State and Faith Leaders Asking Protesters to Honor Curfew

ST. PAUL -- Twin Cities community and faith leaders stood in solidarity with state leaders Saturday afternoon and called for Minnesota protesters to stay home.

After four nights of rioting, violence, and burning in Minneapolis and St. Paul following the death of George Floyd, Governor Tim Walz has mobilized the entire Minnesota National Guard and other agencies.

Saturday is the second night where the metro is under a curfew from 8:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Sunday.

Attorney General Keith Ellison and other leaders are asking Minnesotans to stay off the streets during the curfew to help law enforcement agencies crackdown on violent out-of-state rioters.

To be on the street after 8:00 p.m. means that we can't get you separated from the bad people. So we know you're brave, we know you're strong, we know you never compromise on justice. We know you're righteous and we believe in what you're doing, but we need to be able to stop the burning and the looting and the destruction.

So far over 1,700 businesses and organizations have been destroyed in the Twin Cities with much of the destruction affecting small business, Black, Native American, and Latino owners and community members along Lake Street.

Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan says honoring the curfew is an important step towards allowing for peaceful protesting and grieving and working for systemic reform.

We need to create the space for people to be able to grieve, to come together, and 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.

Community members have already started coming together to clean up the rubble and deliver food to one another during the dangerous and difficult time.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety estimates there are tens of thousands of people from out of state rioting in the metro area.