Community Members Respond To Wednesday Night's Riots In Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Wednesday night's unrest is a familiar feeling for the Twin Cities. People are still on edge after the death of George Floyd and the days that followed just three months ago. And now, last night's destruction is causing emotional and physical pain.
Restaurants and stores were trashed, so was the CVS at Franklin Avenue and Nicollet Avenue. That is where Victoria Washington desperately needed to go Thursday morning.
"I'm trying to get in there because I'm a cancer survivor, trying to get my meds before going into surgery. I'm in very crucial pain, very crucial pain and I'm suffering from this," Washington said. "This is my second time around for this store to be closed because of the looting."
When reflecting on Wednesday night's destruction, Victoria Washington quoted Congressman John Lewis, "Make good trouble not bad trouble."
No doubt it was a night of complicated emotions. Alicia D. Smith is Executive Director of the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization.
"There was a lack of trust in the two communities, which resulted in the energies of anger and frustration in our people of the world coming out last night," Smith said.
Smith and other neighborhood leaders came to Nicollet to try and brainstorm new ways towards long-awaited healing.
"Day in day out whether we are dealing with Black bodies dropping internally in our community or we are dealing with bodies shot by the system, every day it's something, we are in a perpetual state of trauma," Smith added.
Pain, Victoria Washington knows is very real, and healing – needed. She just asks that others aren't hurt in the process.
"Just have respect that there are people relying on these places, that you are tearing down," Washington added. March in peace, March in peace."
Some well-known peace activists also talked with WCCO about what unfolded Wednesday night.
"We talked with several activists who say riots and looting take away from important work they are doing toward police reform and reconciliation," Peace activist Kay G. Wilson said.
Lisa Clemons, a former officer and founder of "A Mother's Love said, "There people in the community who just want to see messiness but then there's the rest of us in the community who really want to see change and we are willing to step up to the plate to make that happen."