Mall of America postpones reopening due to ‘significant unrest in the community’
Mall of America, which is located near Minneapolis in Bloomington, Minnesota, said Friday that it is delaying its plans to reopen on June 1 due to the “significant unrest in the community.”
The country’s largest mall is restricting all access to the building through at least Sunday.
“Our top priority is the safety of our tenants, their employees, and our team members; and restricting access to the building will allow us to do that,” the company told NBC News. “By delaying our reopening date, it will give Mall retailers additional time to prepare.”
Curbside pickup at the mall has also been suspended. The company said it will announce a new reopening date as soon as it is finalized.
Families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor appeal to Congress
The families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor — three black people whose deaths in recent weeks have become flashpoints and set off nationwide protests — are calling for a congressional hearing and national task force for the creation of bipartisan legislation to address excessive force and accountability in policing.
Two high-profile attorneys separately representing the families, Lee Merritt and Benjamin Crump, told reporters Friday that they also plan to present a case to the United Nation Human Rights Committee to bring about “sweeping changes to our nation’s criminal justice system.”
The men also said they would like Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, to be an independent prosecutor in the death of Floyd, and are concerned about Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s handling of the case and his reluctance to immediately bring charges against the four officers at the scene.
Crump added that he plans to have an independent autopsy conducted of Floyd’s body. The medical examiner’s office said Thursday it was still conducting an investigation into the cause of his death.
“The family does not trust anything coming from the Minneapolis Police Department,” Crump said. “How can they?”
‘Let my building burn, justice needs to be served’
The owners of Gandhi Mahal, a Minneapolis restaurant that was damaged during overnight protests, released a powerful statement on Facebook.
“We won’t loose hope though, I am so greatful for our neighbors who did their best to stand guard and protect Gandhi Mahal, Youre efforts won’t go unrecognized. Don’t worry about us, we will rebuild and we will recover,” wrote Hafsa, the owner’s daughter.
“Let my building burn, justice needs to be served,” the owner said, according to the post. “Gandhi Mahal May have felt the flames last night, but our firey drive to help protect and stand with our community will never die! Peace be with everyone.”
St. Paul mayor says rage understandable but getting expressed in ‘destructive’ way
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, whose city next to Minneapolis suffered extensive damage in Thursday night’s unrest, said Friday that “rage is understandable” in the wake of George Floyd’s death, but it is getting expressed in a “destructive way.”
“This anger, this rage, is understandable. It’s inevitable, at some level,” Carter told MSNBC, a day after some stores were looted and many more damaged in St. Paul. “Unfortunately, it’s coming out in a way that’s really destructive and that’s further victimizing the communities that are most in trauma already.”
Carter urged his constituents to take more constructive action: “Take that anger, take that sadness, take that rage that we feel, and let’s channel it into a way that’s going to help us build a stronger future for our children.”
What state charges could be brought in George Floyd’s death?
State prosecutors have several options to charge police officers in the State of Minnesota in deadly use of force incidents, like the type of incident that led to the death of George Floyd.
Prosecutors can bring charges ranging from second-degree manslaughter to first degree murder, with the murder charges being the most difficult to prove in court.
According to a Hennepin County Attorney’s document on these types of cases –- and they are the state prosecutor overseeing this investigation –- the standard for second-degree manslaughter must establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted with “culpable negligence” in creating an unreasonable risk of death or great bodily harm.” State law says this includes when a person “consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.”
The Minneapolis Police Department Use of Force Manual does allow what they describe as a “neck restraint.” This restraint is defined “as compressing one or both sides of a person’s neck with an arm or leg, without applying direct pressure to the trachea or airway (front of the neck).”
But the use of an “unconscious neck restraint,” where they say the goal is to render the person unconscious by applying adequate pressure, only applies “on a subject who is exhibiting active aggression, or for life saving purposes, or on a subject who is exhibiting active resistance in order to gain control of the subject; and if lesser attempts at control have been or would likely be ineffective.”
More unrest rocks Minneapolis and other cities in wake of George Floyd’s death
‘Racist president’: Democrats accuse Trump of inciting violence in Minneapolis
Democrats on Friday slammed President Donald Trump for what they said was inciting violence against protesters who were demonstrating in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody.
Joe Biden, the apparent 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, tweeted, “I will not lift the President’s tweet. I will not give him that amplification. But he is calling for violence against American citizens during a moment of pain for so many. I’m furious, and you should be too.”
The former vice president said that he planned to speak about the events in Minneapolis later in the day Friday.
Where does the phrase ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts’ come from?
Twitter said early Friday that a post by President Donald Trump about the protests overnight in Minneapolis glorified violence because of the historical context of his last line: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
The phrase was used by Miami’s police chief, Walter Headley, in 1967, when he addressed his department’s “crackdown on … slum hoodlums,” according to a United Press International article from the time.
Headley, who was chief of police in Miami for 20 years, said that law enforcement was going after “young hoodlums, from 15 to 21, who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign. … We don’t mind being accused of police brutality.”
