NYT unloads on VP choice Tim Walz over George Floyd riots

All of a sudden now that Kamala picked Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the New York Times is unleashing previously unwelcome hate facts about the George Floyd Mostly Peaceful Protests of 2020. A Midwest correspondent of the New York Times, Mitch Smith, absolutely dumps on Kamala’s Veep choice:

Walz Has Faced Criticism for His Response to George Floyd Protests

Some believe that Gov. Tim Walz should have deployed the Minnesota National Guard sooner when riots broke out following the police murder of George Floyd.

By Mitch Smith

Aug. 6, 2024, 9:39 a.m. ET

A little more than a year into Tim Walz’s first term as governor, he faced his biggest test.

His state, already in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, was suddenly in the international spotlight after a Minneapolis police officer was filmed murdering George Floyd in May 2020.

Looting, arson and violence followed, quickly overwhelming the local authorities, and some faulted Mr. Walz for not doing more and not moving faster to bring the situation under control with Minnesota National Guard troops and other state officials.

Two days after Mr. Floyd’s death, with protests in Minneapolis turning increasingly violent, the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, asked Mr. Walz to deploy the National Guard.

Hours later, the city’s police chief submitted a written request for 600 troops. But it was not until the next afternoon that Mr. Walz signed an executive order allowing the Guard to assist cities.

The timeline is that George Floyd met his perhaps not untimely (considering his drug intake and medical problems) demise on Monday, May 25.

Nothing too much happened on Tuesday, May 26.

Wednesday, May 27, local blacks looted a Target store.

That’s when Mayor Frey requested the National Guard from Governor Walz. But he didn’t respond until the next afternoon. After all, black kids looting a big box store, even one as crucial to Minnesota as Target, is not uncommon.

On Thursday May 28 came what strikes me as The Big One in the Summer of George: rioters surrounded the Minneapolis Third Precinct, the cops abandoned their post under orders from Mayor Frey, and the rioters burned it down. I still don’t know the demographics of these rioters. My guess is that they were out-of-town white Antifa rioting enthusiasts arrived in the morning to get in on the action initiated by the black looters. But I don’t know for sure.

“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” said State Senator Warren Limmer, a Republican who helped lead a committee that investigated the response to the unrest. He suggested that Mr. Walz’s personal sympathies toward protesters might have delayed a muscular response.

Mr. Walz, a Democrat who is said to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, has since defended his actions during those days, saying he and others in state government were acting in good faith amid unimaginable circumstances.

“I simply believe that we try to do the best we can,” Mr. Walz said recently at a news conference when asked about his response to the riots.

But critics have said that the riots grew larger and lasted longer because he did not move sooner.

Keep in mind that the NYT in 2020 preferred to call the riots "mostly peaceful protests.”

“Governor Walz had the ability and duty to use force and law enforcement to stop criminal violence, but he did not,” said a 2020 Minnesota Senate report on the riots, published at a time when Republicans controlled that chamber. “Governor Walz was not willing to do what was necessary to stop the rioting right away because he was having a philosophical debate about whether the use of force should be used to stop violence.”

Mr. Walz declined to be interviewed for this article. …

Perhaps the New York Times should have published this before Walz was chosen?