Scenes from Minneapolis: Anger brews\u00a0in recovering protest hotspots<\/h2>\n
From the razor wire ringing the courthouse to the activists still occupying the streets, this is a city still reckoning with the consequences of the death of George Floyd\u00a0and the high-profile trial of the police officer accused of killing him.<\/p>\n
Although the streets are largely empty of protests, there’s long-simmering anger bubbling beneath the surface, and angry calls for justice and reform echo\u00a0across the city, particularly in the neighborhood where Floyd died. And 10 months after his death, Floyd’s name and face are everywhere, staring down from billboards, scrawled on walls. Depending on the day, and how strictly police decide to enforce the rules, dozens of posters of Floyd’s face gaze up at the Hennepin County Government Center from where they’re hung on the security fences strung with barbed wire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We will be here every day and every night until we see some justice,” said protester Ashley Dorelus, 26,\u00a0one of the people who have occupied the plaza outside the courthouse.\u00a0“This is a revolution, ladies and gentlemen. It is not a parade.\u201d<\/p>\n
The intersection where Floyd died has become a metaphor for the city as a whole: Still grieving, and with no consensus on exactly how to move forward. City officials want to reopen the intersection when the trial’s over. Activists worry allowing that to happen could permit Floyd to become just one more Black man killed by the cops.<\/p>\n
Downtown, the fortified government center and courthouse complex is ringed with razor wire and soldiers.\u00a0For many protesters and reform advocates, the razor wire, armored cars and camouflaged soldiers with rifles are the ultimate expression of the yawning chasm between the government and the people it’s supposed to be representing.<\/p>\n
It’s clear from the security precautions that authorities are scared of what might happen if angry crowds once again rampage through the streets demanding justice and reform.<\/p>\n
Lake Street bore the brunt of the destruction, as angry residents first attacked the 3rd Precinct police station where Chauvin and his colleagues\u00a0were based, and then spread out to liquor stores, pharmacies, the Target and Cub foods stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, rebuilding is underway for some. Target and Cub have reopened, as have most of the liquor stores.\u00a0While the broken glass has been swept away and the burned-out buildings demolished, scars linger from last summer’s civil unrest and riots.<\/p>\n
Floyd opioid drug addiction highlighted in Derek Chauvin trial<\/h2>\n
Like millions of Americans,\u00a0George Floyd\u00a0lived with the torment of drug addiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u00a0and his girlfriend,\u00a0Courteney Ross,\u00a0became\u00a0addicted to opioids four years ago after they were both prescribed for chronic pain. When the prescriptions ran out, they turned to illegal drug use. They tried to go clean, then\u00a0failed. They tried again, but\u00a0could not stop for long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As\u00a0the COVID-19 pandemic spread\u00a0across the United States, Floyd, the father of two young daughters,\u00a0started using again: he lost his job as a nightclub security guard because of quarantine shutdowns, he was hospitalized for several days after an overdose, he found out he had\u00a0the coronavirus. On the day he died, his neck trapped under the knee of former Minnesota police officer\u00a0Derek Chauvin, he had\u00a0fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, toxicology reports\u00a0later showed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction many times,\u201d Ross\u00a0said tearfully Thursday during testimony in the Chauvin trial over Floyd’s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Courteney Ross, who was in a relationship with George Floyd for about three years, became emotional when discussing their relationship.<\/p>\n