8 August 2024
MINNEAPOLIS — Tim Walz‘s decision-making in the days immediately following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 is drawing renewed scrutiny after Vice President Kamala Harris selected the Minnesota governor on Tuesday, Aug. 6, as her running mate in the 2024 presidential contest.
Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis Police officers on May 25, 2020, was captured in graphic viral videos and sparked local protests that were soon echoed in cities across the nation. But the epicenter remained the Twin Cities, where in the ensuing unrest, people looted, vandalized, damaged or destroyed about 1,500 businesses, causing an estimated $500 million in damage, and burned down a police precinct building.
In response, Walz deployed the Minnesota National Guard to the streets of Minneapolis. But his order came on May 28, three days after Floyd’s murder and after significant destruction in the city.
Walz’s decision-making is an early line of attack for former President Donald Trump (who has falsely claimed he called out the National Guard to Minneapolis) and his Republican allies as he seeks to defeat Harris, the Democratic nominee, this fall.
“Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020,” accused Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, on Tuesday.
The recent criticism is not new. The timing of the Walz’s deployment of Guard troops was a central critique of an investigative committee created by the then Republican-controlled state Senate. The committee’s scathing report, released in October 2020, faulted Walz in unsparing terms.
“If Gov. 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,” it stated.
Two independent reviews commissioned separately by the state Department of Public Safety and the City of Minneapolis, both completed in March 2022, presented a more complex picture, describing a significant communication breakdown between city and state officials about the National Guard deployment request and mission parameters for soldiers.
Walz has a long personal history with the National Guard. He served for more than two decades and retired in 2005 at the rank of command sergeant major, according to his official biography on the state website. Command sergeant major is the military’s most senior enlisted rank, a role with considerable decision-making responsibility.
“I spent 24 years in the National Guard myself, I’m very familiar with how things work,” he said in a May 29, 2020, press conference, referring to the process by which soldiers get orders and guidance about their mission. Amid the ongoing unrest, “those never came in many cases” from city officials, he added.
A Walz spokesman told the New York Times that it had been “a tragic time for our state and our country” and that “Governor Walz took action and deployed the National Guard to keep our city safe.”
Walz did partly mobilize the Minnesota National Guard on May 28, three days after Floyd’s death, and on May 30, fully mobilized it for the first time since World War II.
So, what did happen over the three days following George Floyd’s murder in May 2020?
The following timeline was developed from public statements and press releases and official social media posts, news reports, and separate investigations conducted by the Minnesota Senate (October 2020), an independent review commissioned by the City of Minneapolis (March 2022), an independent review commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (March 2022) and the Department of Justice (June 2023).
Day one: Tuesday, May 26, 2020
The Minneapolis Police Department issues a statement claiming Floyd died the previous day, May 25, of a “medical incident” after he “physically resisted” and “appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
Bystander video of the encounter is posted online and begins to go viral.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announces the firing of four officers involved in the Floyd incident (Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao) and calls for an FBI investigation into the incident.
Protests over Floyd’s death and a pattern of misbehavior by Minneapolis Police fill multiple streets in Minneapolis, and some demonstrators skirmish with police.
Day two: Wednesday, May 27, 2020
In the early afternoon, Frey calls for the arrest of Chauvin for the killing of Floyd.
Protests turn increasingly violent and destructive, particularly in downtown Minneapolis and in South Minneapolis, especially along the Lake Street corridor.
At 6:29 p.m., Frey calls Walz, seeking the assistance of the National Guard. “He did not say yes. He said he would consider it,” Frey later said in an interview, insisting he was told on the call his request was considered official. “[Frey] said Walz was hesitating,” a Frey aide said in text messages later obtained by news media.
Walz later disputed that Frey’s call counted as an official request, and in fact, Frey and police didn’t use department’s policy for seeking National Guard assistance.
“I think the mayor’s recollection (of the early conversations) is correct. But it’s his knowledge of what the Guard could actually do, the mission, and what it took to do that, is simply not in line with where they’re at,” Walz later said at an Aug. 4 press conference.
“… It is not an insignificant action to put soldiers on the streets of a city in the USA to assist with law enforcement. That’s a pretty big deal. … So we needed some specificity,” an unnamed state official said in a later independent review.
At 9:11 p.m., Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo emails Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington asking for 600 Guard troops and offering a brief four-point mission plan, but got no response.
“We made it clear we were willing to do anything that they [the State] needed to provide additional information in order to ensure that we had done our part to get the assistance,” an anonymous local government official told the state’s commissioned review in 2022.
Day three: Thursday, May 28, 2020
At 10:55 a.m., as many buildings are damaged or on fire, Frey’s office sends a written request for the National Guard.
The National Guard is ready and expects to be deployed by “late afternoon,” according to later-obtained emails between state officials and the Pentagon.
At 4:04 p.m., Walz announces he has activated the National Guard and declared a peacetime emergency.
At 4:13 p.m., the National Guard tweets, quoting Minnesota National Guard Adjutant Gen. Jon Jensen: “‘We are ready and prepared to answer the Governor’s request. We are currently in process of assigning and preparing units to respond.'”
In the afternoon, Jensen informs the Pentagon that his soldiers have set up command posts and activated a 50-member quick reaction force, as well as sending some soldiers to some locations, including the State Capitol in St. Paul.
Largely peaceful demonstrations during the day again dissolve into violence by nightfall.
Just after 10 p.m., Minneapolis police officers abandon the Third Precinct station, which is overrun by protesters and set on fire.
At 10:30 p.m., Trump calls Walz and offers to send in the military.
At 10:41 p.m, The National Guard tweets: “We have activated more than 500 soldiers to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities.” News reporters covering the unrest say they had yet to see Guard troops on Thursday evening.
At 11:53 p.m., Trump tweets: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right…..”
Immediately after the previous tweet, Trump tweets again: “….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Walz later called the tweet “just not helpful.”
Shortly after midnight, National Guard troops are deployed to the Third Precinct station area, they arrive at about 3:45 a.m. on May 29. At a press conference later that day, Jensen says his soldiers were deployed without a clear plan: “We never got such mission assignment. We never got such mission description … I can’t just march my soldiers into Minneapolis and say this is what Jon Jensen believes we need to do.”
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