Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of dragging his feet while the city burned during the George Floyd riots.
Frey said Monday that Walz hesitated to send in the National Guard as widespread looting and arson took place near the police’s Third Precinct in Minneapolis. He said that Walz would not commit to sending in the National Guard while calling Frey’s response an “abject failure.” Documents obtained by the Star Tribune show that text messages, emails, and call logs back up Frey’s recollection of events.
“Through an extremely difficult situation, I told the truth. I relayed information as best I could to state partners. And we did what was demanded for the sake of our city,” Frey said.
“We expressed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear,” he later added. “He did not say yes. He said he would consider it.”
Frey said he was told by Walz’s team that a phone call between the two men was all the governor needed to send in the National Guard as protesters began to swarm the Third Precinct police station on May 27. Walz never made the order, though a press release announcing the order was drafted by his office. On the morning of May 28, Frey followed up with a formal written request acknowledging “widespread looting and arson.”
Walz agreed to deploy the National Guard, but only 90 officers arrived that night. Protests burned the precinct building on Thursday night after officers evacuated.
Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said Frey’s request for the National Guard protection was “rather vague” at first, and then, when the formal written response arrived, “The list was so all-encompassing we could not possibly staff all the things they wanted.”
Walz’s office denied that Frey was told on the phone that his call was enough to allow the order to move forward. Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann said that Frey failed to provide the proper details on May 27.
“As a 24-year veteran of the Minnesota National Guard, Governor Walz knows how much planning goes into a successful mission,” Tschann said. “That’s why he pushed the City of Minneapolis for details and a strategy. He ordered the Minnesota National Guard to start preparing Thursday morning, which allowed them to deploy to both St. Paul and Minneapolis that evening, per the Mayors’ requests.”
Text messages between Frey and his team showed the mayor’s anxiety as he waited for a response, with one message stating, “Walz was hesitating.” Frey called it a “hit in the gut” to see Walz’s team call his response an “abject failure” while slow-walking the call to the National Guard.
“It was a sharp departure from every conversation we had had at that point,” Frey said, later adding, “Not just for me, but for so many in our city that were doing everything they could.”
Several buildings were burned and looted during the riots that followed the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died while in the custody of Minneapolis officers. At least two people in Minneapolis died and $55 million in property damage occurred in the riots prior to the arrival of the National Guard.
