#minneapolis protests

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christian Paz at Vox:

Tim Walz was just over a year into his first term as Minnesota governor when a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in May 2020, touching off a generation-defining summer of global protests against police brutality and racial inequality. Four years later, Walz’s handling of the demonstrations — which included mass unrest in Minnesota’s largest cities — is under new scrutiny after Vice President Kamala Harris tapped the governor to be her running mate on Tuesday.

At least two people died during the violence in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, more than 600 arrests were made in the initial days of unrest, and the whole span of rioting and law enforcement response made it one of the most costly and destructive periods of civil unrest in US history. Minneapolis and Saint Paul sustained hundreds of millions of dollars in damage during those riots, and hundreds of buildings were heavily damaged. Conservatives have charged Walz with essentially allowing rioters to “burn Minneapolis to the ground” and waffling on the deployment of National Guard troops to quell the violence. Walz wasn’t the main authority in charge of responding to the unrest — that was the task of local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. But the task eventually passed to him once it was too much for local officials to handle. Both Walz and Frey’s governments have traded blame and presented their own versions of the events of those days of rage, but the full story of what happened is still not completely known.

What did Walz do during the unrest?

The main line of criticism of Walz’s response to the late-spring riots hinges on the time it took for him to deploy the Minnesota National Guard and coordinate with other state and local officials in restoring order.

Floyd was killed on May 25, and large protests, with some vandalism and police violence, began the next day. By the evening of May 27, largely peaceful protests grew more violent, with looting and arson around the city. Frey, the mayor, reportedly contacted Walz that evening and asked for help from the Minnesota National Guard. The city’s police chief then sent Walz’s office a written request for 600 troops, in addition to some other logistical notes. Walz and his office did not sign an executive order authorizing National Guard deployments until the following afternoon, May 28, at which point much of the city had shut down, businesses were closed and boarded up to prevent looting, and buildings were smoldering after overnight arsons. That night saw some of the worst rioting, violence, and arson, as well as one of the indelible scenes of the protests: the breach and burning of the Minneapolis police’s Third Precinct police station. A few hundred National Guard and Minnesota State Patrol officers had been deployed to Minneapolis by then, but were charged with protecting federal buildings and downtown areas of the city, as well as escorting first responders, instead of immediately going to hot spots.

Walz would later say that the city had not specified where the troops should go — and state and local officials later reflected that there was a breakdown in communication, coordination, and understanding of just how long it would take to get National Guard troops prepped. The next morning, once National Guard troops and the state patrol had taken control of the area around the station, another lasting moment occurred: the arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew while reporting live near the police station. At a press conference on May 29, Walz would take responsibility for the state patrol’s mishandling of the news crew, saying, “There is absolutely no reason something like this should happen. Calls were made immediately … I failed you last night in that.”

That press conference was also the first time Walz acknowledged that local officials’ response had been an “abject failure” and that he would now be leading the response. He said he had spoken with President Donald Trump and said that his tweets about “shooting” starting after looting were “unhelpful.” He deployed more National Guard troops and instituted a curfew. Still, more violence and vandalism occurred. The following day, Saturday, May 30, Walz would fully mobilize the National Guard, speak with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and acknowledge that the situation had gotten worse because “outside agitators” had entered the region. The protests and riots wouldn’t be fully tamped down in the Twin Cities until June 7.

[...]

Republicans are attacking the governor’s response now that he’s on the VP ticket

Since the Walz announcement, Republicans have assailed him as “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal,” and zeroed in specifically on his response to the Floyd protests and their aftermath. Given that the racial reckoning that the Floyd murder kicked off included the rise to prominence of the “Defund the Police” slogan and movement, some conservatives have also claimed that Walz was being “soft on crime” for supporting police reforms in the state that banned chokeholds, created new mental health resources for police and first responders, and required excessive-force trainings. And others in right-wing media have conflated his response to the Floyd murder specifically, which he connected to “systemic issues” with policing and “institutional racism,” with Walz offering excuses for the violence.

During the immediate aftermath of the George Floyd protests that escalated into riots in 2020, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D)’s response to the protests has been facing scrutiny from Republicans who saw Walz as responding too slowly.

[joeywreck]

Remembering when cops in Minneapolis fired “less-lethal” weapons at random people from unmarked vans without identifying themselves or giving warnings, then charged terrified citizens defending themselves with felonies.

[chaddavisphotography]

Graffiti outside of Coffman Memorial Union where pro-Palestinian protesters have been gathering to protest the war in Gaza.

[oursonwithagirl]

4/23/24

❗️umn divest encampment dropped❗️

[nando161mando]

George Floyd Protests - Minneapolis, MN [Twitter Archive, June 12, 2020]

[cyarskaren52]

Biiiiiiiitch What? Thousands of people were dying a day in NYC, emergency rooms were overflowing. The maskless were perfecting fine with spreading Covid, and I practically had an anxiety attack every time I went to the store. And there’s outrage over the police in Minnesota killing black men in front of perma traumatized children and teenagers. The teenager who filmed the murder still traumatized from seeing the wickedness in front of her. This is what you wanna go back to ? Three years later? Biiiiiiiittttttttttcccccvh what?????

[joecunningham]

Fazy Kowsari decries the torture and killings of Dr. Ayda Rostami and Majidreza Rahnavard (Downtown Minneapolis MN) / 2022

Dr. Rostami, who had treated many wounded protesters in Tehran reportedly left one’s house on December 12th to get first-aid supplies and was never seen alive again.  When called by authorities to collect her body, her family was told she had died in a “car accident.” At the morgue they discovered her injuries included bruised genitals, a broken hand, and the side of her face crushed with one eyelid sewn shut to conceal the removal of her eyeball.  The medical examiner told the family that they were ordered not to reveal the true cause of Ayda's death.

Majidreza Rahnavard was accused of killing two paramilitary goons that were attacking protesters. Mr. Rahnavard was not allowed to choose his own lawyer, challenge the evidence against him (that being a coerced confession) or ask for the trial to be held in public.  He was excecuted by hanging.  The regieme chose to hang him in public from a tall crane for maximum visibility.  Creating a pretense for this spectacle was the aim of the bullshit trial.

As of Dec 18th, at least 495 people have been killed for protesting in Iran.

[eileennatural]

people can say whatever they want abt walz but honestly the main appeal of him as a vp nominee is that there's like finally one guy willing to say "what if we tried being nice to each other. has anyone ever tried that before"

[xtruss]

Historically, when Students at US Universities have protested, there has been a common refrain that "Outside Agitators" are to blame.

Experts say it's a convenient way for officials to delegitimise the motivations of some political movements and justify calling in law enforcement to stop direct actions that are largely nonviolent and engaging in constitutionally protected speech.

During the Civil Rights Movement, protests involved local community members and organisers from other parts of the state or country. Officials often targeted this, alleging that the protests were orchestrated by outsiders.

The label was used as a weapon against community members who spoke up or provided support to protesters and organisers, says Dylan C Penningroth, an author and historian. Nearly half a century later, the 2014 Killing of Michael Brown By a Police Officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked widespread protests against police brutality.

Again, "Outside Agitators" were frequently invoked and blamed for destruction, looting and the burning of buildings. The same language was used to describe protests in the wake of the 2020 Killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police. Amid the current US student protests against the Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, the Bastard Child of the United States & the West and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell, there are a Handful of examples of Officials Using the Outside Agitator Rhetoric Nationwide.

In referencing the protests on campuses at Atlanta's Emory University, Boston's Northeastern University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, School Officials and Law Enforcement have made Inaccurate and Unsubstantiated Claims about the Presence of Non-Students.

Similarly, New York City Mayor Boak Bollocks and an Idiot to His Core Eric Adams repeatedly cited the presence of "Outside Agitators" on New York Campuses to justify the use of police force, with officers in riot gear swarming Columbia University's Campus, clearing out its encampment, and arresting more than 100 people on April 30.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lucien Bruggeman and Katherine Faulders at ABC News:

In the hours after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, allies of former President Donald Trump rushed to denigrate the Minnesota Democrat, seizing on criticism of his handling of the riots in the wake of George Floyd's murder in May 2020. "He allowed rioters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis," Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, said Tuesday.

But at the time, Trump expressed support for Walz's handling of the protests, according to a recording of a phone call obtained by ABC News -- telling a group of governors that Walz "dominated," and praising his leadership as an example for other states to follow. "I know Gov. Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days," Trump told a group of governors on June 1, 2020, according to a recording of the call, in which he also called Walz an "excellent guy." "I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim," Trump continued. "You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins." Trump also suggested on the call that it was his encouragement that sparked Walz to call in the National Guard: "I said, you got to use the National Guard in big numbers," Trump said. A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said Wednesday that was untrue.

[...] "Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump's offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis," Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News. "In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city."

Trump's contemporaneous approval of Walz's decision-making in the wake of George Floyd's murder undermines one of Republicans' most vocal lines of attack against the vice presidential nominee. Critics have accused Walz of stalling the mobilization of the National Guard to quell rioters who set fire to 1,500 buildings, caused some $500 million in property damage, and were linked to at least three deaths.

Donald Trump and his right-wing media allies are attacking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for his handling of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis; however, in 2020, Trump had praised Walz for his handling of them, per an ABC News story.

[killervelveteenrabbit]

The common theme here is not a hard "no" from the campus administrations involved, but "let's talk about it, and here's something we can do for you in the meantime." It's something.

Granted, the four colleges spotlit in this article may be playing for time. Perhaps they're betting that the situation in Gaza will change by the fall semester. Maybe there'll be a ceasefire that leads to an end to the conflict, they suppose, or another action by Hamas that renders the pro-Palestine position indefensible.

Also, the administrations are probably hoping the summer break will sap the momentum of the student movements--never mind that this didn't happen with the Vietnam War or apartheid protests years back.

I don't expect Northwestern, Brown, Rutgers, or UMN to do anything substantial about divestment over the summer. I fully expect one or more of these colleges to take back the concessions it made to get the tents off the lawns. When the fall semester starts, the students there may need to... remind their leaders of what they promised.

[chaddavisphotography]

The anti-war protest encampment at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on May 1st, 2024. At the same time, some protesters were continuing to talk with school officials regarding their demands. Shortly after 10pm the school sent out a message that an initial agreement had been reached. Tents were removed on May 2nd. This is the second encampment at the university following the police clearing and arresting 9 protesters last week. Among the protesters demands are that the school “divest from all companies complicit in war crimes and human rights violations.

[jccheapalier]

The Fall of Minneapolis

[whatwould-misha-do]

I think ACAB is a useful concept but doesn't describe exactly what I believe. I have met cops who are useful and nice in certain circumstances, including more than a few who helped save the lives of kids. There was one who was a suicidal teen's only contact outside of a hospital and the way they checked in on them and encouraged them is part of why they survived. But you have to assume that due to training in their system, the way coworkers force out people who aren't rough enough or think a certain way, as well as how the profession draws people or abusers who want power and authority over others, that those same cops are still dangerous in different circumstances. I know this is compatible with ACAB, but some people who say that do mean cops are awful all the time.

I think of cops as a loaded gun. Always assume they could go off at the wrong moment. Don't leave kids alone with them. Useful in specific circumstances, but don't point them at anyone without warning, and unless you're okay with them possibly getting hurt or there aren't better alternatives. There should be steps before they are used. There should be alternatives.

[nando161mando]

"#Minneapolis: Dozens gathered this evening at 41st & Lyndale Ave. N. for a protest for Ricky Cobb II, a 33 y/o father who was killed two days ago by @mndps_msp officers during a traffic stop near 42nd Ave. & I-94. Cobb II was unarmed & shot in the abdomen."

https://bird.makeup/users/ur_ninja/statuses/1686551768736391168