Julia Hinton walked along downtown’s Nicollet Mall on Monday morning, watching as a man installed plywood over the doors and windows of 801 Chophouse on 8th Street and Nicollet Avenue.
Armed troops and military vehicles stood posted near the Saks Off Fifth store a few blocks down on 6th, and several more lined the way to the already-boarded-up Target on 9th, The Wall Street Journal writes.
“It’s like we’re getting ready for war or something. It’s just so much,” said Ms. Hinton, 53, of the city’s preparations for a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of Black man George Floyd last May. The jury began deliberating following closing arguments on Monday.
Without knowing how quickly a verdict could arrive—and whether that decision will reignite the looting and arson that damaged swaths of the city last summer—Minneapolis has spent the past several days tightening security, including bolstering temporary barricades around government buildings.
Security plans were accelerated last week after a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb shot and killed 20-year old Black man Daunte Wright, an action police described as accidental, after she appeared to confuse her gun for a Taser.
Mr. Wright’s death sparked another round of protests in the Twin Cities region. On Monday night, dozens had already started marching and were chanting antipolice slogans downtown near the Minneapolis courthouse.
The mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis have requested additional assistance from the National Guard, which has deployed more than 3,000 troops throughout the area, according to Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke, Minnesota’s National Guard adjutant general.
Law-enforcement officials and community leaders Monday said they would strive to de-escalate any tensions following the verdict, while helping to ensure that people have safe spaces to gather or protest.
“We know that we have a city that is in mourning, that is in grief,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. “It’s not about arresting people.”
Still, many in Minneapolis remained uneasy, particularly along Nicollet. The avenue, which stretches from downtown to the city’s southern border, became a focal point for protests as well as looting and arson after Mr. Floyd’s death, and some blocks still bear the remnants.
On Monday, fencing and barbed wire surrounded the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct near 31st, where crowds gathered on several nights last summer and sometimes clashed with police. Across the street, a dirt lot and two evergreens were all that was left of the Wells Fargo bank branch that burned amid the unrest.
At Finer Meats & Eats, on the corner of 38th, owner Doug Meyer and several of his customers said they have been watching the trial regularly and hoping the outcome doesn’t put their neighborhoods in the crosshairs again.
“It was crazy. I saw it from my house—the smoke and stuff in the air, the helicopters,” Pamela Wilkes recalled of the summer as she and her 80-year-old father, Tom, purchased several cuts of meat Monday. Mr. Wilkes worried about what might happen if the jury decides to acquit Mr. Chauvin.
“If he don’t get convicted, we’re all going to be in a lot of trouble,” he said.
Mr. Meyer, whose family has operated the meat market on the corner of 38th and Nicollet for about 60 years, said he expected to see emotions flare up no matter the verdict and planned to keep watch outside of his store at night—just as he did last summer.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Mr. Meyer said. “I just got a feeling it’s going to be really ugly for a week or two.”
Several blocks up, archaeologist Geoff Jones paused on the sidewalk outside of Glam Doll Donuts on Nicollet near 26th Street and recalled how part of his neighborhood in the nearby Powderhorn area went up in flames last summer, though he attributed that kind of damage to opportunists and not local protesters.
He said it’s stressful to see the city once again preparing for unrest, especially given how National Guard troops are now armed with long guns, as opposed just to the helmets, shields and other protective gear they wore last year.
“It makes me wonder what they’re expecting” he said. “This isn’t the kind of gear you wear for protests.”
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