Before George Floyd: A Minneapolis legacy of protest, policing and the long road to change

Minnesota Now

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14d ago 21:52

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Flames rising. Police officers retreating. A community trying to protect itself.

These scenes may evoke the chaos following George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020. But they also describe what happened nearly two decades earlier, on Aug. 22, 2002, in north Minneapolis. That summer, community outrage erupted after a white Minneapolis police officer shot and wounded an 11-year-old Black boy.

“It came at a time when tensions were already high,” reported MPR News’ Brandt Williams in 2002. “An angry, predominantly Black crowd gathered and accused the police of targeting African Americans.”

That unrest, like the one in 2020, drew the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice. But for longtime observers like Williams — who began covering the city in 1992 for the Black-owned “Insight News” — the story of police-community tensions in Minneapolis began long before Floyd's name became a rallying cry.

Listen to MPR News senior editor Brandt Williams’ conversation with Minnesota Now host Nina Moini. The segment was produced by Aleesa Kuznetsov and Megan Burks. It was engineered by Alex Simpson.

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