An older Minnesota resident broke down during an interview while describing her experience with the protests that have grappled the country in more than a dozen cities since the death of George Floyd.
KSTP reporter Ben Henry interviewed Stephanie Wilford, a disabled Minneapolis resident, on Saturday, and she provided a detailed explanation of how she felt about the destruction within her city.
“I live in that high rise right back here, and I had seen them as they came down Lake Street, but then they turned and started coming over here, and I’m sitting out looking out my window,” she explained. “These people did this for no reason. It’s not going to bring George back here. George is in a better place than we are. And last night, I’m going to be honest, I wish I was where George was because this is ridiculous. These people are tearing up our livelihood. This is the only place I could go to shop, and now I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t have any way to get there.”
She also said that protesters tried entering her building when the National Guard came by, and the building’s security did not allow them inside.
“If they had got in that building, there’s no telling where they would have hid to stay safe and try to mess with us inside the building because we’re handicapped,” Wilford added. “And I’m not trying to use handicap as a crutch, but there are certain things I can and cannot do. And for them to do what they did last night was just stupid, it was ignorant, now what are you going to do? Where are you going to shop at? Half the people probably don’t even live in Minnesota. They don’t care.”
Major protesting and riots have broken out in more than a dozen cities following Floyd’s death while in police custody. Floyd, a black man, was killed after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, used his knee to apply pressure to Floyd’s neck to keep him pinned down. He held the unarmed man accused of a forged $20 bill in that position for about nine minutes until he was unresponsive.
Chauvin was taken into custody on Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, while the other three officers at the scene have not been charged to date.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz noted in his Saturday press conference that the protests earlier in the week focused more on honoring Floyd, and as the week progressed, they became less about him “or [the] inequities or historical traumas to our communities of color.”
