For weeks leading up to the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd, the city of Minneapolis has been preparing for violence in an environment of great tension. Chauvin’s trial began yesterday, and as a precaution, city authorities have barricaded federal buildings and surrounded them with fences and barbed wire. Keep in mind that this is the city of the six-block “autonomous zone” known as George Floyd Square, set up following Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020. White people generally aren’t allowed to enter, nor are law enforcement, despite the increase in violent crime and gun violence that have wracked the zone over the past 10 months. According to Fox News, the FBI is now helping local law enforcement monitor this zone which is located in an already-poor area of the city, whose residents have suffered greatly from chaos and economic destruction.
Betsy Brantner Smith, spokesperson for the National Police Association, told the Washington Times that she fears that Antifa, which has been allowed to run rampant in Portland, Oregon, is now mobilizing around the murder trial of Chauvin. “Whatever the outcome of the Chauvin trial will be, that’s going to be a tinderbox,” she predicted. “That is going to be the rally cry for Antifa and Black Lives Matter to link arms and violently protest. It’s not just going to be in Minneapolis, but across the country.”
Last year, responding to “defund the police” demands, the Minneapolis City Council slashed $19 million from the police budget, but no one really thinks this is going to dissuade protesters in the aftermath of the trial, the Times reports. The police force has 250 fewer officers than the number stipulated by the City Charter. Fox News reported March 11 that in February, the Council had to provide $6.4 million to pay for police recruitment, but now is reportedly proposing to replace the Police Department altogether with a “community-led public safety system.” In addition, the city has had to spend more than $1 million to barricade and fence public buildings, including City Hall and the five metropolitan police precincts, after last year’s rioting caused $500 million in damage. Many retail businesses never fully recovered from the riots, and in the expectation of renewed violence around the Chauvin trial, retailers are keeping the businesses boarded up.
