George Floyd Autonomous Zone Sees Violence and Death, Prompts a Desperate Op-Ed From Residents

As I relayed on the 11th, the Minneapolis area made into a makeshift memorial to George Floyd has gone the way of Seattle.

A recent video showed a News Nation journalist threatened by a duo in black from within the new anti-cop autonomous zone:

The George Floyd memorial is an "autonomous zone" with several blocks controlled by activists. Police don't even go in. We tried to respectfully get video-but left after two people confronted us near the barricades.
Later learned many protestors don't even feel comfortable there. pic.twitter.com/5w32fxQ0hR

— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) March 10, 2021

And as covered by RedState’s Nick Arama, a killing recently occurred:

On Saturday, a man was shot in the zone, near the square, and he later died at the hospital. There was a report of a second victim but he was not found.

…

[W]hen the police responded to the site, they were initially met with resistance by the BLM folks guarding the autonomous zone, according to the Star Tribune.

“That’s upsetting to the neighbors who actually live there,” Nick noted.

And now, some residents have sent out a desperate plea — in the form of a Star Tribune op-ed.

“As neighbors of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, also known as George Floyd Square or the autonomous zone,” Monica Nilsson writes, “we are witnessing a revolution by day and a devolution by night.”

Prayer meetings and rallies have been canceled.

“As for visitors showing up with flowers, they “retreat to their cars when greeted by the sound of gunshots.”

Neighbors and their children are ducking for cover, she says.

Monica recounts incidents from just the last 10 days on one block:

March 6, 5:45 p.m.: A 30-year-old volunteer is killed in the zone by gunshot. People in the zone are seen picking up shell casings and throwing them into city garbage, loading the gunshot victim into a car to drive him to hospital.

8:20 p.m.: Neighbors call 911 again as multiple shots ring out. Children listen.

March 7: Six garages along our alley are hit by gunfire, one with its owner inside. A car crashes through a fence into a family’s backyard. An 18-month-old had been playing by the fence minutes earlier.

5 p.m.: Thirty shots hit cars and the windows and siding of at least one house, narrowly missing residents watching TV. Parents and children out biking and walking on a sunny day duck behind houses, children watch bullets kicking up dust in the street. A zone leader visits a bullet-riddled house to comfort the family while others from the zone are observed picking up shell casings behind her.

For March 8th alone, the writer lists four incidents — including the spotting of a man atop a building with a rifle on a tripod.

At 9:50 p.m., she recounts, thirty shots rang out.

March 12, 10:20 p.m.: another thirty shots.

The residents are desperate for salvation from city leaders:

We live here because we love our neighbors. We know that it is good for all of us to be a part of something larger than ourselves. We want to live in a community with people of different races, life experiences and faiths. The beautiful thing about Minneapolis, the economic driver of Minnesota, is its desire to fight all that has dispirited us, not freeze or flee in the face of it.

But we are also watching neighbors move: 20% in the last year, another 20% preparing. 38th and Chicago is not the only under-resourced part of the city. We recognize that children in north Minneapolis have spent decades listening, watching, crying, questioning, trying to sleep.

We will join our neighbors to the north, Don and Sondra Samuels, who last week organized Healing Our City, a virtual prayer tent. Because prayers are needed.

The City Council’s made some interesting moves.

Last June, it voted to replace the police with “a community-led public safety system.”

This is dangerous.

Socialist Seattle Councilmember Tammy Morales defending the weekend violence, telling her comrades on the Council:

"I don't want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told looting doesn't solve anything." pic.twitter.com/NVUBfYVrwS

— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 2, 2020

Meanwhile, council members got personal security:

Minneapolis Council members get private security after threats https://t.co/ZfCLUcLjvF

— FOX 9 (@FOX9) June 27, 2020

Amid a crime surge, in September, Minneapolis resident Lisa Cruz begged the city:

“Come here. Meet with us. Face us. Stay here for a weekend. For the love of God, just come here and say something to us — the people that are freaking voting for you and depend on you to take care of us! Where are you? Show your face to us. Do something. Don’t just sit there and let your city go down to the ruins! Do something for us!”

It doesn’t seem help has worked its magic.

Back to the autonomous zone, it sounds as if Monica isn’t holding much hope: