The trial of the police officer who killed George Floyd is expected to end next week. Everyone holds their breath.
In Minneapolis, calm has returned to “George Floyd Square”, as the intersection is now called where African American George Floyd died of suffocation under the knee of white officer Derek Chauvin, on May 25, 2020. But it’s a heavy, funereal calm: it’s like being in a cemetery. We hardly dare to speak. Raising your voice would be an insult to the man whose death provoked huge racial protests nearly a year ago. Everywhere, flowers, candles and badges demanding justice for the missing man who has become the hero of black America. A raised bronze fist, a symbol of resistance, was erected in the middle of the crossroads. “Where there are people, there is power,” reads the top-wind of the gas station next door. On the road, a white rectangle has been painted on the exact spot where George Floyd died. It is surrounded by beacons. It’s like a grave: no one dares step on it. At the “Cup Foods” convenience store, life has resumed. Photos inside the shop are prohibited because we don’t like the curious too much. This is where the drama had started: George Floyd had paid for his cigarettes with a fake 20 dollar bill, and the cashier had noticed it, which had caused the arrival of the police. Entering inside, we are surprised by the size of the store, much larger than we imagine seeing the last images of George Floyd alive, paying at the counter, which American TV broadcasts on a loop. “We reopened in August, but the business is soft, because of what is happening all around”, tells us Mamadou, the salesman of Gambian origin who has worked there for a long time in the shop. “Most of the employees present at the time of the events have left,” he specifies.
Clashes between police and demonstrators
Everyone today is holding their breath. The city has become a powder keg again since another black man, Daunte Wright, was shot dead last Sunday by a white policewoman, Kim Potter, who allegedly confused his pistol and his taser. This blunder couldn’t have come at a worse time. Brooklyn Center, the suburb of Minneapolis where this new drama took place, has become the scene of clashes between police and protesters. A few hundred anti-racist activists gather at the gates of the police station where this policewoman worked, determined to defy the 10 p.m. curfew decreed by the authorities. So, every night since last Sunday, they have to be evacuated by force, with pepper spray. The scenario is always the same: the police broadcast recorded and threatening messages: “This gathering is illegal, please disperse, otherwise you will be arrested”, we hear on the loudspeakers. Tuesday evening, even the journalists were invited to leave the premises under penalty of being also arrested.
On Wednesday evening, on the fourth warning, the police sprang into action: soldiers emerged from the darkness, forming a human wall that ran the full width of the avenue. As they advanced towards the demonstrators, they shouted chantingly: “Move! Move! Move! » (« Bougez ») Efficient « raking » technique: the demonstrators answered « Don’t Move! (“Don’t move!”), everyone decamped and around 10:30 p.m., the area was evacuated. Two hours later, Colonel Matt Langer was pleased with the “reduction in the number of arrests” (24 Wednesday against more than 70 the day before) and the fact that, for the second consecutive evening, no business had been looted. A return to precarious calm as Derek Chauvin’s verdict approaches: if, next week, he is found not guilty of the death of George Floyd – a completely possible hypothesis because it takes the unanimity of the jury to convict him -, it will be the revolution in Minneapolis.
“Move! Move! Move!”, shout the police officers who advance forming a wall to chase away the demonstrators, who answer in vain “Don’t move! » . The crowd quickly disperses. End of the 4th night of confrontation at #brooklyncenter#DaunteWrightpic.twitter.com/YfewzKZWYl
— Olivier O’Mahony (@olivieromahony) April 15, 2021
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