Derek Chauvin’s Murder Trial Starts Next Week and Minneapolis Looks Like a War Zone

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Minneapolis is prepping for the murder trial of the cop who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck by barricading government buildings with prison-style barbed-wire and high-security fences—in some places three layers deep. 

After a summer of protests and major unrest, Minneapolis and St. Paul are sparing no expense ahead of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, which begins Monday with jury selection. The city has wrapped the Hennepin County Courthouse, City Hall, and all five police precinct buildings with barbed-wire fencing that runs a cool $645,000.  

The city is also beefing up its security presence by preemptively placing more than 1,100 police on patrol throughout the city for the trial, as well as mobilizing thousands of National Guard members, who have already started to arrive in the city, Minnesota Public Radio reported. 

Right now, block-long moats of coiled concertina wire surround the courthouse, held down by sandbags between two chainlink fences. Closer to the entrance of the Hennepin County Government Center, which contains the courthouse, is another barricade of unscalable fencing. The menacing barricades began sprouting up around the city late in February. 

The city’s five police precincts, located in different neighborhoods throughout Minneapolis, are also being surrounded by barbed wire fencing in an effort to deter protestors. Last summer, protesters broke through cement and wire blockades around the third precinct, near where Floyd was killed, and set it on fire, after all police personnel had left the building.

Store owners around both Minneapolis and St. Paul are preparing for the trial as well. Many businesses are placing wood panels over their shop windows and entrances. Minneapolis officials also encouraged business-owners in a release to have emergency preparedness plans and suggested they may want to hire additional private security to protect their shops, KARE 11 reported. 

Businesses in Minneapolis’ Lake Street and Bryant neighborhoods, an epicenter of last summer’s protests and the location of George Floyd Square, are being particularly cautious with preemptive measures as the trial draws nearer. About three miles northeast in Downtown Minneapolis, where boards from the original protests still stand, new blockades are being nailed into store windows for protection.

Downtown Minneapolis, where boards from the original protests still stand, new blockades are being nailed into store windows for protection. 

Multiple protests are already planned to take place across the city Monday. 

Over the summer, at the height of the protests, Minneapolis police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and riot batons against protestors, which promoted an outcry about civil rights concerns. At least one photographer was blinded in one eye after being hit by a police-fired foam bullet.

The city and surrounding suburbs were eventually put on mandatory lockdown, and the National Guard patrolled the streets for multiple days.