Minnesota state officials are calling on Twin Cities residents to heed an 8 p.m. curfew after days of protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The protests, Gov. Tim Walz said, were being used by outside agitators to sow chaos.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said Saturday Minnesota residents have been coming together to care for their community, but others are using the protests to destroy important institutions.
"There are white supremacists, there are anarchists, there are people who are burning down the institutions that are core to our identity and who we are," Flanagan said, pointing to Migizi, a nonprofit organization serving Native American youth, which was trashed and its historical archives destroyed amid the protests. " ... We need to create the space for people to be able to grieve, to come together, to mourn the loss of George Floyd, but in order to be able to do that, we need to create the space to remove the people who are doing us harm."
In closing, Flanagan said, "This swell of mourning and grief has been just below the surface and it burst out in to public and we must take this moment to change it all."
Watch Flanagan's full address below.
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