Burning of Minneapolis: A Case of Procrastinated Prevention?

Procrastinate- To put off from day to day; to delay; to defer to a future time; as, to procrastinate repentance (Noah Webster, 1828).

Image by Fox News via https://www.foxnews.com/politics/retired-police-lieutenant-rips-walz-surrendering-city-rioters

Could the burning and looting of Minneapolis during the Summer 2020 riots been prevented or minimalized?

In the Summer of 2020, Minneapolis was under attack due to civil unrest after the death of George Floyd. Protests for Floyd’s death quickly became riotous within the streets of Minneapolis as well as across the Nation.  These riots quickly became violent; people started to burn the buildings and businesses in Minneapolis, looting over 1,500 businesses, with damage estimated at $500 million to repair (Halter, 2024).

Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota has faced scrutiny regarding the slow deployment of the National Guard to Minneapolis. Governor Walz disregarded Mayor Frey's initial request to bring back peace to Minneapolis. By delaying the immediate deployment of the National Guard, the city of Minneapolis failed to provide civil protection to its citizens (Halter, 2024).

Here is the timeline for Mayor Frey’s request:

May 27, 2020- Mayor Frey states that on Wednesday he called Governor Walz and asked for the National Guard to come help protect Minneapolis. There are text messages from the Mayor’s office backing up the Mayors claim.

May 28, 2020- Governor Walz states that he did not receive a letter until the next day. He also stated that Mayor Frey failed to give him enough information for him to deploy the National guard (Halter, 2024).

May 29, 2020- On Friday night the National Guard came with 700 troops which showed that this was inadequate to properly contain the violence occurring on the streets of Minneapolis.

May 30 & 31, 2020- On Saturday and Sunday the entire National Guard was deployed, which consisted of 4,500 troops deployed Saturday, and 7,000 troops on Sunday, and finally the extreme violence was eased.  Here Governor Walz and Mayor Frey discuss the request for the National Guard deployment below.

A retired police lieutenant of Minnesota believes that Governor Walz intentionally let the city of Minneapolis burn because he honestly does not support or like the police (Miller, 2024). Retired Minnesota State Patrol Lt. John Nagel declares that the major reason police officers do not support Governor Tim Walz is mostly in part because of his slow response to deploy the National Guard as the city burned (Miller, 2024). “We’re hearing this over and over again, he let Minnesota burn,” Nagel said. “I think he intentionally let Minneapolis burn” (Miller, 2024).

Miller (2024) recants what GOP Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Duluth, Minnesota stated, “Tim Walz let Minneapolis burn for three straight nights without doing anything” and he reminds us that Tim Walz proclaimed that the violent riots were carried out in ‘righteous anger’ as seen below.

As Minneapolis burned, Governor Walz’s home opened its windows to allow the smell of the riots penetrate throughout the house. Instead of calling the National Guard to deploy sooner, Governor Walz’s wife recounts why she kept the windows open, stating “it was such a touchstone of what was happening” as seen in the following video (New York Post, 2024, 0:01).

By Dr. Brittney Henkel – The Purple Truth

Published on August 21, 2024

References:

Alpha News. (2024, August). Gov. Tim Walz called the 2020 riots “righteous anger.” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP4zhsXGwyY

Halter, N. (2024, August). Walz faces renewed attacks for violent Minneapolis protests in 2020. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2024/08/06/walz-harris-george-floyd-minneapolis-violent-protests

Miller, A. M. (2024, August). ‘Let Minneapolis burn’: Retired police lieutenant rips Gov Walz for surrendering city to rioters. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/retired-police-lieutenant-rips-walz-surrendering-city-rioters

New York Post. (2024, August 7). Tim Walz’s wife, Gwen, said she kept windows open during George Floyd riots to smell ‘burning tires’ [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYSZ9qUfvTs

Noah Webster. (1828). Noah Webster’s first edition of an American dictionary of the English language.  (1967 ed.). Foundation for American Christian Education.

WCCO- CBS Minnesota. (2020, August 4). Gov. Walz, Mpls. mayor give differing accounts of why Nat’l Guard respond to unrest was delayed [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPoJQ0NVEdw&t=2s