The NY post sent someone to Minneapolis 5 years after the massive riots that caused destruction that is still visible in the city. They went to George Floyd Square which is marked by calls for "Revolution", trash in the streets, and businesses that have closed since 2020. (At least that's what it was when I drove through there recently) We've seen multiple local news reports that the area is a "no go zone" for the police and that the residents are sick of the lawlessness. BLM took their hundreds of millions and didn't do squat for the area, the city has done less. The fact that the same people/party are in charge of the city (and have been for decades) yet don't take responsibility or blame for what's happened under their stewardship is disgusting. In short, y'all made y'all's bed and now y'all need to lie in it. It's the politicians and the citizens of Minneapolis/Hennepin county that are responsible for this, yet somehow no one will acknowledge that. I guess being in power is pretty good, for those in power.
https://nypost.com/2025/05/16/us-news/minneapolis-still-broken-5-years-after-george-floyd-death/
MINNEAPOLIS — Five years after the death of George Floyd, and the racial rioting that caused almost $500 million in damages, the wounds have not healed.
During a week in the Twin Cities, The Post observed high tensions in the middle of the George Floyd Square memorial between an angry local black businessman and Floyd’s aunt, Angela Harrelson, which set the tone for the rest of the visit.
Edwin Reed, 45, who owns an auto detailing shop nearby, confronted Harrelson, 63, over what he claimed was the “scamming” of city and state funds pledged for locals by outside groups after the riots.
The Floyd family, Reed noted, had gotten a $27 million settlement from the city in March 2021.
“I guess you don’t know what I know!” Reed shouted at a visibly shocked Harrelson, who tried to humor Reed in an effort to calm him down.
Reed told both Harrelson and The Post that his house was facing foreclosure and he is about to lose his business because the area around where Floyd died became a lawless, crime-ridden, no-go zone for three years after his death — and customers stayed away. Nor did he see a dime, he said, of the $125 million approved to help citizens like him in Minneapolis.
“It’s unbelievable what happened here,” Reed said, sometimes through tears. “All those activists who claimed to be activists were only trying to gain fame off George Floyd’s name. People were coming into town and making money by selling shirts and hats and having these fake protests while those of us from here suffered like collateral damage. It made me so sick.”
“Black Lives Matter was never here,” Reed alleged, referencing the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the non-government organization that handles the raising, collecting and distribution of the money for the movement.
“I never saw them even one time. Everyone was just capitalizing off a dead man. That’s what happened here and that’s what no one will tell you.”
Hundreds poured into the streets in demonstrations that were often called “peaceful protests” by the national media but were in fact violent and destructive.
Buildings and businesses were torched and looted, while three days after Floyd’s death, police had to abandon the 3rd Police Precinct, where the arresting officers were stationed, after it was beset by a mob who trapped officers inside by padlocking its gates.
Protesters surrounded the building on Minnehaha Avenue, yelling epithets, holding actual pigs’ heads, throwing frozen water bottles, rocks and sometimes even feces, according to Post interviews with former police officers from the precinct.
At 9:53 p.m. that night, the cops inside were ordered by city officials to evacuate the premises. Fifty-one officers were forced to flee on foot, most to waiting buses that had been specially organized, although a few other officers left in squad cars that broke through the padlocked gates.
“A lot of us were in fear that if we were locked in there and they got ahold of us, we would have been tortured and killed,” Velasquez said.
He added that he and his fellow officers knew they couldn’t shoot at the incoming protesters but kept an extra round in their pockets so they could turn the guns on themselves if they felt cornered and about to be killed.
Velasquez said the entire Minneapolis police force was demonized as brutal racists and over half the force left in the ensuing months.
Velasquez said he had felt so traumatized, he once tried to take his own life.
O’Hara said he was accustomed to a very Democratic city after working in Newark, but said nothing prepared him for the ultra-liberal orthodoxy he encountered in Minneapolis.
“Here it’s very, very ideological and a lot of times it’s like reality and facts can’t get through the filter. It’s a very detached, bourgeois liberal mentality … It’s bizarre.”
The protests and violence after Floyd’s death spread to more than 140 cities across the country, costing insurance companies between $1 billion and $2 billion in payouts and making the week of May 26 to June 1, 2020, the costliest civil disorder in US history.
Some black activists in Minneapolis feel the riots after Floyd’s death were justified.
“For me, George Floyd was my father, my brother, my uncles,” said Leesa Kelly, 32, the founder and director of Memorialize the Movement, a living archive of art made from the plywood protest murals found all over the Twin Cities after the riots.
Another African-American activist who strongly believes the now-incarcerated officers got everything they deserve told The Post she was frustrated.
“With all the money that was (allocated) for here, this community should look very different,” said Lachelle Cunningham, a chef and owner of Chelle’s Kitchen in Minneapolis.
Instead, Cunningham’s business, which she bought a few years ago, sits near George Floyd Square, which is marred by garbage, clothes dumped all over, cement barricades and graffiti.
When asked if she felt the attack on the 3rd Police Precinct was “justified,” Leesa Kelly smiled and said yes.
“I don’t think it’s possible to fix or restructure or rebuild a system that has always been broken,” she said.
“I think the only way to fix a system, like policing, which has such a complicated and horrible history in this country — is to burn it down.”
8 comments:
But Craig...they're just fascists, not peaceful, cupcake progressives.
Peaceful, my ass. I drove down Lake Street and through Uptown after the first day of the protests. Judging by the hundreds of people cleaning up debris peaceful is not how I would have described it.
And the facts were than Floyd died from a drug overdose and yet the LEFTIST blacks still don't care--it was enough that police were there.
Obviously Floyd's drug intake was a major factor in his death, how could it not have been. Was it 100% responsible, who knows. Did it affect his actions and therefore the police reaction to his actions, obviously. Did any of that matter to the peaceful protesters who ravaged the city, no. Did any of that matter to those who threatened the jury, no.
Should Chauvin be retried, probably. Personally, I believe that a charge of involuntary manslaughter probably would have been appropriate and that a court proceeding without the constant threat of violence might have acquitted him. Personally, I believe that the federal charge was a bullshit political move and that Trump should pardon that charge.
In all of this, the biggest things that's been ignored is the massive grift of BLM. They took around 100 million dollars and didn't do a damn thing for the "black community", just pocketed the cash and bought mansions. I'm not sure grifting like that is illegal, but it's ridiculous how a few women managed to legally steal that much money. It's also a damn shame how the business owners and residents around George Floyd square have gotten screwed by these scum.
FYI, it wasn't just black folx who were looting, burning, and threatening, there were plenty of white folx as well.
Chauvin shouldn't have been tried for anything, as he did nothing criminal or negligent in his handling of the situation.
I disagree. As I've said, I could have seen involuntary manslaughter as being a reasonable charge. I think that, given the evidence, he should have been acquitted. But having the trial and getting the evidence out would have ultimately been good IMO. The problem is that he was overcharged because of threats of violence, he didn't get a fair trial because of threats of violence and the government needing a scapegoat.
Of course that's immaterial because we live in the real world and none of what we think should have happened matters.
It sounds like they're pushing for a retrial (which he should get) based on evidence withheld during the original trial. He should get a new trial and the state should take steps to make it an actual fair trial this time.
You can disagree all you like, but neither the body-cam footage nor the initial autopsy report (before pressure forced its dismissal in favor of the narrative), there was nothing to suggest charging Chauvin at all was justified. That's not to say investigating a death during a confrontation with police isn't justified. But to charge someone from the jump without first assessing all the details is not how it's supposed to be done. They could even have suspended Chauvin, or put him behind a desk until the investigation was completed, but anything else is assuming guilt of wrongdoing. And he did nothing wrong, except to show up for work that day.
Thank you ever so much for giving me your permission to disagree with your omnipotent hunches on this topic.
The question as far as charging Chauvin comes down to (IMO) two things.
1. Would Floyd have died had Chauvin done nothing?
2. Was there another way to have controlled Floyd?/Was it necessary to control Floyd in that way for that period of time.
We will, obviously never know that answer to the first question, and the answer to the second is yes/probably not. It seems likely that the positioning of the knee of the neck of Floyd would have (at a minimum) affected the amount of oxygen he was able to take in. Therefore one must ask if another method of restraint, or no restraint, would have kept Floyd alive. Again, we don't know. Because we don't know, the best way to clear Floyd would have been through a trial. I think that you are not considering how an acquittal would have changed the narrative. Simply not charging him would have led to more riots, charging/investigating/trying/acquitting him would have limited the chances/size of any potential riots. Given the long time corruption in the MPD (DFL controlled), the political bias from the prosecution, and the pressure (political and violent) he should have been tried in another venue.
You seem confused and thinking that being charged and tried is automatically a bad thing, when it was likely the best of multiple bad options.
Failing to charge him would have been a nightmare.
Dropping the charges would have been a lesser nightmare.
An acquittal would have been the least nightmarish.
The timing of the charges is an entirely different issue. Were they charged too quickly, probably. Unfortunately the law does provide time limits of charges being brought. Would you have preferred another month or two of nightly riots and more of the metro in flames while they investigated? Or larger, more violent, riots when the MPD (again not the least corrupt) exonerated them after a cursory investigation?
I'll repeat myself. I think that Chauvin and the others did have options, did contribute to some degree to Floyd's death (even to hasten the inevitable) and should have been charged, tried, and acquitted based on what we know now.
FYI, I just finished reading an excellent new work on the Revolution. I was struck by how often figures on both sides demanded a court martial because they believed that the trial would exonerate them. This is a similar situation, I believe that the best way to have exonerated Chauvin and the rest was to work through due legal process. Having said that, it's clear that the legal process was corrupted by the threats of violence, and the local leaders caving in to those threats.
Finally, It might be hard to believe, but I'm not convinced that watching from afar and only seeing national news coverage, can give anyone the same perspective as we had locally. As I don't think that I have any ability to control what others believe, I'll not give you permission to disagree. I'll simply note that there really isn't a 100% right answer for this. I might be biased from driving the neighborhoods, seeing the carnage first hand (as well as the volunteers cleaning up), smelling the smoke, and hearing from people I know. So, perhaps factoring that is might be valuable.
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