WHAT’S THE STORY?
THE mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has been at the centre of events over the past week since the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a city policeman was captured on camera.
The homicide featured an officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd’s neck even after the victim pleaded for his life saying he couldn’t breathe.
Floyd, 46, a 6ft 6ins former football player with convictions for robbery, had been arrested by four officers who worked at the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct. He had allegedly been trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. After the killing, protests which broke out in Minneapolis turned to riots. Those riots spread to other cities as people took to the streets, enraged by yet another killing of a black man in custody.
President Donald Trump intervened on Twitter to criticise Frey’s handling of the matter.
Frey called for the four police officers to be sacked and for Chauvin to be charged, which he was on Friday. He is currently on remand having been charged with third degree murder.
WHO IS FREY?
JACOB Frey is a 38-year-old lawyer and member of the State of Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Born into a Jewish family in Oakton, Virginia, near Washington DC, he is a former star college athlete who ran for Team USA and graduated with a law degree from Villanova University.
He moved to Minneapolis to join a local law firm and also took up community organisation, proving free legal services to people who lost their homes in a tornado in 2011.
That work inspired him to stand for the city council in 2013, and he was elected Mayor in early 2018.
With just over two years in the job, and with his second wife Sarah pregnant with their first child, Frey was having to cope with the coronavirus pandemic when the killing of George Floyd took place.
There has been some criticism of him for being inexperienced in dealing with riots, but there has also been admiration for his stance on calling out the killing as racist.
WHAT DID HE DO AFTER THE KILLING?
HIS first statements were a strong condemnation of the killing: “Being black in America should not be a death sentence. For five minutes we watched as a white police officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man. For five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help.”
As soon as he said this, Frey started working to try and pull the city together, but he has been unable to quell the violence which has torn the city apart.
He took full responsibility for the decision to abandon the Third Precinct building which was destroyed after rioters set it on fire.
“I made the decision to evacuate the Third Precinct,” Frey said.
“The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers or the public. Brick and mortar is not as important as life.”
WHAT DID TRUMP SAY AND HOW DID FREY REPLY?
YET again displaying his unerring ability to pour kerosene on an out-of-control conflagration, Trump made his infamous tweet quoting Walter E Headley, a Miami police chief in the late 1960s known for his heavy-handed policies, typically aimed at black communities.
“We haven’t had any serious problems with civil uprising and looting,” Headley said, “because I’ve let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
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Trump also accused “Radical Left Mayor” Frey of showing “a total lack of leadership”.
Frey was having none of it. He took Trump to task: “Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis.”
His voice rose as he continued: “Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell. Is this a difficult time period? Yes. But you better be damn sure that we’re gonna get through this.”
WHO ELSE CRITICISED HIM?
AFTER the Third Precinct police station was abandoned, Frey took some criticism from a fellow Democrat.
Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, called the city’s response to the riots an “abject failure”.
Again, Frey hit back, stating: “Pointing fingers in a time of national crisis won’t make anyone safer. I’ve been in near constant-contact with the governor over the last several days, and I look forward to continue working with him.”
Matters got worse when police in Minneapolis arrested a mixed-race CNN reporter, Omar Jimenez.
“We can move back to where you like,” he told the officers wearing gas masks and face shields, before explaining that he and his crew were members of the press. “We’re getting out of your way.”
Six white officers then pounced on Jimenez.
Governor Walz had mobilised the state’s National Guard on Thursday to respond in Minneapolis, and he had to issue an apology to Jimenez and CNN.
By yesterday morning the mayor and the governor were standing together to try and calm the situation.
ARE THE FLOYD FAMILY SEEKING THE DEATH PENALTY FOR CHAUVIN?
FLOYD’S family want Chauvin charged with first-degree murder and want the other three officers who were present, J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, also charged with homicide.
The death penalty is unlikely to feature. Minnesota abolished the death penalty in 1911 after a botched execution – the rope used to hang William Williams was too long – and it has never been re-instated. It remains to be seen what action exactly will be taken.
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