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<font size="1"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/chauvins-guilty-verdict-has-not-ended-police-violence-in-minneapolis/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=fbb9e7b9-9b24-4a78-bd60-3a11f5ca7d9f">https://truthout.org/articles/chauvins-guilty-verdict-has-not-ended-police-violence-in-minneapolis/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=fbb9e7b9-9b24-4a78-bd60-3a11f5ca7d9f</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Chauvin's Guilty Verdict Has Not Ended Police Violence in Minneapolis</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Adnan Ahmed - June 13, 2021<br></div>
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<p>Just over a month ago, former police officer <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/derek-chauvin-found-guilty-700000-cops-to-go/">Derek Chauvin was found guilty</a> of murdering George Floyd. The verdict came days after another former police officer, Kim Potter, shot and killed <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/not-just-one-bad-apple-another-man-of-color-was-murdered-by-police-outside-of-minneapolis/">Daunte Wright</a>. </p>
<p>The state and mainstream media did an excellent job portraying Chauvin as a bad apple when in reality he was a <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/why-are-cops-testifying-against-derek-chauvin/">sacrificial lamb</a>
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. </p>
<h2>Attempt to Reopen George Floyd Square</h2>
<p>On the morning of June 3, the City of Minneapolis, in collaboration with a community safety group called the <a href="https://www.theagapemovement.com/our-mission">Agape Movement</a>,
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. <em><strong></strong></em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Citing an increase in crime and an interest in promoting Black-owned
businesses, city leaders described reopening the square as a <a href="https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/city-community-leaders-explain-decision-to-reopen-george-floyd-square">“phased reconnection”</a> of George Floyd Square to the rest of the city. However, community members have maintained that unless their <a href="https://healingmnstories.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/floyd-square-resolution.pdf">24 demands</a> are met, they will not allow the space to be reopened. </p>
<h2>The NGOization of Policing</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/05/22/amid-streak-of-violence-what-are-leaders-doing-to-keep-minneapolis-safe/">work closely with law enforcement</a> to assist them in their racist police work. The Agape Movement is one such group. Agape has a <a href="https://sahanjournal.com/race/george-floyd/minneaolis-george-floyd-square-reopened/">$25,000 contract</a>
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. </p>
<p>The abolitionist and antiracist group Whittier Cop Watch recently put out a <a href="https://antidotezine.com/2021/06/06/tc-collaborators/">field guide</a> on how to identify groups and celebrity activists that act as counterinsurgents and collaborate with the state.</p>
<h2>U.S. Marshals Murder Winston Smith</h2>
<p>The same afternoon that the City attempted to reopen George Floyd
Square, a Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputy and a Ramsey County deputy
murdered <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2021/06/04/police-shooting-minneapolis-ramsey-county-warrant-bca-says/">Winston Boogie Smith</a> in a parking ramp in Minneapolis. Smith was a Black man and a father. He was also a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wincemeboi_/?hl=en">musician and comedian</a>. The officers who killed him were part of the U.S. Marshals’ North Star Fugitive Task Force. The <a href="https://www.kaaltv.com/minnesota-news/us-attorneys-office-explains-what-the-north-star-fugitive-task-force-is-all-about/6132112/">U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota</a> has described the North Star fugitive task force as<em> </em>“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.” </p>
<p>Immediately following his murder, the mainstream media provided <a href="https://twitter.com/ByGeorgiaFort/status/1401571671593476096?s=20">misleading reports</a> by incorrectly stating that Smith was a murder suspect. According to a <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MNDPS/bulletins/2e2a9e6">Board of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) statement</a>, Smith was wanted for a felony firearms violation. </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-announces-use-body-worn-cameras-federal-task-forces">October 2020</a>
to allow the use of body cameras. Weeks prior to his murder, Smith had
posted videos to his social media accounts talking about <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNn2o1SlDwy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">armed resistance</a> to state violence. Following Smith’s murder, protests have continued in Minneapolis. Smith’s brother <a href="https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/06/06/on-third-night-of-protests-winston-smiths-brother-asks-for-any-video-released-witnesses-to-come-forward/">Kidale Smith</a> is asking for evidence to be released and for any witnesses to come forward.</p>
<p>Winston Smith’s murder is similar to the murder of antifascist acitivist <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/michael-reinoehl-was-executed-by-the-police/">Michael Reinoehl</a>
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. <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/13/new-eyewitness-accounts-feds-didnt-identify-themselves-before-firing-on-portland-antifa-shooting-suspect/">Eyewitness accounts</a>
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 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/14/activist-portland-shooting-michael-reinoehl-police">Reinoehl</a> and Smith’s murders by the fugitive task force were targeted killings.</p>
<h2>Autonomism and Reformism Will Not Liberate Us</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/yes-4-minneapolis-reforming-an-uprising-but-not-the-police/">window dressing</a> for philanthropic police reform proposals. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/the-house-always-wins-the-state-and-autonomism/">Left Voice</a>,
“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.” </p>
<p>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. </p>
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