In 2020 and 2021, several protests were held in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that coincided with judicial proceedings and the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin. As an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, Chauvin was charged with the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man who died during an arrest incident on May 25, 2020. A bystander's video captured Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd struggled to breathe, lost consciousness, and died. Protesters opposed Chauvin's pre-trial release from jail on bail in October 2020. In the lead up to and during the criminal trial in early 2021, demonstrators sought conviction and maximum sentencing for Chauvin, and the enactment of police reform measures.
Local government officials surrounded a downtown Minneapolis courthouse building that was the venue for Chauvin's judicial proceedings with a temporary security barrier in anticipation of civil disorder. Demonstrations grew in size during Chauvin's criminal trial that commenced on March 8, 2021, and concluded on April 19, 2021. The court announced a guilty verdict on April 20, 2021, and several marches and rallies took place afterwards. Minnesota government officials spent $25 million to mobilize 3,500 National Guard troops and amass hundreds of law enforcement officers in security efforts they referred to as Operation Safety Net. Organized demonstrations in Minneapolis during the trial and verdict announcement were largely peaceful.
Protests and gatherings were also held in several major U.S. cities, and throughout the world, that coincided with the verdict announcement.
Background Murder of George Floyd
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, died while under the custody of Minneapolis Police Department officers Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while the other three officers assisted with the arrest and held concerned onlookers back. The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled Floyd's death a homicide and Derek Chauvin was charged with murder, and the other three officers who assisted in his arrest were charged with lesser criminal charges.
George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul
The murder of George Floyd, which was captured by a bystander's video that circulated widely in the media, inspired a worldwide protest movement against police brutality and racism. In late May and early June 2020, protests and riots occurred in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan in reaction to Floyd's murder. Protesters demanded justiceby holding Chauvin and three other Minneapolis police officers who were at the scene of Floyd's murder accountable for their actions. On May 26, 2020, protesters gathered outside Chauvin's Oakdale, Minnesota, home. Over subsequent days, protesters demanded that Chauvin be charged with murder. Chauvin was fired from the Minneapolis police force and the first criminal charges were filed against him on May 29, 2020.
Trial of Derek Chauvin
Chauvin was charged in May 2020, and later convicted in April 2021, of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in connection with Floyd's death. The criminal charges were filed in Hennepin County of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Judicial proceedings were held at the Hennepin County Government Center, a local government office building in downtown Minneapolis that included courtrooms.
Events
In Minneapolis
Judicial proceedings
Hundreds rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center building on September 11, 2020, during a pretrial hearing for the former Minneapolis police officers Chauvin, Lane, and Keung, and Thao, who were charged criminally for Floyd's death. Confrontations between some in the crowd and the officers' attorney were described as "angry". On November 5, 2020, defense attorneys for the officers cited the exchange on September 11 and other safety concerns in their arguments in court to have a change of venue to another jurisdiction for the trial, but Peter Cahill, the presiding judge, rejected their motion.
On October 7, 2020, protesters took to the streets and held rallies at several places in Minneapolis to express anger over the release of Chauvin on bail. Chauvin was initially arrested on May 29, 2020, and held at Oak Park Heights prison, but he later posted bond for the $1 million bail for his release pending trial. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz sent 100 National Guards troops, as well as 100 Minnesota State Patrol officers and 75 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officers, to keep the peace in Minneapolis. Law enforcement made 51 arrests late at night on October 7, of which 49 were for misdemeanor offences such as unlawful assembly, one arrest for assault, and one arrest for having an outstanding felony warrant.
Protests were held on October 15, 2020, at the Hennepin County Government Center building during a court appearance for the four officers facing criminal charges related to Floyd's death. Thomas Wilder Moseley, a 29-year old from Blaine, Minnesota, gained entry to the building during the demonstration and was arrested for carrying a semi-automatic pistol. He was later charged and pled guilty to illegal possession of firearms.
Peter Cahill, the judge overseeing the Chauvin trial, dismissed the most serious charge for third-degree murder (it was later reinstated) on October 22, 2020, as a protest group of about 100 people demonstrated. Walz proactively mobilized 100 National Guard troops and an unspecific number of state patrol officers to support local law enforcement.
In early 2021, Minneapolis and Hennepin County officials spent $1 million on fencing and barricades for government buildings and police stations in anticipation of civil unrest during the trial. In February 2021, Walz deployed the National Guard for trial security and in the event of civil unrest, in response to requests from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter.
On March 7, 2021, several hundred protesters marched in downtown Minneapolis and rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center building to mourn George Floyd and call for reform of policing. The event, dubbed the "'I Can't Breathe' Silent March For Justice" by its organizers, came one day ahead of jury selection in the trial of Derek Chauvin slated for March 8. Protesters carried a white-colored replica coffin adorned with red flowers. Another group of faith leaders, held a "Pray for MN" gathering at the government center building later that afternoon.
Jury trial
Approximately one thousand protesters gathered peacefully outside a downtown courthouse as Chauvin's trial commenced on March 8, 2021, to call for justice for Floyd and raise broader issues of racial injustice. Officials had surrounded the facility with a temporary concrete barrier, metal fencing, and barbed wire in anticipation of potential unrest. Protests and rallies planned for the George Floyd Square were halted for several days after a fatal shooting there on March 6, 2021.
On March 28, 2021, the day before opening statements in the trial of Derek Chauvin, several rallies and protests were held in Minneapolis. The family of George Floyd and Al Sharpton hosted a vigil at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Separately, protesters marched in downtown Minneapolis to demand justice for Floyd and rallied at the Hennepin County Government Center and Minneapolis City Hall, and some demonstrators parked cars on the Metro light-rail tracks, which closed train traffic for several hours. At 38th and Chicago Avenue, the intersection where Floyd was murdered, a group of people who self-identified as "anarchists" and "anti-fascists" held a training workshop at the square on how to avoid arrest and keep calm if detained by police. Protesters claimed that the street intersection was not public property and demanded that journalists leave the area before the training workshop began.
The George Floyd Square functioned as a gathering place during the trial of Derek Chauvin for people protesting racial injustice and seeking justice for Floyd. The square hosted daily visitors from around the United States who made pilgrimages to the intersection. Groups of protesters also gathered outside Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis during the trial of Derek Chauvin and marched on the streets calling for justice over Floyd's murder. The streets in Minneapolis, however, were largely empty of the mass marches that were a feature of protests in May and June 2020.
On April 6, several civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton and former New York Governor David Paterson, led a rally outside the Hennepin County Government Center building and led prayers for the conviction of Derek Chauvin. The Chauvin murder trial concluded on April 19, 2021, and the jury began deliberations.
Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis unrest
The killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a police officer took place in the adjacent Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on April 11, 2021. Protests and unrest over Wright's death intersected with the looming verdict in Chauvin's criminal trial. A few days after Wright's death, visiting U.S. Representative Maxine Waters' told demonstrators in Minnesota that they should "stay on the street" and "get more confrontational" if Chauvin's trial resulted in acquittal. On April 13, members of the George Floyd and Daunte Wright families held a press conference outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.
Early in the morning on April 18, several gunshots were fired at National Guard troops in Minneapolis near Broadway Avenue. The troops had been deployed as part of Operation Safety Net, a planned government mobilization to prepare for and respond to potential unrest related to the Chauvin trial. A bullet struck a windshield of a military vehicle that held four soldiers. No one was hit by a bullet, but one soldier was transported to a hospital for injuries from shattered glass, and another was treated at the scene for minor wounds.
Twenty activist groups on April 19, 2020, coordinated a large demonstration and march through the streets in Minneapolis near the Hennepin County Government Center building. Protesters made several demands: lengthy sentences for the officers they deemed responsible for George Floyd's death, enactment of police reform legislation in Minnesota, to have charged dropped against demonstrators in Brooklyn Center and at other protest events, and for officials to end the Operation Safety Net mobilization and other government measures. Protesters and law enforcement authorities did not engage with one another and the April 19 event was reported as peaceful.
Jury deliberations
The trial of Derek Chauvin concluded in Minneapolis just after 5 p.m. on April 19, 2021, and the jury began deliberations the same evening. The trial had been one of the most closely watched cases of police brutality in United States history. Walz declared a peacetime emergency and deployed 3,000 National Guard troops and hundreds of state patrol officers to assist local law enforcement. He also sought deployment of law enforcement officers from nearby states. Some schools in the Minneapolis metropolitan area announced plans to proactively move to distance learning and business had been boarding up out of worries of potential unrest.
Officials with the Operation Safety Net reported three business burglaries in Minneapolis and that a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources vehicle deployed for potential unrest was broken into and had a firearm stolen from it. Officials did not make any arrests connected to April 19 events.