MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Just at the entrance to Smile Orthodontics, in a neighborhood of craft breweries and fashion stores in Minneapolis, two soldiers in jungle camouflage and armor were guarded Monday, with assault rifles ‘back. Gusts of snow blew around him. A few steps from the Iron Door pub, three more National Guard soldiers and a Minneapolis police officer stood in front, watching the street. A handful of other soldiers scattered nearby, along with four camouflaged Humvees and a pair of police cars.
Across the street was a spray-painted walled building in large yellow letters: “BLACK LIFE MATTERS ALL YEAR ROUND.”
Adam Martinez was walking down the street when he stopped short to look at the place.
“This city seems to be occupied by the military,” said Martinez, a commercial painter who lives near St. Louis. Paul. “That’s so weird.”
More than 3,000 National Guard soldiers, along with police officers, state police, sheriff’s aides and other police officers have flooded the city in recent days, with a verdict approaching the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer accused of murder to the death of George Floyd last year.
But in the city that has come to represent the American debate over police killings, today there are places in Minneapolis that can feel almost like a police state.
It leaves many wondering: how much is too much?
Now, concrete barriers, wire fences, and barbed wire are sounding parts of downtown Minneapolis so authorities can quickly close the courthouse. In recent days, it has become normal for convoys of tan military vehicles to pass through the desert on nearby roads and stumble upon armed men and women on guard.
One day they will park their armored vehicles in front of the high-end kitchen store with their $ 160 bread knives and $ 400 cookware. The next ones will be outside the Depression-era movie theater, or the popular Mexican grocery store or liquor store looted by riot police during the post-Floyd death protests.
Meanwhile, hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of shops and other buildings have been shipped across the city, from absolute bail to glass-walled downtown office towers to Floyd’s 99 barber shop.
Behind all security are the days of violence that began with protests over Floyd’s death. The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced appalling criticism for not intervening more quickly to deploy the National Guard. City officials estimate the city suffered about $ 350 million in damage, mostly to commercial property.
“They’re between a tough and difficult place,” said Eli Silverman, professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a longtime police scholar. “You do not want to over-militarize and show that you have turned a sovereign state into a police state. But on the other hand, you also have to be prepared, ”in case the protests erupt again.
He said more important than the size of the force is the experience and planning behind it. Police leaders, for example, must ensure adequate training on crowd control and that officers from other jurisdictions are under a single command.
“It’s not just numbers, it’s strategic decisions that are incorporated into these things,” he said.
Minneapolis has a coordinated law enforcement plan, called Operation Safety Net, that oversees planning and law enforcement responses.
Speaking to reporters Monday, top law enforcement officials sided with local community leaders and vowed to protect property, allow peaceful protests and try to reduce tensions before the demonstrations became violent.
Recent history, however, has not been so peaceful. Just over a week ago, 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a black man, was killed by police during a traffic stop in the suburbs of Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis.
Protests outside the city’s police headquarters regularly turned violent, with protesters throwing bottles of water and the occasional rock at a number of police officers, and law enforcement responded by chasing protesters and sometimes journalists. – with pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets.
“We know we have to do better. What happened in the last few days was not something we wanted, ”Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson said at the news conference.“ But we had to act to keep the community safe. And I will never back down from anyone when it comes to keeping this county safe. ”
Many here doubt the promises of law enforcement, which has long maintained a troubled relationship with the city’s black community.
Burhan Israfael, a community organizer living in Cedar-Riverside, a Minneapolis neighborhood with one of the largest East African communities in the country, said the presence of military vehicles and armed soldiers was terrifying. He said the terror especially affects the many immigrants in the city who fled violence for the security of the United States.
“I don’t know anyone who has experienced and lived something like this, who feels comfortable going out,” he said. “Facing the violent image of someone dressed in all this camouflage, a kind of parade around these massive weapons, is unsettling for sure.”
But many others believe the city needs to be prepared for the problems.
The Rev. Ian Bethel, leader of the city’s black church community, looked almost angry Monday as he spoke alongside police officers.
“We are in a difficult time here, we all have emotions, anxieties and stress that most of us have not yet been able to express in a proper way,” he said. “But let me make it clear: one way to not express what you bonded with is through violence.”
Monday afternoon, shortly after the lawyers’ final arguments and the Chauvin case went to the jury, about 300 protesters marched out of court.
There was no sign of violence.
___
Associated Press writers Kathleen Hennessey and Mohamed Ibrahim contributed to this report.
___
Find full AP coverage of George Floyd’s death: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd