George Floyd murder and aftermath

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NickP
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George Floyd murder and aftermath

Postby NickP » May 29th, 2020, 9:55 am

Definitely a difficult time. How is everyone doing today? I’m sad, angry, frustrated, and emotionally exhausted. Doing my best to balance being ally and taking care of myself.



Moderator note: I combined discussion from various topics into this one. I do want to direct folks to this post by Didier because it's a good starting point for discussion/retrospective after things had calmed down (and because he started this dedicated topic with that post).

Also, for discussion specific to rebuilding the Hi-Lake / Downtown Longellow area, that can go here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3939&start=220#p155685

John21
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby John21 » May 29th, 2020, 10:53 am

Definitely a difficult time. How is everyone doing today? I’m sad, angry, frustrated, and emotionally exhausted. Doing my best to balance being ally and taking care of myself.
Same.

MattW
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MattW » May 29th, 2020, 12:19 pm

Definitely a difficult time. How is everyone doing today? I’m sad, angry, frustrated, and emotionally exhausted. Doing my best to balance being ally and taking care of myself.
Same.
Yeah... I'm a Frey guy, but not sure how he makes it out of this.

schwinnletour
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby schwinnletour » May 29th, 2020, 1:26 pm

Tuesday's police response to peaceful protests was the match that set off the riots. Chief Arradondo and/or Frey had all evening after the murder the the following day to plan how to manage the coming protests peacefully.

From The Onion:
Peaceful Protest Interrupted By Swarm Of Aggressive Black-Clad Militants

https://www.theonion.com/peaceful-prote ... ce=twitter

Mdcastle
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Mdcastle » May 29th, 2020, 1:36 pm

There's a lot of theories going around that the police incited the riots in various ways. What makes these not completely crackpot conspiracy theories is the longstanding feud between the police department and the city.

QuietBlue
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby QuietBlue » May 29th, 2020, 3:07 pm

Walz seemed today like he was fed up with both City Hall and the MPD for they both handled (or didn't handle) things.

Cat349F
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Cat349F » May 29th, 2020, 8:02 pm

R T Rybak was less than impressed in an interview today, also. The article makes no mention of his criticism of the current Mayor.

https://wccoradio.radio.com/articles/fe ... ent-cancer
Unsustainable fossil burning fool.

Mdcastle
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Mdcastle » May 30th, 2020, 7:32 am

I haven't seen any evidence of Frey and Carter actually handling it yet.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby VacantLuxuries » May 30th, 2020, 9:53 am

They have no authority to fire the instigator Bob Kroll, and it would take legislature intervention to undo the Stanek Amendment. Not to mention the time it would take to undo the damage of the amendment in the first place. The MPD seems perfectly content to let the city burn and attack peaceful protestors unprovoked.

What actions can Frey or Carter take in this situation? Other than fire the entire MPD which, while I think would be a swift and needed action to reform our law enforcement, would probably be a non-starter.

Mdcastle
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Mdcastle » May 30th, 2020, 5:14 pm

Invite the U.S. military in since anything short of that is obviously not stopping the rioting.

twinkess
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby twinkess » May 30th, 2020, 9:48 pm

Appears so far tonight that they wont be needed.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby VacantLuxuries » May 31st, 2020, 2:35 am

I for one am glad our leaders aren't nearly that fearful.

fehler
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby fehler » June 1st, 2020, 8:25 am

Repeal the Stanek Amendment should be a DFL priority.

alexschief
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby alexschief » June 1st, 2020, 8:39 am

I'm a bit sympathetic about the plight of Frey, Carter, and other leaders, just as I thought Betsy got an unfair amount of flack during her term. These issues are bigger than one mayor or one council, and can't be solved overnight. I certainly believe both mayors and both councils were already moving in the right direction, albeit much too slowly. That will certainly change, the upcoming budget and contract battles in Minneapolis are going to be extremely tough.

But where I fault them, especially Frey and Arradondo, is a failure to show personal leadership, especially on the first night of protests that escalated when the police rioted after a couple of people broke into the squad car parking lot. I think a lot of people have questioned to what extent the police are under the control of the civilian authorities, and both Frey and Arradondo should've been on the scene at 38th and Chicago and the 3rd Precinct to listen to people and show that they were responsive and present, and also to directly manage the response of the police. The mistake that both Mayors Hodges and Frey made was not being physically present at the right time.

I'll say that however frustrated folks in the Twin Cities are, just contrast that with here in Philadelphia, where the police department mobilized a phalanx of cops to protect a statue of Frank Rizzo, who was a notoriously racist and brutal former mayor and cop. All while businesses were looted and burned without any protection on 52nd Street, which is the city's premier business district of small, POC-owned stores.

amiller92
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby amiller92 » June 1st, 2020, 9:43 am

Trying to balance keeping instigating cops away from justifiable protest versus maintaining order is about as unenviable task as could have exists. We got no policing Wednesday night, I assume because the mayor and chief wanted the cops to use restraint, leading the union to refuse to do the job as instructed.

It was wise of the governor (and mayors) to go with the "outsider" and put state troopers and the guard on the forefront to try to re-legitimize the concept maintaining order. There are definitely both right and left "outsiders" out there, but that's not everyone doing harm.

The scariest part, which I not sure if getting that much attention, was Friday's fairly systematic targeting of gas stations. The Speedways on Cedar at the Parkway and on 34th at 51st and the Holiday on Hiawatha all had fires.

It's weird to go around the city and see what is and what isn't boarded up.

talindsay
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby talindsay » June 1st, 2020, 10:00 am

I was shocked to find the Holiday at Hiawatha and 46th had burned. That's way outside the affected areas otherwise. It was also oddly personal because when she was little my daughter always wanted to go there to wash our car because their car wash had an animated rain drop that she thought was cute.

the other scott
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby the other scott » June 1st, 2020, 12:41 pm

It seems to me that auto parts stores were also targeted along with gas stations. Is there some violent group that would target auto related industries? On the other hand, as far as I know, used car lots were not targeted and neither Minneapolis or St Paul has a new auto dealership to destroy. I don't know, just spitballing here.

MNdible
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MNdible » June 1st, 2020, 1:23 pm

I'd guess that the places that were targeted handled valuable items which could easily be fenced for cash. Drug stores, liquor stores, gas stores (cigarettes), auto repair stores (auto parts). These far flung break-ins and subsequent arson scream opportunistic criminals, not protesters -- and probably not nefarious political actors, either.

alexschief
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby alexschief » June 1st, 2020, 2:11 pm

The looting suggests locals, the arson doesn't. It takes more than a lighter to set a building on fire. Who has the materials and time for that?

Didier
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Didier » June 1st, 2020, 2:21 pm

Probably time to split this off into it's own thread?

Anecdotally, the Walgreens at 31st Avenue was hit hard on Wednesday night, boarded up and broken into again on Thursday, and then destroyed by fire overnight Thursday. Definitely the hardest hit of anything in the vicinity. Not sure if there's anything to take from that.

As best I could tell, the last business to be broken into was Papa Murphy's just before the river. A block west, it looked like somebody broke into the auto shop and drove a car through one of the garages. Speedway at 44th was ransacked, and I'm pretty sure Dairy Queen was hit too. Kind of curiously, the Longfellow Market never boarded up its giant plate glass windows yet didn't appear to have any damage. You'd think somebody out to indiscriminately destroy stuff would have put a hammer through those.

By the time I got farther west it was hard to tell which businesses had been hit versus which ones had boards up as a preventative measure, but for the most part, at least once you got away from Hi-Lake, the "minority owned" type signs did seem to make a difference.

It's probably a fool's errand to try to search for too much motivation behind these attacks, though.


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