Late Wednesday afternoon, WCCO’s Laura Oakes found out that “Operation Safety Net” was coming to a close.
Assistant Public Safety Director Booker Hodges thanked local residents for their understanding, as well as demonstrators for keeping things relatively peaceful over the past few weeks of the trial. This also included the shooting of Daunte Wright, who was mistakenly shot by officer Kim Potter last week after believing she held her taser, rather than her gun.
“Hopefully this event, and everything around it, will get us in Minnesota to have our actual quality of life meet that of our aspirational quality of life,” said Hodges.
Currently, 3,000 members of the Minnesota National Guard are beginning to head home to their various jobs and families. The barriers surrounding the Hennepin County Government Center are expected to be taken down within the next few days or weeks depending on the availability of the contractor.
“We will take those down within the next few days or weeks. It really depends on the contractor and their availability,” said Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson. “We have to keep some safety measures in place until we feel comfortable, but I think the citizens of Minneapolis and Hennepin County will see the change just as soon as we can get the contractor squared away.”
Guard Adjunct General Shawn Manke stated that there was no need for the troops anymore.
“We’ll continue to ramp down over the next few days, and hopefully have all of our soldiers and airmen off this mission very shortly, cause frankly the need of the local law enforcement is no longer there,” General Manke said.