Latest news with #MinnesotaNationalGuard
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
National Guard soldier reflects on George Floyd unrest deployment
The Brief Governor Tim Walz signed an Emergency Executive Order on May 28, 2020, declaring a peacetime emergency and activating the Minnesota National Guard. More than 7,000 Soldiers and Airmen were activated to support local law enforcement across the state. The Minnesota National Guard's 2020 mission was focused on "protecting lives, preserving property, and ensuring the right of people to peacefully protest." MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A former Minnesota National Guard solider is opening up about her deployment to assist with security amid rioting and looting following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. Mass demonstrations and civil unrest led to an unprecedented deployment of the National Guard. Five years later, questions remain about the timing of the deployment and mobilization of thousands of soldiers after widespread destruction occurred in the days after Floyd's deadly arrest. Timeline Following days of rioting and civil unrest that damaged and destroyed scores of buildings and businesses in response to the police murder of George Floyd, Gov. Tim Walz signed Emergency Executive Order #20-64 on May 28, 2020. In issuing the order on the same day the Minneapolis Police Department's 3rd Precinct was set ablaze; the governor officially declared a peacetime emergency and activated the Minnesota National Guard. In total, the National Guard said 7,123 soldiers and airmen were activated to support local law enforcement in "protecting lives, preserving property, and ensuring the right of people to peacefully protest." The Minnesota National Guard's 34th Military Police Company, 257th Military Police Company and National Guard Reaction Force units of the 1-151st Field Artillery Battalion and 682nd Engineer Battalion were among the first units activated. The deployment came to an end on June 9 when the last remaining National Guard members were released from state active duty and returned home. What they're saying "It was scary, again, very unprecedented times. Nobody knows what's going to happen next," recalled Elizabeth Preda, who deployed with the Minnesota National Guard's Duluth-based 148th Fighter Wing. Preda was just 19 years old and said she had recently completed her basic training after joining the National Guard straight out of high school. "People ask you, 'Like what did you do in your military career?' And that is kind of like my go-to answer is, welp, 'Do you remember what happened with George Floyd in 2020?' I was part of that." Like many that week in 2020, she and her fellow citizen soldiers were watching the civil unrest escalate in the Twin Cities as calls to deploy the Minnesota National Guard grew louder and louder. She remembered telling her boss at the time, if the call comes, she had to go. She said, every member of her unit was given two hours to mobilize at their Duluth armory as soon as they received their activation orders. "I was telling my boss at work, 'this is going to happen and when it happens, I need to leave.' No ifs, ands, or buts." Once the official call came, Preda's security forces squadron deployed to Saint Paul. They were armed, and had a mission to protect the Capitol from what the FBI said at the time was a credible threat while also protecting the rights of peaceful protesters who gathered on the Capitol grounds. Five years later, Preda still wonders whether they should have deployed sooner given the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that had already been done, particularly in Minneapolis. "I feel it took a little bit too long," Preda told FOX 9. "That's what I feel like. We could have been down there two days prior. But since it had never happened, maybe there might not have been a right time to do it." Dig deeper Now five years later, some still question the decision-making and timing of the Guard's activation, coming too late to help with security including at the now abandoned and gutted 3rd Precinct police headquarters in south Minneapolis. City and state after-action assessment reports ultimately gave the Minnesota National Guard high marks for its efforts protecting critical infrastructure and human life despite a lack of overall training and experience in handling a large-scale disturbance for an extended period of time. But those reports singled out poor communication and unfamiliarity, particularly with Minneapolis city leaders in requesting the guard's assistance that caused critical delays in approval and deployment of resources. The other side "The Guard got called in as soon as they could," stated Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges. In 2020, Hodges served as the Department of Public Safety's Assistant Commissioner. He took over the statewide incident command from the city of Minneapolis after the events of May 28, 2020 that included angry demonstrators setting the 3rd Precinct on fire. "One of the things that was frustrating to me, is people think you just snap your finger and the Guard shows up. It doesn't happen that way," explained Hodges. Hodges said the Minnesota National Guard had very few soldiers specifically trained to handle the situation on the ground. And complicating the issue further, many of the citizen soldiers were also local members of law enforcement. "So, are we going to have police officers do Guard duty or are we going to use them to do their regular police job function that we need at the time?" asked Hodges. "So, the Guard did get mobilized as quick as it could." Local perspective The Minnesota National Guard and its leader at the time both declined FOX 9 interview requests for our reporting on the deployment and the lessons learned five years later. In addition to the Floyd-related riots, soldiers and airmen were also called upon for security needs around former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial and to assist law enforcement with unrest following the deadly traffic stop police shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center as well as another volatile incident in downtown Minneapolis. All of those deployments and mobilizations occurred within a year time span during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Photo Gallery: George Floyd's murder shook Twin Cities five years ago
The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin five years ago sparked outrage in the Twin Cities and around the world. A widely circulated video, which drew nearly universal condemnation, showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes on the evening of May 25, 2020, even after the 47-year-old Black man lay motionless beneath him. Protesters gathered the next day at the site of Floyd's death near 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, before marching to the Third Precinct headquarters of the Minneapolis Police Department, where Chauvin worked. The demonstrations would continue nearly nonstop for several days across the Twin Cities, with thousands turning out to protest Floyd's murder and police brutality writ large. Several local officials joined activists in calling for the officers involved in Floyd's death to face criminal charges. For four days, protests devolved into riots when night fell. Along Lake Street in Minneapolis and in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, stores were looted and hundreds of buildings damaged — some destroyed — by fire. Each morning, neighbors and business owners gathered to clean up debris and salvage what they could from the previous night's destruction. Among the structures gutted by flames was the Third Precinct itself, which was abandoned by police. On May 29, Chauvin became the first of four officers charged in Floyd's death. That same day, Minnesota National Guard soldiers were deployed on Twin Cities streets, but looting and arson continued. It wasn't until the following evening when an 8 p.m. curfew was implemented for much of the metro that the overnight rioting dropped off, while peaceful protests continued. Joe Soucheray: George Floyd Square is an embarrassment to the man it's supposed to honor Ex-Minneapolis police chief recalls 'absolutely gut-wrenching' moment of seeing George Floyd video George Floyd: Minneapolis, St. Paul events mark his death, community response Justice Department moves to cancel Minneapolis police reform settlement Minnesota Freedom Fund to stop bailing out jailed defendants
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
5 years after George Floyd's murder: How the media narrative has changed around the killing and the protests that followed
On the evening of May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police outside a grocery store in Minneapolis. From the outset, the incident became a battle of narratives. The local police initially reported Floyd was experiencing 'distress' and died from a medical incident. A day later, bystander Darnella Frazier uploaded a video that showed the graphic details, including the police's excessive use of force leading up to Floyd's death. Floyd's murder, and Frazier's documentation of it, spawned what by some measures was the largest protest movement in American history. And that, too, became a contest of narratives, this time in the media. A focus on the aftermath of the events in Minneapolis, and elsewhere, were quickly supplanted by stories of lawlessness and violence by protesters. For almost a decade, I've researched the media's coverage of protests, focusing extensively on the reporting of modern-day uprisings against police brutality. Time and time again, colleagues and I have found that the bulk of news coverage of protests against police brutality tends to focus on protesters' violence, disruption or sensational actions. Yet in reading some of the coverage ahead of the fifth anniversary of Floyd's death, I have observed a different media trend. With the benefit of time, what was once a news media frenzy focusing on the violence after Floyd's killing has yielded space for reflection and coverage that legitimizes those who took to the streets. In so doing, these narrative changes provide essential opportunities to understand the complexity of journalism and social movements seen from different moments in time. Quickly after Floyd's murder in 2020, it became clear that subjects such as the role of state violence, the sophistication of demands for change and community grief were less likely to make headlines than things such as rioting and lawlessness. This pattern is part of what scholars call a 'protest paradigm' that explores the relationship between protests, media and the public. The paradigm holds that journalism often works against protest movements hoping to change the status quo. The news media's tendency to emphasize the frivolous, violent or annoying actions of protests rather than the depth of protesters' demands, grievances and agendas negatively shapes public opinion and affects the public's willingness to support the movements behind them. After Floyd's death, those closely following the coverage of conservative media were more likely to be exposed to stories that depicted protests as 'criminal mobs.' But it wasn't just conservative media. On May 31, 2020, the local paper, the Star Tribune, described the governor's 'show of strength' – a term used to describe the massive deployment of the Minnesota National Guard to help quell the 'days of lawless rampage.' Most coverage at the time fit a familiar pattern of delegitimizing the protest movement. Five years later, some delegitimizing news coverage continues to headline. The New York Post, for example, recently published a 13-minute documentary that suggests Minneapolis is still on fire. But a good portion of today's news also presents a different framing. In one five-year anniversary piece, The New York Times described George Floyd Square, the murder-site-turned-place-of-reverance for many activists and local residents, as a 'site of protest, art, grief and remembrance.' Another article in The Minnesota Star Tribune describes preservation efforts of street art and murals made by activists after the murder. Other coverage described the complicated process of demanding change and the path that remains ahead. Of course, these are selective snapshots of the coverage. And some media may shy away from covering the anniversary at all. But from my standpoint as a media scholar, the coverage that does exist has gone from being dominated by an initial focus on the violent aspects of protest to, in the main, a more reflective look at the meaning — rather than the spectacle — of the unrest. That legitimizing trend over time isn't an isolated phenomenon. My colleagues Rachel Mourão and George Sylvie and I found something similar in previous research looking at the protests that followed the killings of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. In our analysis of the protests following Brown's death, we observed that the first weeks of coverage focused more on protesters, delegitimizing frames and episodic news – that is, the disruption, destruction and arrests. But we saw a dramatic change by the third and fourth weeks of coverage. With the passing of time, more legitimizing frames emerged, describing the protest's substance and demands, and more thematic and in-depth reporting became apparent. We observed a similar trend when we looked out even further from the triggering events. After the trial of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch leader charged and then acquitted over the deaths of Martin, and the grand jury verdict not to indict police officer Darren Wilson over the death of Brown, news coverage of protests was more contextual and thematic. The coverage provided more space and voice to 'nonofficial' sources such as protesters and family members. The protest paradigm's persistence may be a function of journalistic bias − the adage of 'if it bleeds, it leads' talks to the immediate reporting imperative of prioritizing violence and spectacle over issues and meaning. But it can also be a consequence of how journalism operates to inform the public. When uprisings against police brutality first begin, everything is new to the journalist and the public. The initial coverage tends to reflect this newsness and emphasizes breaking news and official narratives − which are often easier to obtain than the statements of protest groups. Police departments, for example, have well-established media relations departments with preexisting relationships with journalists. These initial reports also tend to feature information that would have the biggest impact on wider communities − such as blocked highways and potential property destruction − than just the aggrieved community. This translates to more coverage generally in the aftermath of a big event − and that reporting is more likely to delegitimize protests. These are the first drafts of history, and they are typically incomplete. But five years later in the case of George Floyd and protests of his death, coverage looks more complete and complex. That complexity brings more balance, from my perspective. What journalists write years later are no longer the first drafts of history reported with limited perspectives. In these subsequent drafts, journalists have a little more time to think, learn and breathe. Immediacy takes a back burner, and journalists have had more time to collect information. And it is in these collections of subsequent drafts that the protesters and social movements get a fairer shake. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Danielle K. Brown, Michigan State University Read more: Riot or resistance? How media frames unrest in Minneapolis will shape public's view of protest Media coverage of campus protests tends to focus on the spectacle, rather than the substance Corroboree 2000, 25 years on: the march for Indigenous reconciliation has left a complicated legacy Danielle K. Brown receives funding from Lumina Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Tunnel to Towers Foundation Honors the Memory of Fallen Servicemembers by Delivering Mortgage-Free Homes to 25 Gold Star Families this Memorial Day
Home recipients are in 18 states, stretching from coast to coast United States Army Sergeant Travis Daniel Tikka Minnesota National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles Nord Staten Island, NY, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This Memorial Day, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation underscores its commitment to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country by providing 25 mortgage-free homes to the families they left behind. For Frank Siller, Tunnel to Towers Chairman and CEO, easing this financial burden is the least we can do for those who laid down their lives for our country and our freedom. 'This Memorial Day, Tunnel to Towers honors the memory of those who volunteered to serve our great nation and did not make it home. Ensuring the families they left behind will always have a place to gather and celebrate their fallen hero is a tangible way to express America's gratitude and deliver a clear message that their loved one's sacrifice has not and will not be forgotten," said Siller. The Tunnel to Towers Gold Star Family Home Program honors the legacy of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country by paying off the mortgage or providing the surviving spouses and young children with mortgage-free homes. Some of the families who received mortgage-free homes this Memorial Day are: Air Force Master Sergeant Chrystal Stuckey Air Force Senior Airman Bradley Smith Air Force Senior Airman Charles Wood Army Staff Sergeant Ryan O'Hara Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves Army Staff Sergeant Nino Livaudais Army Sergeant Anthony Pagano Army Sergeant First Class Travis Tikka Army Specialist Robert Kirsopp Army Staff Sergeant Michael Nelson Army First Lieutenant Dustin Vincent Navy Chief Petty Officer Mattias Fiser Navy & Army Sergeant Gregory Ponci Navy Chief Petty Officer Derrick Demery Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Jeffrey Marquard USMC Gunnery Sergeant (EOD) John Fry USMC Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Troxel USMC Lieutenant Colonel Michael "Scott" Flurry Minnesota National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles Nord Minnesota National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles Nord lost his life on December 5, 2019, when his Blackhawk helicopter crashed during a maintenance test. He left behind his wife, Kaley, who was pregnant with their son, and their two-year-old daughter. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has ensured that the home CW2 Nord wanted his family to be in will be theirs forever. 'I am excited to be able to support and raise my children knowing that their father will never be forgotten…To be able to remain in the house that Charles worked countless hours on to finish for our family is priceless,' said Kaley. Army Sergeant First Class Travis Tikka enlisted in the Army after high school in 1984. He served his country for 22 years, deploying to the Middle East, Somalia, and Panama. He retired in 2006 and pursued a second career with the Social Security Administration. He was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma due to burn pit exposure during his deployments and passed on November 18, 2023. He is survived by his wife, Sara, and their children, Madyson and Mason. Tunnel to Towers paid off the mortgage on the family's home. 'Tunnel to Towers has relieved a huge financial burden… Instead of focusing and worrying about finances, I can now focus on what is best for my family emotionally,' said Sara Tikka, SFC Tikka's wife. 'We now have a future that looks a lot less scary. This organization will be with me and my children as we live our lives to the fullest, as Travis had wanted.' Join Tunnel to Towers' mission to honor the sacrifices made by fallen servicemembers this Memorial Day by providing mortgage-free homes for Gold Star families by going to and donating $11 a month. About the Tunnel to Towers Foundation Born from the tragedy of 9/11, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation carries out its mission to 'do good' by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and building specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Tunnel to Towers is also committed to eradicating veteran homelessness and helping America to Never Forget September 11, 2001. Visit to learn more. Follow Tunnel to Towers on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Attachments United States Army Sergeant Travis Daniel Tikka Minnesota National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles Nord CONTACT: Trevor Tamsen Tunnel To Towers Foundation 718-987-1931 in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mower County man among select group to compete in Minnesota National Guard's 2025 Best Warrior event
May 20—LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — Sgt. Hayden Sass, a combat engineer with Recruiting and Retention Battalion from Adams, Minnesota, was among the 25 service members from the Minnesota National Guard and NATO-allied nations Canada and Croatia, who competed in 18 warrior tasks, all for a chance to be named the Minnesota National Guard's 2025 Best Warrior. The competition was held in April at Camp Ripley over four days and included 25 service members. This year's competition was completely redesigned with several new events and significant modifications to test each service member's warrior ethos, discipline and capabilities, the Minnesota National Guard said in a press release. The competition started with weapons zeroing on the M4 carbine and M17 pistol, then later a night land navigation event, before competitors were divided into three groups to face a new set of challenges each day. Sass said his favorite was the ruck march. The 13.1-mile march is also known as a valor ruck. "The trek stopped at five memorial stations honoring Minnesota's heroes," the National Guard's recap of the competition noted. "The ruck march was not about endurance but a journey through sacrifice and service. In addition to learning about these heroes, competitors had a chance to experience what they went through." As a recruiter, Sass said he didn't have a lot of time to train for the competition, but regardless it gave him a chance to have some fun and connect with others. "I had the two Canadian Army Reserve soldiers in my group. Those guys were really awesome. ... They were a lot of fun to hang out with. They just had good hearts and a good spirit," Sass said. Another highlight for Sass was the chance to ride in a Black Hawk helicopter. "It was a lot of fun," he said. "I thought it was like riding a roller coaster." Army Staff Sgt. Mason Gumbiner, from Minnetonka, who serves as a cavalry scout with Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 94th Cavalry Regiment, was named the top noncommissioned officer, and Army Spc. Dan Whited, from Moose Lake, who serves as an infantry Soldier with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment, earned the title of top Soldier. Croatian Army Pfc. Kristofor Josip Jurjević, from Zadar, Croatia, who serves as a land forces reconnaissance Soldier was named the top international competitor. "You are part of a legacy that is the best warrior," Command Chief Master Sgt. Lisa Erikson, the command senior enlisted leader for the Minnesota National Guard, said. "It is one of excellence, resolve, mentorship, and continuous improvement. Be immensely proud of what you have accomplished over the past four days." While he didn't win the competition, Sass said he had a lot of fun. "It was really nice to get a chance to do some cool Army stuff again," he said.
