Walz Ordered Minneapolis to Abandon Police Precinct
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Minneapolis only has 5 police precincts, so each one is vital to the protection of the city. 

Governor Tim Walz ordered that the Third Precinct–the one most affected by the George Floyd riots, be abandoned to a mob that burned it to the ground. The police stationed there were ordered not to wear riot gear, leading to many injuries, and they literally had to run away as there were not enough vehicles to evacuate them from the scene. 

The first of the violence came on Tuesday, May 26th. The National Guard wasn’t sent into Minneapolis in force until Friday, May 29th. Small numbers did accompany fire department trucks that were being prevented from dousing fires, but anybody who has seen the videos of entire city blocks burned down without any attempt to douse them knows that they had to give up on that plan. 

KARE 11 has a short timeline which indicates that it wasn’t until Friday, or four days after the riots began, that the police and National Guard were given a go-ahead to quell the riots. In the meantime, a large swathe of the city burned, people were injured and killed, and my city was left in terror. The Guard wasn’t really deployed until Saturday. 

Even with the guard kinda-sorta deployed–they were in a rather passive stance–the riots continued after they were sent to Minneapolis, which is why you saw TV anchors get so angry. The governor had lied about his plan to quell the riots. 

The commander of the Minnesota National Guard–notice how the Guard keeps coming up?–pulled no punches:

Did the governor delay critical resources? And did it make a difference? These are questions Governor Walz still hasn’t clearly addressed.

In the moment, these leaders had to decide how to apply force to a large group of people protesting the abuse of force.

Looking back, two investigations found blame on both local and state leadership.

The state senate report concluded “If Mayor Frey had acted in a decisive manner and allowed law enforcement to use nonlethal force to stop the rioters, the destruction of the Third Precinct would not have occurred, and the rioting would not have escalated as quickly as it did. If Governor Walz had acted in a decisive manner by activating the Minnesota National Guard when requested, the riots would have been brought under control much faster.”

In legislative testimony, the head of the Minnesota National Guard, Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen said, “If we had done things differently on Tuesday, as it relates to numbers, as it relates to tactics, could we have avoided some of this? My unprofessional opinion as it relates to law enforcement is ‘yes’. My professional military opinion is ‘yes’.”

Walz himself dismissed the effectiveness of the Guard, explaining why he held them back for so long:

Speaking of troops who have deployed overseas and whom he claims to have proudly commanded, he said:

Obviously, once much of Minneapolis burned he changed his mind and sent them–unarmed–into a city on fire. Luckily for us, those 19-year-old cooks did a good job, no thanks to Walz. 

Tom Pogosic has a long thread on the timeline. Here is just a snippet of it, and you should check it out. 

Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Frey have been at loggerheads about who is most to blame, and at first I assumed it was the Mayor because he is so liberal. But Frey makes a compelling case that it was the governor who wouldn’t pull the trigger on getting the riots quelled. 

As with so many things, Walz has rewritten the history of his failures. But we remember. 

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