The owner of a manufacturing plant based in Minneapolis will pull his business out of the city after his facility was burned during rioting amid protests against police brutality after George Floyd’s death.
“They don’t care about my business,” Kris Wyrobek, president and owner of 7-Sigma, told the Star Tribune on Monday. “They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.”
7-Sigma, which makes precision rollers used in high-speed printing systems, has operated at 2843 26th Ave. since 1987, the newspaper reported. Wyrobek told the outlet he shut the plant down early in an attempt to keep employees safe the night of the first demonstrations in the city. He said senior management employees were concerned when a fire broke out at an affordable housing project located next door to his business.
“The fire engine was just sitting there,” Wyrobek said, “but they wouldn’t do anything.”
7-Sigma was one of the businesses damaged in what local officials estimate to be $500 million worth of damage suffered during rioting in the city over the last two weeks. Amid largely peaceful demonstrations protesting Floyd’s death has been widespread looting, vandalism, and arson in the city.
Floyd, an unarmed black man who did not appear to resist arrest, was killed after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while attempting to restrain him. Floyd’s death was captured on video, and Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder.
The incident has sparked a nationwide debate about systemic racism in police departments and inspired Black Lives Matter activists to demand sweeping police reforms. On Sunday, a veto-free majority of the Minneapolis City Council signed a pledge to dismantle the city police department as it is currently structured and reallocate funding to other areas of the city’s public safety budget.
“George Floyd moved to Minneapolis for a fresh start,” Mayor Jacob Frey said Monday while announcing the creation of Minneapolis Forward: Community Now Coalition, which includes representatives from local business and community groups. “In honoring his memory and generations of black people who have been victimized before him, we will rebuild as a stronger, more equitable, and more inclusive city.”
