Tag: George Floyd

Minneapolis Delegation Sends Letter to Governor Tim Walz

House DFL logoToday, Minnesota House legislators who represent parts of the city of Minneapolis sent the following letter to Gov. Tim Walz.

Dear Governor Walz:

We are writing to request that the case against the police officers who killed George Floyd, or may have been otherwise culpable in his death, be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Attorney General’s office. Unfortunately, our constituents, especially constituents of color, have lost faith in the ability of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to fairly and impartially investigate and prosecute these cases. Freeman’s press conference on May 28th, in which he seemed ill-prepared and suggested that there was unseen exculpatory evidence that might exonerate the officers, further ruptured this trust. Continue reading “Minneapolis Delegation Sends Letter to Governor Tim Walz”

Update from Sheriff Hutchinson: May 30, 2020

I will be out once again with my deputies tonight to try and keep the peace and keep people safe.

We understand peoples’ frustrations and respect protesters’ First Amendment rights to publicly grieve the tragic death of George Floyd.

But we can’t allow the coordinated criminal behavior and the destruction of property and livelihoods any longer. Continue reading “Update from Sheriff Hutchinson: May 30, 2020”

Former President Obama’s Statement on the Death of George Floyd

Below is a statement from President Obama on George Floyd’s death:

I want to share parts of the conversations I’ve had with friends over the past  couple of days about the footage of George Floyd dying face down on the street under the knee of a police officer in Minnesota.

The first is an email from a middle-aged African American businessman.

“Dude I gotta tell you the George Floyd incident in Minnesota hurt. I cried when I saw that video. It broke me down. The “keen on the neck” is a metaphor for how the system so cavalierly holds black folks down, ignoring the cries for help. People don’t care. Truly tragic.”

Another friend of mine used the powerful song that went viral from 12-year-old Keedron Bryant to describe the frustrations he was feeling. Continue reading “Former President Obama’s Statement on the Death of George Floyd”

Protests, fires rage through the night in Minneapolis

Washington Post logoFires raged through the night in Minneapolis after a group of demonstrators swarmed a police station, which officers had been ordered to abandon as protests intensified in a city rocked by the death of a black man in police custody. Demonstrators breached a door and entered the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct station as fires spread, resulting in destruction and further upheaval.

President Trump called the protesters “THUGS,” while suggesting military intervention and warning in a tweet that there could be additional violence if the chaos continued. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” the president wrote. Trump’s tweet was later flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence.”

The scene in Minneapolis came at the end of a day in which hundreds of peaceful protesters demanded that four now-fired officers be arrested in a case that has generated nationwide outrage. Video captured a white police officer pressing his knee into George Floyd’s neck in a banned maneuver as Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” Floyd later died. Continue reading.

Far-right ‘boogaloo’ militants have embedded themselves in the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis: ‘They want their civil war’

AlterNet logoYoung, white men dressed in Hawaiian-style print shirts and body armor, and carrying high-powered rifles have been a notable feature at state capitols, lending an edgy and even sometimes insurrectionary tone to gatherings of conservatives angered by restrictions on businesses and church gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.

Just as many states are reopening their economies — and taking the wind out of the conservative protests — the boogaloo movement found a new galvanizing cause: the protests in Minneapolis against the police killing of George Floyd.

A new iteration of the militia movement, boogaloo was born out of internet forums for gun enthusiasts that repurposed the 1984 movie Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo as a code for a second civil war, and then modified it into phrases like “big luau” to create an insular community for those in on the joke, with Hawaiian-style shirts functioning as an in-real-life identifier. Boogaloo gained currency as an internet meme over the summer of 2019, when it was adopted by white supremacists in the accelerationist tendency. In January, the movement made the leap from the internet to the streets when a group boogaloo-ers showed up at the Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Va. Continue reading.

Message from Sheriff Hutchinson

Last night, my deputies and I were on duty at the Hennepin County Government Center when a group of demonstrators took a knee and held a minute-long moment of silence for George Floyd. It was a very powerful moment. These protestors, though upset, were peaceful and respectful.

Sadly, our great community suffered a tremendous amount of property damage when some people turned a righteous display of anger into a criminal display of bad behavior. This must stop. People should voice their outrage without harming the property and livelihoods of people who are already struggling to get by in an extraordinarily challenging time.

As the elected Sheriff of Hennepin County, I know how important it is to reflect the values of the community we all serve. The mission of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is “Serving and protecting all in our community by furthering equal justice, safety, and wellness.” Our job is to care for and protect the people in our community, no matter what they look like, where they come from, or their status in life. By following our mission, we will honor the memory of George Floyd.

– Sheriff David Hutchinson

Minneapolis officer charged with murder

The Hill logoA former Minneapolis police officer involved in the death of George Floyd has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, the Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday afternoon.

“[Derek] Chauvin has been charged by the Hennepin County attorney office with murder and with manslaughter,” Freeman said during a press conference. “He has been charged with third-degree murder.”

Minnesota is one of only three states in the country to have a third-degree murder charge, the others being Florida and Pennsylvania. Also known as depraved-heart murder, a third-degree murder charge is used when someone causes the death of someone without the intent to kill, but with an action that is dangerous and disregards human life. Continue reading.

Fired Minneapolis Cop Derek Chauvin Arrested and Charged With Murder in George Floyd’s Death

The fired Minneapolis Police officer seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck in video that ignited national protests has been arrested in the man’s death, authorities said. John Harrington, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, announced Friday that Derek Chauvin has been taken into custody in connection with Monday’s death.

He is one of four officers involved in Floyd’s arrest that spurred days of fiery protests in Minnesota’s largest city. Chauvin is white and Floyd was black. Demands for Chauvin’s arrest have raged since the video went viral.

Floyd, who was 46, died after being arrested after police answered a call about a store customer using a counterfeit bill.  Continue reading.

 

DNC on George Floyd and Trump’s Response

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement on the killing of George Floyd and the shameful response of Donald Trump:

“The killing of George Floyd is another tragic case of the violence Black men face in America every single day. No person of character and common sense can watch the video footage of what police did to George Floyd without being horrified. And yet, this president has done nothing to heal those wounds. Instead, he has sown division; he has advocated violence against protestors, rather than condemning the racist violence that launched these protests in the first place. We will not heal as a nation through silence, but through justice, through progress, through activism and action. George Floyd is the name we’re chanting today. Yesterday it was Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Before that it was Botham Jean, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald. We will keep saying their names. We will keep honoring their lives. And we will keep seeking justice for their families and the families of those whose tragedies weren’t captured on video by fighting to end police brutality and the institutional racism that pervades every aspect of our society. So long as Black men and women cannot breathe, we cannot rest.”