Twin Cities Cops Stand and Watch as Buildings Burn
Local business owners say they are willing to use force if necessary to keep their shops from being looted.
By Kyle Hooten
May 29, 2020 6:37 pm ET
A police officer stands watch as a looted pawn shop burns in Minneapolis, May 28.
PHOTO: STEPHEN MATUREN/GETTY IMAGES
Minneapolis
Hennepin County prosecutors on Friday charged former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, 46. The white Mr. Chauvin was recorded Monday kneeling on the African-American Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he and three other officers tried to arrest him on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd, who was struggling to breathe, repeatedly asked the officers to help him stand up and died after being taken into custody.
Each night since, the Twin Cities have burned. This isn’t the first time Minneapolis has experienced civil unrest with racial overtones. In the summer of 1967, young residents of North Minneapolis threw rocks, smashed windows and set fires to shops along Plymouth Avenue in protest against unjust conditions in the city’s black neighborhoods. Mayor Arthur Naftalin urged the police to show restraint, and the situation eased.
Minneapolis police have similarly taken a hands-off approach to this week’s rioting, which has destroyed roughly 130 local businesses, but the anger shows no sign of letting up. Downtown business owners—even those who stand against police brutality—have been fighting off looters with their bare hands. Some have taken up arms in defense of their establishments.
A local man posted a video to Snapchat Thursday showing four armed men guarding a stretch of black-owned businesses near where the riots were taking place. One of the men in the clip appeared to be wearing body armor and could be seen holding a Vector SDP, a gun the size of a small rifle that fires handgun caliber bullets. Two of the men in the clip appeared to hold AR-style pistols. The fourth man held an AK-style pistol at the high-ready position. A voice on the video could be heard warning looters to “run up in here and see what happens.”
Early Friday morning, as fires raged along the Lake Street corridor, the African-American owners of GM Tobacco told me they were armed and ready to protect their business—and that they stand in solidarity with those who seek justice for Floyd.
“This our home, this is where we live, this is where we shop,” one the men in front of the tobacco store said. “Our problem is they could have took it to the Capitol, could have took it to different places, but they took it here.” From the sidewalk in front of the tobacco shop I could see Minneapolis’s Third Police Precinct, which rioters set on fire.
“Why are you attacking small businesses and family owned businesses?” one of the men in front of the tobacco store said. “Why are you doing that if you have a problem with the police? We feel the same way that you feel.”
While the owners of the tobacco store avoided violent confrontation that night, the same couldn’t be said for the owner of Cadillac Pawn, who allegedly shot and killed Calvin Horton as he and others tried to loot his East Lake Street jewelry store. Hennepin County Jail records show that the 59-year-old owner was arrested.
Small-business owners aren’t the only ones packing heat. Minutes after I spoke with the tobacconists, I heard gunshots. As flames poured out of the Third Precinct, live streams showed several people brandishing firearms. One rioter suggested that he had recently acquired the gun he was holding, which looked to be a SIG Sauer P226—a law-enforcement and military favorite.
Dozens of shots could be heard Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday. Most bullets were presumably fired into the air, but the Star Tribune reported at least one gunshot victim had sought medical help overnight Thursday. “A gentleman pulled out a gun and started shooting in this direction,” the paper quoted a St. Paul resident as saying. “It’s just been crazy out here.”
Although Gov. Tim Walz has deployed some 500 members of the state’s National Guard to patrol Twin Cities streets, the police haven’t done much to protect businesses or bystanders. As the Third Precinct was under attack, a convoy of police vehicles was caught on video driving away. Early Thursday, I watched three looters carrying armfuls of goods jump into a getaway car. Dozens of police officers who were blocking access to an adjacent street stood by and let them go.
Mr. Hooten is a contributor at the Daily Caller and a reporter with Alpha News.
