Story at a glance
- St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter denounces the destruction during Floyd protests, but encourages action against police brutality.
- He confirmed many looters are coming from outside the St. Paul-Minneapolis community.
The mayor of St. Paul, Minn., the neighboring city to Minneapolis, where the death of George Floyd occurred and launched mass protests across the U.S., spoke to MSNBC about the demonstrations against police brutality that have taken violent turns over the weekend.
Mayor Melvin Carter (D) told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that he is “calling for peace” but that he is not “calling for patience.”
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The videos of George Floyd’s murder “show a culture of abuse, of violence and of escalation that has been a part of police culture for a very long time before we started seeing cell phone videos about this.” Carter explains his family anecdotes can corroborate the disproportionate police responses to black people in America.
“We have a culture of escalation that we have accepted for generations,” Carter says.
When asked about where some of the looters are coming from and if they are residents of the St. Paul and Minneapolis community, Carter walked back his previous statement that most of the people arrested the nights of the protests were from out of state.
Citing incorrect data, Carter said he would wait for clear numbers before discussing the demographics of the people arrested. “What is absolutely clear though is that a number of folks wherever they’re coming from are coming from outside our community.”
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He also said that those who were burning and looting minority-owned businesses did not do it from “a deep and genuine love” for the St. Paul-Minnesota community.
Carter told Reid that the focus this week ought to be on the injustice in George Floyd’s death and the conversation on police brutality against black men.
“We have deep soul searching work to do as a nation to ensure we can stop these cycles from happening over and over and over again,” he said. “Until we have some ability to be clear and confident that when something as disgusting as George Floyd’s killing happens and when, frankly, it is so well documented, that someone will be held accountable for it, this level of anger, this level of rage will undoubtedly continue in our community.”
He also expressed disappointment in looters “drowning out the voice” of legitimate protesters who want to bring attention to racial inequality in American institutions.
Carter encouraged activists, especially young people, to continue to demand reform.
“I’m not asking people to sit back and patiently wait while we slowly and incrementally slow the bloody tide of unarmed black men who die at the hands of law enforcement.”
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