"It's just like Vietnam, it's just like Beirut": Minneapolis tries and fails to reopen George Floyd Square ... again
[HotAir] Maybe the third time will be the charm — but it might require the city of Minneapolis to enforce a reopening of George Floyd Square. For the second time in five days, city workers removed barriers yesterday to reopen the intersection at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where Floyd died in custody just over a year ago. And for the second time in five days, activists blocked traffic again hours later without any opposition from authorities:
City crews returned early Tuesday to a Minneapolis intersection where a memorial to George Floyd was assembled after his death last year and worked to reopen it to traffic by removing debris and makeshift barriers, only to have activists barricade the area again.
Workers using front-end loaders and brooms arrived just before 5 a.m. and cleared the intersection where Floyd was killed, which is informally known as George Floyd Square, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The intersection has been closed to traffic since Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, and some residents and businesses have expressed frustration that it has been closed for so long.
Last Thursday, city crews removed concrete barriers that blocked traffic at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, but community activists quickly put up makeshift barriers and resumed chanting the name of the Black man whose killing galvanized the racial justice movement.
As soon as workers left the area on Tuesday, activists moved back in, again blocking traffic with parked cars, trash cans, traffic signs and other items in a repeat of last Thursday’s scene.
“That apparently didn’t last very long,” the local Fox affiliate quipped. Residents are getting fed up over the city’s pusillanimity as well. One vocal opponent of the so-called “autonomous zone” told KMSP that it’s like living in a war zone:
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-06-09 |