(WCCO) City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison said he was overcome with dread when he saw what happened to George Floyd in the now-infamous video where he begged for help while a cop knelt on the back of his neck. He later died, and four officers were placed on administrative leave pending investigation.
"It's especially tortured and cruel," said Ellison, the son of attorney general Keith Ellison, about the way Floyd died.
Was it murder?
"Yes, absolutely," Jeremiah Ellison said, adding all four officers who were allegedly involved in the situation should be charged with a crime.
He added that when the city descended into chaos and fire during protests Tuesday and Wednesday that devolved into violence, looting and robbery, he made calls to the police department. He wanted to be heard on requests to try to prevent damage to people and property. His input was rejected or ignored, he says, so he pleaded again on WCCO for a different police strategy.
"I found myself unable to get through in any meaningful way," he said.
Now, he's calling for a change in approach to protesters, saying it's time to end the strategy where officers stand by in a show of force and protection of an area while mayhem rains down around them. The strategy they're using let to maximum unrest instead of deescalation, he said.
"Did the police protect any of those places? The police didn't respond to the looting. The police didn't respond to the property damage. They were there standing guard and they protected one building at the expense of every single business and residence in the area, that's just true. You can't refute that."
People were hurling water bottles at one point, Ellison said, and the return fire was "massive rubber pellets, marker rounds, gas, mace, and that is a drastic escalation that didn't really keep anybody safe ... It was an oversize response compared to what was happening."
He added they should change strategy to protect people, and not buildings. "Things are in complete disarray," Ellison said.
He doesn't approve of the looting and robbery, but said there should be a intelligent response strategy that prioritizes minimum damage to people and property. "We didn't have an intelligent strategy," he said.
In the meantime, Mayor Jacob Frey announced he was seeking help from the government to handle response to the protests.
But Ellison says any attempt to "violently quell the activism on the ground is a mistake" and will "lead to more destruction."
