voices of moderation out there on the street but not yet any organized response by faith communities, Black pastors or community leaders other than nearby Lutheran congregations that are providing food, water and respite for demonstrators. It’s 10pm here right now. More helicopters are overhead again. And the news is reporting more looting. I can hear the large bangs of some kind of devices being fired or fireworks being thrown.

The most important thing that could happen at this moment is the arrest and handcuffing ( on TV or video ) of the officer who murdered George Floyd. The community at large has to see some kind of response giving everyone hope that justice will be served in this case. Our two mayors, Mayor Frey( white ) in Minneapolis and Mayor Carter ( African American ) in St. Paul have been good. Governor Tim Walz, his lieutenant governor, State Attorney General Keith Ellison and the head of MN Public Safety all spoke at a 2pm session today and were very good. Our Minneapolis Chief of Police, Maderia Arrondondo, is asking his officers to maintain restraint and allow all peaceful demonstrations. But there are many, many outraged, angry and rage-filled young people on the streets all day today and still tonight.

I should mention that there is a 2nd demonstration, a vigil and peaceful demonstration over at the location where George Floyd was killed.

One possible problem with the FBI and other Federal Agencies involved is that their meticulous investigation of the death, the knee strangulation and the probable Civil Rights violations could delay any arresting and charging actions until they complete their investigation. That has taken weeks and months in the past. If this goes on without some accountability placed soon on those four officers then this summer will be a violent and chaotic summer here in the Twin Cities. Today pictures from a few years ago of the officer who killed George Floyd have showed up. The officer is seen wearing a Trump-red baseball cap with the words: “MAKE WHITES GREAT AGAIN” stenciled across the front of the cap. That was just more fuel for the fires of anger and rage on the street.

I will be over there again tomorrow and will update you on what is going on. But I don’t want to give any suggestion that I have influence on the demonstrators at this point. I am just one of many white supporters on the street adding our voices and bodies to these demonstrations.

I was asked how this demonstrations, the looting, the property damage and the fires will stop. That is not easy to answer as long as the officer who killed Floyd is free. Some kind of significant police or judicial action must happen soon. Firing the officers right away, as Minneapolis Mayor Frey and Minneapolis Chief of Police Arrondondo did, has not calmed people’s anger and rage. Right now fireworks are going off around the city and over near the police station, adding to our nervousness during this chaotic time. So far, thankfully, counter demonstrators have not shown up. At this point that would be incendiary to say the least.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Until a arrest is made,

nothing will change. The County Attorney needs to step aside and some one put in his place to draw up the Arrest Documents.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I live in Minneapolis.

I'm not very close to the unrest, but I'm very familiar with the areas where Lloyd was killed and where the police precinct building burned. And I'm also aware of the MPD's long history of racism, even in this otherwise politically liberal city. I think the mayor and police chief did the right thing by firing the cops but they have no control over the prosecution. The county attorney, Mike Freeman, has made a mistake, I think, by not causing the officers to be arrested yet, and I'm wondering why he hasn't done it. First-degree murder has to be charged by a grand jury indictment but it would be possible to arrest them on the basis of a complaint charging a lesser offense. Maybe he was afraid people would be upset at a lesser offense charge, since most people don't know how the process works. But Freeman is not really a very effective prosecutor; he seems weak and indecisive (he dawdled inexcusably over charging a previous case where an officer shot an innocent woman in an alley). If Freeman can't get the job done the prosecution needs to be handed over to someone who can. I'm also not confident that the US Attorney will prosecute the civil rights claim either (this is Barr's DoJ, after all). I do recognize that there are legal hurdles because both the state and federal statutes require proof of intent, and the cops have lawyered up and pled the 5th. It all has to start with arrests, though, and soon.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Yes, an outside prosecuting attorney if possible.

My sister worked as the head legal secretary at a county prosecutor's office for over 30 years.

The lawyers at her office and the police were buddies, exchanging Christmas gifts and the like. They often needed help from each other to put criminals in jail, after all.

The obvious problem was when a cop committed a crime.

There was a cop who decided to point a gun at the head of an arrested person in the county jail, who was still awaiting trial, saying he was going to kill him. (The victim was white, btw.) He scared the guy enough that he literally soiled his pants. Then that cop and others pulled down his pants and laughed about it, pointing it out to the others in jail.

My sister was appalled and assumed the cops would at least be fired, but nothing happened. The prosecuting attorneys somehow managed to sweep it under the rug, and it was something that wasn't shared with her.

[LAS14]

3. Update from this a.m. My friend lives half a mile from the scene.

. I was up most of the night guarding against the possibility of groups of looters and fire setters coming into the neighborhood. That didn’t happen last night. And now that the cop who killed George Floyd has just been arrested I am hoping that will tamp down the violence, not the protests. Also, the governor has said he will probably declare curfews for the next several nights. We neighbors set up two-person patrols for the next few nights, with cameras or iPhones, a loud Klaxon horn and a bright light to try to persuade people in a non-physical way to cease and desist. So far no one has come closer than a block away where a business was broken into and torched. This morning, as I probably said earlier, heavy clouds of black, acrid smoke are laying over the city. Our concern is that the heavy police presence near the police precinct building might push the looters and arsonists into the surrounding neighborhood. So far that hasn’t happened.

[LAS14]

4. Update #2

Last edited Sat May 30, 2020, 11:54 AM - Edit history (1)

E-mail from a friend in Minneapolis.

Well, the MN National Guard, hundreds of riot clad State Patrol members and the Mpls Police Department couldn’t enforce the 8pm curfew last night. All over Minneapolis there were fires, looting again, more gun shots - especially from pickup trucks with white nationalists “patrolling” the neighborhoods with long guns sticking out of their windows. Gov. Walz admitted just now that they had vastly underestimated the size and level of rage of crowds. Tonight they are going to triple the presence of all forces. But those that are causing the trouble just go around police road blocks, or suddenly pop up in different neighborhoods. It takes the Guard and State Patrol awhile to get to a new location. Before they arrive the looting and fires have already begun, and as soon as the rioters see the cops or Guard they disappear, and pop up some miles away.

This is a version of urban warfare - one side has matches, crow bars and a sense of righteous rage, the other side has billy clubs, rubber bullets, flash bang crowd control explosives and tear gas/mace. It is not even close to two equal sides. One side has the overwhelming force. The other side has speed, agility and the willingness to run between sites, suddenly popping up as a crowd - it’s like flash mobs of rioters. Our drug store three blocks away, which was trashed and looted two nights ago, was trashed and looted and then set on fire last night. It is burning the morning as I write this. As in most cases of the fires, when the Fire Department shows up the rioters throw bottles, rocks, pavement stones and “bottles with accelerants” as they are describing them in the news - really they are Molotov Cocktails.

We met with our neighbors last night and set up a neighborhood watch - from within our houses since the curfew makes it illegal to be outdoors between 8pm and 6am. So I have my 12midnight to 2am shift of watching the alley and streets around our neighborhood for any small groups of men ( mostly men, a few women ) going down our street or alley. We wouldn’t confront anyone. We would just call the police ( which usually means they get there, in these riot conditions, within 2 hours ), film the people, and blow a very, very loud klaxon horn to hopefully bring too much attention to them for them to continue causing any trouble in our neighborhood. The police advised all homeowners to leave on every outdoor light and all indoor lights, to take away the element of darkness from looters. But again - so far no individual homes have been targeted.

There is a lot of fear in my neighbors. Xxxx also is feeling deeply afraid and fearful. Our city is exploding with no end in sight at this point. Al Sharpton, who was here with Jesse Jackson yesterday, is calling for a national “We Can’t Breathe” march/demonstration for the coming month, beginning with demonstrations and marches today in Minneapolis. There’s also a march in NY city today. I will go to today’s march/demo, although Xxxx is totally afraid that I will contract COVID or get caught up in a protesters or police riot. But I feel like white supporters need to be there. Few people wear masks during the day, or maintain social distancing, although everyone puts on masks at night so they can’t be photographed by police or Guard, and many carry jugs of milk to wipe the tear gas and mace out of their eyes. It’s a weird sight to see these strong young men, masked, often without shirts on, screaming, throwing things, running in and out of looted buildings, confronting the Guard and police - all the while carrying a milk jug in one hand - almost comedic if not for the lives and income and businesses that are being threatened and lost.

Suddenly we have several National Guard helicopters hovering over our house at the moment. Apparently a group of looters are on the loose about 4 blocks south of our house, but again, not yet attacking individual residential homes but focusing on the businesses, including banks, gas stations, major retailers, auto repair and auto body places. The major focus is either liquor stores or ATM machines - and any stores that have big screen TV’s ( what else in our media crazed culture? ). My favorite neighborhood liquor store, owned by a family I bought from in the 60’s on, and whose current owner is the child of that family, has been destroyed. I met Matt, the current owner after his parents both died, when he was about 4 years old, anyways, East Lake Liquors has been trashed, looted, burned. And the photos of young guys trying to carry ATM machines away is almost laughable, if not so damn serious. Those machines are very, very heavy and almost impenetrable. So you see three or four guys carrying one out of a business clearly looking like they are breaking their backs with the weight. Suddenly they drop them and begin kicking at them - which may make them feel better but never opens the ATM and probably there will be lots of broken toes showing up in area hospitals. Again, it’s all laughable at one level - except for the terrible destruction and violence.

The most worrisome aspect of all this is the growing number of gun shots, directed at police, fire fighters - and too often between rioters who get angry at each other. That many guns in these demonstrations worries me more than anything. You add the white nationalists who are showing up armed to “protect the city” you have a volatile mix which could end up being a small version of a shooting war. For now, those shots are more random, though increasing in frequency late at night.

In the midst of all this, I am sorry to admit, many of us who advocate nonviolence, nonviolent alternatives to violence, nonviolent strategies - all of that - find ourselves unable to come up with a significant way of intervening. I guess it’s like any war - once the shooting starts ( in our case the looting and arson ) there is very little one can do until the violence ends. Even the Nonviolent Peaceforce, that puts civilian volunteers into violent conflicts around the world to protect innocent civilians, won’t enter a war torn area unless all sides have met together with Nonviolent Peaceforce staff ( together, not by email, ZOOM, etc ) and there are guarantees for the safety of intervenors and all parties sign an agreement that they want the Nonviolent Peaceforce to come into their area and will respect them. So we are left with very few options for creative intervention until the fires, the looting, etc, are over. In effect we are waiting for a violent response from police, National Guard and State Patrol, to put down the rioting, looting and arson, before we can hopefully begin to assert some nonviolent strategies in all of this. It is all very frustrating. Plus, so much of my life has been spent holding up nonviolence as an expression of our faith commitments. But these younger folks are not listening to traditional faith community leaders out of the Black or White communities. So my experience of the Civil Rights movement, with faith based leadership, the singing of songs, the chanting of less violent chants feels like something someone discovered in the back of their closet from a time long ago in the past.

[crickets]

6. Thank you for sharing what is going on in your neighborhood, LAS14.

It's so quiet in my little town in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly just sitting home to avoid the spillover from nearby COVID hotspots seems so quaint and safe. The few protest marches I have been a part of were so peaceful and tame they almost don't seem to count. I can't imagine what you are going through experiencing unrest like this so close to home. If you do go to the protest today, please wear a mask and stay safe.

[LAS14]

7. And thanks for implicitly pointing out an oversight.

I added this to my Update #2 post: "E-mail from a friend in Minneapolis."

[crickets]

8. No worries. May your friend stay safe. nt

[LAS14]

9. More from my friend in Minneapolis today.

We were just ordered by the city to put all our garbage, recycle and compost bins in the garage, put our hoses out front so people can access them if there is a fire, remove our propane tanks from our grills and store them somewhere safe, remove any rocks, bricks or pavers that could be thrown and fill up our cars gas tanks in cars parked outside garages ( I guess if you drop a match into a full gas tank it just extinguishes the match, unlike when you have only a little bit of gas but lots of fumes. Then the fumes ignite and explode. Little did I know! ). Everyone has been asked to keep our outside and inside lights on all night.

I will stay up tonight to watch and listen for trouble. But I am hoping for a quiet night with the overwhelming force of many State Police, 2500 National Guard, local police and sheriffs and now 500 federal troops. We have been warned that anyone, absolutely anyone, on the street after 8pm will be arrested and held in our convention center for 72 hours. Now I am taking a nap to get ready for a long night. Plus I am just tired of talking about this, worrying about this, preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. I have a meeting in 20 minutes with our block club to do further planning for tonight. BTW, the reason for all these preparations is that we are worried that if the instigators are kept away from our business strips they might move into the neighborhoods to seed their chaos. The police and National Guard have warned us about this, based apparently on come communications they have had access to between instigators. So, prepare we will. I just wish it would all end. But I have no control over that.

[LAS14]

10. P. S. for Saturday

80.% of arrests were men from other states, black and white. Gov. Walz just ordered all our major highways snd roadways closed until tomorrow morning. Neighborhood streets are open but all others are now blocked by State police and National Guard. We have been advised to sound our car theft alarms if there is a problem.

[LAS14]

11. A quieter night on Saturday.

Good news. Very few fires, no looting, some vandalism. The city was totally militarized after curfew began at 8pm. Black Hawk combat helicopters overhead. 20% of arrests were people from MI, Chicago, Kansas City, Iowa and a couple other states. AR-15 assault rifles were confiscated, along with carloads of rocks, pavers, Molotov cocktails and many hand guns. Freeways continue to be shut down. 4100 National Guard troops still on our streets plus many hundreds of cops from around the state. I was awake till 3am watching our street and alley. I have to admit to some racial profiling I am guilty of. When pickup trucks or cars with 3 or 4 white guys drive by I get extra alert and track what they are doing. Driving while white!!!! This is a result of white nationalists coming into MN to sow their hatred and violence. Some international group ( Russia, China, North Korea??? ) attacked all our MN State computers last night trying to disrupt the state even more. Not successful. Another curfew tonight. So now we try to enjoy our cool, sunny day while preparing again for tonight.

[LAS14]

12. Kicking for visibility. nt

[AmyHansen16]

13. In regards to Nonviolent Peaceforce

Dear person who mentioned Nonviolent Peaceforce. At the moment our leadership team is reaching out to local community organizations to offer training on unarmed civilian protection. We want to ensure the strategies coming out this are from the black community. We are discussing what training we can offer such as on unarmed protective presence. If you have questions please email info at nonviolentpeaceforce dot org.