Minneapolis riots

Last Monday, May 25, police in Minneapolis were called in to investigate a man paying with a suspected counterfeit bill. After the arrest, one of the officers put his knee on the man’s neck, probably blocking the carotid artery. As a trained officer, it seems strange that he wouldn’t have known what he was doing. The man, George Floyd, died at the scene.

https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/george-floyd-minneapolis-minnesota-video/

George Floyd has been identified as the Minnesota man who died in police custody after a harrowing video showed a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the back of his head and neck for several minutes. Floyd, who was 46, was identified as the victim by his sister on Facebook. Floyd was a beloved security guard at a Minneapolis bar…

The incident occurred on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, in the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis Police say. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI are investigating Floyd’s death.

The officer in the video seen kneeling on Floyd has been identified by the Minneapolis Star Tribune as Officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin’s partner, Tou Thao, can be seen in the video ignoring bystanders who were begging Chauvin to get off of Floyd. A photo shows two other unidentified officers, who are blocked by the SUV in the video, were also holding Floyd down.

Four officers involved in the incident have been fired, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday.

Officer Derek Chauvin was often an off-duty guard at the restaurant/bar where George Floyd was also employed as a security guard. So it is certain that the two knew each other, which no doubt will cause the investigators to ask about their relationship. Did they get along? Did they dislike each other? Was there a motive?

https://www.lawofficer.com/former-club-owner-says-george-floyd-and-ex-officer-derek-chauvin-worked-security-together/

When the news of Floyd’s needless death began to circulate, riots erupted in downtown Minneapolis. After all, an innocent victim should be avenged with more innocent victims, or so it seems.

https://time.com/5843763/george-floyd-protests-violence/

Meanwhile, the four police officers involved were fired. Jesse Jackson was called in to try to calm the rioters—with little or no success. The FBI is now taking the lead in the investigation. George’s girlfriend said that he would have condemned the rioting, saying, “He would give grace.”

https://www.lawofficer.com/george-floyds-fiancee-says-he-would-offer-grace/

Courteney Ross, the fiancée of the late George Floyd who died in Minneapolis police custody earlier this week, said he would not like the chaos that is coming out of his death and that “he would give grace.”

“You know, if he was here, he would say that he’s a man of God. He would stand on that firmly,” Ross told WCCO. “He stood up for people, he was there for people when they were down, he loved people that were thrown away.”

Ross said that Floyd came to Minnesota to get a “fresh start,” stating that Floyd saw the state as a place where people were “kind and open to him.”

“You can’t fight fire with fire, you know,” Ross said. “Everything just burns.”

“I’ve seen it all day today. People hate. They’re hating, they’re hating, they’re hating, they’re mad, and he would not want that. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He would give grace. He would. I stand on that today he would still give grace to those people,” Ross asserted.

Some of you have wondered if we are alright. We live 8-10 miles north of downtown Minneapolis, so we had to learn about these events on the news. Last evening, the stores in Fridley closed early when reports came that rioters were coming to Fridley after they ran out of stores to loot in the downtown area. My son works the evening shift at Walmart in Fridley, and so he came home early when the store closed. That is how we learned about that. However, I saw no evidence of rioting today when I drove past the shopping center.

My office is in Fridley, but it is a few miles from the threatened area. So we were not affected. Things seem to be cooling down now, so I just wanted to let you know that we are doing fine.