Minneapolis Review

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Minneapolis residents should remember how George Floyd "lived his life protecting people" in the midst of the Black Lives Matter riots that occurred in the city in 2020 after Floyd's death.

"As George Floyd’s family has said, he 'would not want people to get hurt. He lived his life protecting people,'" Walz wrote in a post on X in 2020. "Let’s come together to rebuild, remember, and seek justice for George Floyd. As Governor, I will always defend the right to protest."

Walz was the governor of Minnesota during COVID-19 lockdowns and during the Black Lives Matter riots. Minneapolis saw the majority of the destruction during these riots, with stores ransacked, streets trashed, and a police station burned to the ground.

Minneapolis-St. Paul businesses were damaged and looted during the George Floyd riots. Retail and restaurants were hit the hardest with a total of 267 restaurants and 207 retail businesses damaged.

The damage to buildings in Minneapolis-St. Paul during the George Floyd riots were not reserved to businesses. 53 Residences, churches, and nonprofits were also attacked during the riots. Damages ranged from fire damage, broken doors, broken windows, and even total destruction.

"It is how we express pain, process tragedy, and create change," Walz went on to say in the post on X. "That is why I am answering our local leaders’ request for Minnesota National Guard assistance to protect peaceful demonstrators, neighbors, and small businesses in Minnesota."

Gov. Walz activated the National Guard during the George Floyd riots. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey requested that he do so and so did St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. The National Guard did not receive any direction for how they should help as of May 29, 2020. 

"We sort of knew what we might be doing as it related to civil disturbance in Minneapolis, but it's very important we know exactly what we're being asked to do so we have the right equipment, we mobilize the right number of soldiers," Minnesota National Guard Adjutant General Jon Jensen said. "That element was lacking."

Walz characterized the city’s response to the George Floyd riots as an “abject failure” after the evacuation and destruction of the city's Third Precinct headquarters.