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Minneapolis mayor makes emotional plea for assistance and peace as city awakens to warzone-like scene

May 28, 2020 | | Print Article

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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, delivered an emotional appeal Thursday afternoon for peace throughout the beleaguered city.

He made the remarks after an evening during which Minneapolis rioters looted and destroyed portions of own community to “protest” the killing of George Floyd.

To convey his sincerity, he began his speech by speaking about the “anger and sadness that has been ingrained in our black community, not just because of five minutes of horror, but 400 years.”

“If you’re feeling that sadness and that anger, it’s not only understandable, it’s right. It’s a reflection of the truth that our black community has lived. While not from lived experience, that sadness must also be understood by our non-black communities,” he said.

Listen:


(Source: Fox News)

He then switched to talking about rebuilding.

“We will be working with community. We need to be working with community to sort through those set-of-action steps. Time where we picked up the rubble — a time where we picked up the rubble, the glass, and found peace in our hearts. Not an ignorant peace, but an awakened one, where we can truly make change possible,” he said.

He’s reportedly also asked the Minnesota National Guard to help with keeping the riots under control.

The ones slated to pay the price for all this chaos that occurred in Minneapolis weren’t the rioters and looters themselves but rather the city’s already struggling business owners.

“I’ve been out here all night. We’ve already been struggling for a couple of months with everything happening with the virus. This is, uh, this is crazy right now. I have no idea what’s going to happen,” the owner of Sonora Grille said to local station KARE.

He was one of the lucky ones. His business was left untouched. The same could not be said of the owner of this Cub supermarket store:

“Dozens of businesses were either looted or torched, or both, mostly in the area of Minnehaha Avenue and E. Lake Street, but also along business corridors on the city’s North and South sides,” the Star Tribune reported.

The looters burned so many stores that smoke plumes were visible from Minnesota Public Radio’s weather radar:

“The owners of small businesses on Lake Street, some of whom have been there for decades, emerged early Thursday morning to assess the damage. They stared out at what was left of their shops and the street with quiet disbelief,” the Tribune’s reporting continued.

“Charles Stotts, who has owned Town Talk Diner for four years, looked at his restaurant with gentle eyes and a somber frown. Its windows were shattered, the bar ransacked. Smoke filled the dining room and water from the sprinklers flooded the floor and poured out onto the street.”

Those who weren’t hit had only their own courage to protect them and their businesses.

“Some of these owners were out here on Lake Street all night to protect their properties, walking around the parking lots, trying to intimidate looters to just keep walking and leave their properties alone,” KARE reported. “One woman, an elderly woman, was out here actually yelling at looters all through the night.”

Many of the business owners who were affected are immigrants.

Also among the unlucky was Tim Gleason, who’s owned Precision Tune Auto Care for 20 years. Looters wound up ransacking his contractors’ tools and five cars.

“There were five cars inside the building and they stole each one of them. Found one a block away at McDonald’s,” he said to the Tribune. “The worst part for me is that these guys’ tools that were stolen aren’t covered by the business insurance because it’s their personal property. So hardworking mechanics are out a bunch of money.”

See more footage of the devastation below:

Keep in mind these struggling business owners had already been dealing with the effects of coronavirus lockdown policies.

It’s unclear whether riots will break out again in Minneapolis, though Floyd’s fiancée, Courteney Ross, issued a statement early Thursday saying she was heartbroken by what had happened.

“I am heartbroken,” she reportedly said. “Waking up this morning to see Minneapolis on fire would be something that would devastate Floyd. He loved the city. He came here [from Houston] and stayed here for the people and the opportunities. … Floyd was a gentle giant. He was about love and about peace.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Al Sharpton was reportedly in Minneapolis meeting with clergy and activists.

It was unclear whether his presence would ameliorate or exacerbate tensions.

In a public statement delivered Thursday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pleaded with rioters to stop the madness but did also seem to justify their anger.

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Vivek Saxena
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