Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has been steadily and resolutely calling for justice following the police-involved death of George Floyd, is speaking out once again following a night of violence in the city, acknowledging residents’ anger and sadness as a result of systemic injustices that have existed in the country since slavery.
“The emotion-ridden conflict over last night is the result of so much built up anger and sadness,” Frey said during a news conference. “Anger and sadness that has been ingrained in our Black community, not just because of five minutes of horror, but 400 years.”
JUST IN: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says reaction to death of George Floyd is a result of built-up “anger and sadness that has been ingrained in our black community—not just because of five minutes of horror, but 400 years.” https://t.co/NAoURQ7irk pic.twitter.com/70cPocfFGF
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 28, 2020
“If you are feeling that sadness, that anger, it is not only understandable, it’s right,” he added. “It’s a reflection of the truth that our Black community has lived.”
Frey demanded that non-Black communities acknowledge and understand the anger and sadness of Black residents.
“To ignore it, to toss it out, would be to ignore the values that we all claim to have,” he insisted, “that are all the more important during the time of crisis.”
Frey has been outspoken since the day video surfaced of Floyd’s brutal death, demanding police accountability at every turn.
“He should not have died,” Frey said during a Tuesday press conference. “For five minutes we watched as a White officer pressed his knee to the neck of a Black man. For five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic human sense. What happened on Chicago and 38th this last night was simply awful.”
Frey explicitly noted that the technique used on Floyd was prohibited, condemning the officers for their actions.
Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated.This is the right call.
— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) May 26, 2020
He has also called for the Hennepin County Attorney to charge the arresting officer involved in Floyd’s case.
There are precedents and protocols sitting in the reserves of institutions like this one that will give you about a thousand reasons not to do something. To not speak out. To not move so quickly.
— Jacob Frey (@Jacob_Frey) May 27, 2020
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