George Floyd Trial: Black Residents, Business Owners Fear For Their Safety

All Hell is going to break loose.

As the city simmers in a stew of fear and dread before the George Floyd murder trial, residents in downtown Minneapolis are pleading with local officials to keep them safe as their streets fill with hoodlums and violence is in the air.

In the coming weeks, former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin who has been accused of murdering that 46-year-old petty criminal and drug addict who became a martyr figure whose life was celebrated by celebs, professional sports leagues, and major corporations despite the fact that he once held a gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman will be tried for murder and anything less than a conviction on the most serious charge will trigger another wave of national destruction.

The judge in the case ensured that Minneapolis would bear the brunt of the early mayhem and looting when he rejected a defense request for a change of venue to another Minnesota city despite the unlikelihood that Chauvin would get a fair trial after the city council’s $27 million pre-trial settlement with Floyd’s family.

So the stage is set for wanton destruction in the vicinity of the courthouse and residents and black business owners are worried.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “In Minneapolis, business owners in George Floyd Square plead for safety”:

Two women had to hit the sidewalk as gunshots popped off during the day outside Finish Touch Boutique, a store near the south barricade of George Floyd Square, shop owner Willie Frazier said. Frazier’s car was stolen from the square recently, too, he said, and it later turned up at the impound lot with the hood smashed.

Now Frazier is sending a distress call along with other Black business owners whose shops and restaurants have been cut off from the outside world by concrete barricades guarded by civilian gatekeepers surrounding 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. As violence disrupts the once-peaceful memorial where Floyd died during an encounter with Minneapolis police, the business owners said they felt abandoned by a city that has failed to protect their safety and livelihoods.

“Last year when it first started, it was all about George [Floyd]. People came from all over the world,” Frazier said. “We didn’t know when it was closed that it would be closed this long. … And when everybody in town found out that it was locked down like this … nobody wanted to come here and risk this stuff, and I don’t blame them.”

The story also quotes a member of the city council who voted for the $27 million payoff.

“I get to hear from all the people no one wants to listen to,” she said. “I get to hear from the Black elderly woman who has to sleep in her bathtub so she can avoid being shot at night. I get to hear from the other Black elderly woman who has chronic pain and can’t access the bus and therefore can’t go grocery shopping, and I get to hear from the residents who text me when there’s bullets zinging by their faces in the middle of the day as they’re gardening.”

Also quoted is Worldwide Outreach for Christ Pastor Curtis Farrar: “This was Bloods territory..a lot of the gangs are right over there now. A lot of people that go to this church used to be in that gang, drug dealers, and all of that.”

People have the feeling that some serious shit is about to go down.

Also from the Star Tribune, an account from a resident who due to the violence that, “the feeling of being connected to something larger than ourselves, is collapsing.”

Here’s an account of some of the events of the past 10 days, on one block adjacent to George Floyd Square, where police are met by hostile groups when responding to our repeated 911 calls:

March 6, 5:45 p.m.: A 30-year-old volunteer is killed in the zone by gunshot. People in the zone are seen picking up shell casings and throwing them into city garbage, loading the gunshot victim into a car to drive him to hospital.

8:20 p.m.: Neighbors call 911 again as multiple shots ring out. Children listen.

March 7: Six garages along our alley are hit by gunfire, one with its owner inside. A car crashes through a fence into a family’s backyard. An 18-month-old had been playing by the fence minutes earlier.

5 p.m.: Thirty shots hit cars and the windows and siding of at least one house, narrowly missing residents watching TV. Parents and children out biking and walking on a sunny day duck behind houses, children watch bullets kicking up dust in the street. A zone leader visits a bullet-riddled house to comfort the family while others from the zone are observed picking up shell casings behind her.

March 8, 2:30 p.m.: Multiple shots fired, a man is photographed perched atop Cup Foods with an assault rifle on a tripod. Children cry. Zone medics are offered to visit neighbors and provide mental health support to those being traumatized.

9:50 p.m.: Thirty shots ring out. A person complains to a neighbor that the neighbor has parked too close to the person’s car. A zone occupant, with no connection to the other parties, fires multiple shots into the neighbor’s car and house. The neighbor, a military veteran, is in the driver’s seat and recognizes an assault rifle with a 30-round clip. The shooter walks back into the zone. Four police squads caravan through and meet the neighbor nearby.

10:16 p.m.: A second 911 call provides a description of the shooter, who remains in the area appearing to wait for some target. Police have just received a call about a teen and adult shot two miles away. Resources exhausted, the police do not respond to our call. The shooter in the zone walks away.

10:45 p.m.: Third 911 call of the night. As some neighbors are picking up shell casings, people near the fist statue in the zone repeatedly yell, “Get the f out of here.” Then a gun is fired from near the fist statue. Four men come out of the zone to tell the neighbors they “weren’t shooting at you.”

The neighbors ask if they are “zone security” and are told no — but one man reports he has his gun. Neighbors ask how to protect themselves and are told the best thing to do is fill the street corners with garbage containers to block off our streets.

March 12, 5 p.m.: A neighbor trying to access home is met in the alley by three young teen girls leaving the zone, pushing a car with no license plate. They say they ran out of gas. They are asked who the driver is — no answer. They are asked whose car it is — no answer. They are asked where they are trying to go and they point to a home. A woman comes out of the home and tells them they can’t park there. They walk away, abandoning the car.

While a neighbor is reporting the abandoned car, she observes a group of well-dressed people being followed by reporters. The neighbor walks into the zone to find attorney Benjamin Crump and the family of George Floyd with Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins. They are greeting businesses owned by people of color who are being impacted by the loss of business in the zone. They inform the group that they are giving $500,000 to the business owners. Two more vehicles with no plates or temporary stickers pass by driving inside the zone.

9:15 p.m.: Thirty shots from inside the zone. One police squad car arrives.

10:20 p.m.: Shooting suspects from another part of the city drive at high speed down our street with multiple squad cars chasing them, along with a helicopter. Fleeing vehicle blows through stop signs and lights. They eventually enter the zone and surrender as a group of zone occupants emerge and shout at the police and each other.

Children are told to go back to sleep.

Welcome to little Somalia.

In the area that has come to be known as “George Floyd Square” militants have set up one of those “autonomous zones’ that are off-limits to police.

No white folks are allowed either:

Previous reports on the area:

Regardless of what happens to Chauvin, Minneapolis leaders have already lost control of the situation.