Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls Minneapolis unrest 'unacceptable'

[alp227]

Source: (Minneapolis) Star Tribune

The Twin Cities convulsed with chaos for a third straight night of violent unrest Thursday in the wake of the Memorial Day death of George Floyd as he was being restrained on the neck by a Minneapolis police officer.

Late Thursday and early Friday, rioters invaded and set fire to Minneapolis police’s Third Precinct headquarters and for a second overnight, torched and looted many other buildings in the Lake Street corridor, many of them housing small businesses with minority owners.

[...]

About 1:30 a.m. Friday, Mayor Jacob Frey, who previously had held news conferences to denounce Floyd’s death and call for the arrest of the officers involved, held one to address the chaos of the past three days.

“Earlier this evening, after receiving real-time information from [Police Chief Medaria] Arradondo and after having numerous phone calls with him involving the situation at the Third Precinct, it became clear that there were imminent threats to both officers and the public,” Frey said. “I made the decision to evacuate the Third Precinct. The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers or the public. .Brick and mortar is not as important as life.”

Read more: https://www.startribune.com/frey-unrest-unacceptable-trump-promising-action/570830002/

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The last part of the headline didn't fit in the title field: "President Donald Trump promises action". But this story is mostly about the Minneapolis mayor's response, so I'm leaving out the parts about Trump so that I can fit Frey's statement in the excerpt. (LBN already has a thread about that Trump tweet.)

Frey also said: “What we have seen over the past several hours and past couple of nights is unacceptable. These are banks that people rely on to get cash, grocery stores that people rely on to get food. They are essential to our community.”

[handmade34]

1. unacceptable...

is not arresting murderers...

[DeminPennswoods]

4. The city cannot arrest the cops

That is conflict of interest. The county and/or state have to take that action. Has AG Ellison issued any statements?

[Locrian]

5. true -

but the "city" can say that it's "unacceptable" to not have arrested the cops too.

It can also say that the police organization training and discipline practices is "unacceptable" and they need to fix it etc.

[DeminPennswoods]

8. Frey has said repeatedly the officer(s) should be arrested

I think you can have the best training in the world, but that can't make a bad apple(s) into a good one(s).

[Locrian]

11. good about Frey

but my point is that the TRAINING (and culture) is also a big part of the problem.

They are taught that the civilian is an enemy to be put down.
They're taught to handcuff someone AFTER they have been shot or dead.
They create a culture from top down that pits the police AGAINST the citizens - covering up, justifying anything for their own "safety" at the expense of society.
They reinforce this by RARELY punishing for the worst infractions - and intimidating the "good ones" into silence.

So then you you get the really "bad apples" that find it a *wonderful* place where they have no boundaries and no rules. And it gets worse and worse.

So it's not just the apples in the barrel. It's the actual barrel.

i want to see people talking about not just the bad apples - but the system (barrel) that somehow seems to like bad apples, and hasn't done much about it.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. tRump's only concern is property, not life: "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" . . . nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. With the amount of taxpayer money going to Trump's hotels and resorts, ...

... the looting in Minneapolis is negligible.

Trump: You call that looting? I'll show you looting ...

[vlyons]

3. Why doesn't the mayor fire the chief of police?

nt

[DeminPennswoods]

6. What would be the point of that?

What needs to be done is a complete overhaul of police hiring everywhere.

First, municipalities need to stop recruiting and/or giving preference to former military members. The mindset of the military is oriented toward enemies and how to defeat them. Police, otoh, are supposed to maintain a civil society. These are two vastly different jobs. Too many cops seems to have taken on the military mindset where the community is an enemy to be defeated and subdued, not a partner in keeping society civil.

Second, there absolutely needs to be psychological screening of all police academy applicants. Weeding the mentally unfit (racist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc) out before they get in would solve a lot of problems. Random re-testing would ensure anyone who has let having power and authority consume them would identify potential problematic employees.

Third, Americans need to disabuse themselves of the notion that anyone walking around in a uniform automatically deserves hero status/hero worship. This doesn't mean they don't do heroic things, but the hero worship leads to a tendency to view oneself as the rules not applying to them, imho.

[woodsprite]

9. I have a friend who lives less than a mile from the 3rd precinct,

and she said the protest was peaceful until the cops incited the violence. Here's a portion of her message from 10 hrs ago:

"...my city is literally burning down around us because yet again, a cop murdered a Black man. I can’t begin to describe to you what it looks like, it’s like a war zone. We are less than a mile from the 3rd precinct where the largest things went up in flames. There is debris all over our yard and helicopters have been overhead for more than 24 hours. We can hear the police shooting the rubber bullets, gas on people, etc. The protestors were there in the thousands and it was non violent. The police incited this. I don’t say this lightly.

And, now with literal video of the whole thing that clearly shows the cop was a murderer, the FBI and Mike Freeman (county attorney) have declined to press charges today. They don’t have enough evidence.

The streets are outraged. The peaceful demonstrators have taken over a large portion of downtown, outside of Mike Freeman’s house, outside of the 3rd precinct (by us) and the outside of the cop’s house.

There are fires burning and looting happening throughout St Paul now like there was in Minneapolis last night, and they are spreading to the suburbs.

I can’t tell you with words how scary and exhausting this is. And it’s NOTHING compared to being a person of color in this country. NOTHING."



Adding her update from 2 hrs ago:
"...got about an hour sleep before national guard cut our power. There are tanks at the end of our street. The air color has been WRONG and the smoke is acrid and awful. So many more buildings close to us are burning. They were trying to get people out of the apts above Aldi down the street from us because of fires. Hi-lake strip mall where Savers was is burning. The whole chunk of buildings where Town Talk Diner was is burning. hexagon bar. Now Ivy Building. I’m sure there are others, that’s just what’s close to me.

...The protests have been peaceful - there is evidence coming forward that many people outside of our city, including cops and white supremacists have been starting these fires and looting. The Ivy Building is an important cultural community gathering place and landmark. It is a loss for many communities, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA2+ folks. This isn’t corporate Target or something, this is community space.

[malthaussen]

10. I think murdering black men is unacceptable.

Funny thing, that.

-- Mal