[News] Chauvin's Guilty Verdict Has Not Ended Police Violence in Minneapolis

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://truthout.org/articles/chauvins-guilty-verdict-has-not-ended-police-violence-in-minneapolis/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=fbb9e7b9-9b24-4a78-bd60-3a11f5ca7d9f
Chauvin's
Guilty Verdict Has Not Ended Police Violence in Minneapolis
Adnan Ahmed - June 13, 2021
------------------------------

Just over a month ago, former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty
<https://www.leftvoice.org/derek-chauvin-found-guilty-700000-cops-to-go/>
of murdering George Floyd. The verdict came days after another former
police officer, Kim Potter, shot and killed Daunte Wright
<https://www.leftvoice.org/not-just-one-bad-apple-another-man-of-color-was-murdered-by-police-outside-of-minneapolis/>.


The state and mainstream media did an excellent job portraying Chauvin as a
bad apple when in reality he was a sacrificial lamb
<https://www.leftvoice.org/why-are-cops-testifying-against-derek-chauvin/>
being sacrificed to protect the racist-capitalist power structures. Chauvin
hasn’t even been sentenced yet. But as the National Guard went home and the
razor wire fences came down, Minneapolis leaders decided that enough time
had been wasted on honoring George Floyd’s memory.
Attempt to Reopen George Floyd Square

On the morning of June 3, the City of Minneapolis, in collaboration with a
community safety group called the Agape Movement
<https://www.theagapemovement.com/our-mission>, decided to take down the
barricades, flowers, and art around George Floyd Square (an autonomous
zone) and attempted to open it up to traffic. Caretakers of the square and
community members quickly organized and put up makeshift barriers, closing
the square off to traffic once again.

On June 8, the City reopened George Floyd Square to traffic by removing
these barricades. Agape members, who have faced backlash from the community
for their complicity in the operation, were not visible this time. Once the
City crews left, activists blocked off the streets once again using
makeshift barricades and vehicles.

Citing an increase in crime and an interest in promoting Black-owned
businesses, city leaders described reopening the square as a “phased
reconnection”
<https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/city-community-leaders-explain-decision-to-reopen-george-floyd-square>
of George Floyd Square to the rest of the city. However, community members
have maintained that unless their 24 demands
<https://healingmnstories.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/floyd-square-resolution.pdf>
are met, they will not allow the space to be reopened.
The NGOization of Policing

Since the murder of George Floyd, with the police facing increased public
scrutiny, a number of non-profit parapolicing organizations have popped up
in the Twin Cities. These organizations are often composed of working-class
Black community members with a stated goal of violence prevention and
fostering collaboration between the community and law enforcement. Many of
these groups work closely with law enforcement
<https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/05/22/amid-streak-of-violence-what-are-leaders-doing-to-keep-minneapolis-safe/>
to assist them in their racist police work. The Agape Movement is one such
group. Agape has a $25,000 contract
<https://sahanjournal.com/race/george-floyd/minneaolis-george-floyd-square-reopened/>
with the City of Minneapolis and recently collaborated with the City to
reopen George Floyd Square. Until recently, Agape was so embedded in the
community that one of the 24 justice demands for reopening the George Floyd
Square was for Agape to be housed within the square.

The abolitionist and antiracist group Whittier Cop Watch recently put
out a field
guide <https://antidotezine.com/2021/06/06/tc-collaborators/> on how to
identify groups and celebrity activists that act as counterinsurgents and
collaborate with the state.
U.S. Marshals Murder Winston Smith

The same afternoon that the City attempted to reopen George Floyd Square, a
Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputy and a Ramsey County deputy murdered Winston
Boogie Smith
<https://www.twincities.com/2021/06/04/police-shooting-minneapolis-ramsey-county-warrant-bca-says/>
in a parking ramp in Minneapolis. Smith was a Black man and a father. He
was also a musician and comedian
<https://www.instagram.com/wincemeboi_/?hl=en>. The officers who killed him
were part of the U.S. Marshals’ North Star Fugitive Task Force. The U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota
<https://www.kaaltv.com/minnesota-news/us-attorneys-office-explains-what-the-north-star-fugitive-task-force-is-all-about/6132112/>
has described the North Star fugitive task force as “local, state, and
federal law enforcement who work together to arrest the state’s most
violent fugitives” and who can “cross jurisdictional lines to apprehend
violent fugitives.”

Immediately following his murder, the mainstream media provided misleading
reports <https://twitter.com/ByGeorgiaFort/status/1401571671593476096?s=20>
by incorrectly stating that Smith was a murder suspect. According to a Board
of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) statement
<https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MNDPS/bulletins/2e2a9e6>, Smith
was wanted for a felony firearms violation.

There is no squad car or bodycam footage of Smith’s murder. BCA stated that
the reason for the absence of video was that the Marshals were not allowed
to wear body cameras. That policy, however, was changed by the Department
of Justice (DOJ) in October 2020
<https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-announces-use-body-worn-cameras-federal-task-forces>
to allow the use of body cameras. Weeks prior to his murder, Smith had
posted videos to his social media accounts talking about armed resistance
<https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNn2o1SlDwy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link> to
state violence. Following Smith’s murder, protests have continued in
Minneapolis. Smith’s brother Kidale Smith
<https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/06/06/on-third-night-of-protests-winston-smiths-brother-asks-for-any-video-released-witnesses-to-come-forward/>
is asking for evidence to be released and for any witnesses to come forward.

Winston Smith’s murder is similar to the murder of antifascist
acitivist Michael
Reinoehl
<https://www.leftvoice.org/michael-reinoehl-was-executed-by-the-police/>
last year — not because Smith was a murder suspect, as was falsely reported
earlier, but becuase they were both killed in a similar manner by the same
fugitive task force. Reinoehl had been charged for killing Aaron “Jay”
Danielson (a supporter of far-right group Patriot Prayer) during a
confrontation. Eyewitness accounts
<https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/13/new-eyewitness-accounts-feds-didnt-identify-themselves-before-firing-on-portland-antifa-shooting-suspect/>
state that the officers did not identify themselves before opening fire on
Reinoehl. The circumstances and lack of transparency surrounding both
murders raise suspicion that both Reinoehl
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/14/activist-portland-shooting-michael-reinoehl-police>
and Smith’s murders by the fugitive task force were targeted killings.
Autonomism and Reformism Will Not Liberate Us

After George Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis has been ground zero for the
racist, capitalist ruling class to suppress any threat to their continued
rule. We have already witnessed how the language of abolition has been used
as window dressing
<https://www.leftvoice.org/yes-4-minneapolis-reforming-an-uprising-but-not-the-police/>
for philanthropic police reform proposals.

The attempted reopening of George Floyd Square and the murder of Winston
Smith show that the state has no plans to stop its violence. Whether
through infiltrator “community safety groups” like the Agape Movement or
through “fugitive task forces” that inflict terror and kill with impunity,
the state is leaving no stone unturned in suppressing the working class and
the oppressed.

George Floyd Square is regarded by many as a sacred space. It is not simply
a memorial to George Floyd but also a revolutionary space of resistance to
state terror. But as Ezra Brain writes in Left Voice
<https://www.leftvoice.org/the-house-always-wins-the-state-and-autonomism/>,
“Having small pockets of liberation is not liberation, and as long as the
capitalist state exists, it will actively seek to stop these pockets from
expanding.”

Our liberation will not come from a reactionary position of defending
ourselves from state violence and responding to never-ending crises of
capitalism through mutual aid. Nor will it come from reformism that
promises mostly optics without dismantling any of the oppressive power
structures. Our liberation is rooted in the democratic self-organization of
workers and the oppressed, all over the world, and taking control of our
present and our future.
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