Minneapolis claimed that an emergency vehicle’s entrance into the autonomous zone was badly delayed due to an improvised blockade.
A George Floyd autonomous zone in Minneapolis is blocked off by barricades & checkpoints. A business owner within zone was violently beaten unconcious by a man who demanded money. Responding police & ambulance were stopped by aggressive protesters. #BLM https://t.co/8FJduWFC50 pic.twitter.com/yKCwgaRRac
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 18, 2020
Local resident groups categorically deny this.
As crime in Minneapolis continues to spiral out of control and police resources have been made scarce due to recent budget cuts, police say they are facing a new problem:
According to a local ABC news channel, surveillance video (shown below) shows a man being assaulted within the four block area behind barricades, commonly referred to as an “autonomous zone,” around the area where George Floyd died in police custody back in May.
Beleaguered Minneapolis police have gone so far as to release a letter giving advice on how to avoid being the victim of robbings and carjackings, since these incidents have skyrocketed recently.
An MPD report on the indecent, which has come to light, stated the following: “The crowd from the George Floyd Memorial began moving toward us and people were hollering that they were going to kick our asses and that we would have to kill them.”
The zone in question is in fact barricaded (as is clearly shown in the videos) and runs from 37th to 39th streets and encompasses Elliot, Chicago and Columbus Avenues, centered around the George Floyd memorial.
An unidentified spokesperson for the City of Minneapolis stated, that “There is no autonomous zone in the area of 38th and Chicago Avenue, or anywhere else in the City of Minneapolis. Laws and enforcement responsibilities have not changed for any part of the city,” perhaps referring strictly to the legal technicalities of the present situation.
The mayor has not commented on this incident yet.
