Operation Safety Net, massive Chauvin trial security task force, will conclude this week (original) (raw)

Minnesota State Patrol and National Guard leaders on Wednesday said that troopers and soldiers will return home later this week following the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and a peaceful night of celebrations around the Twin Cities.

A Hennepin County jury on Tuesday found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the May 25 killing of George Floyd.

Bystander and police body-camera footage of the arrest showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9.5 minutes as Floyd pleaded for air outside the corner market where he was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin and three other Minneapolis officers who struggled with Floyd were quickly fired and charged.

Ahead of Chauvin’s trial, state and local law enforcement agencies readied thousands of officers and National Guard soldiers and airmen to intervene in the event of rioting or looting in the Twin Cities. Widespread looting and arson fires took place in Minneapolis and St. Paul in late May following Floyd’s death, resulting in more than $500 million in damage to some 1,500 buildings.

“Operation Safety Net” resources were also deployed after the April 11 police killing of Daunte Wright sparked more limited civil unrest in Brooklyn Center and led to a security cordon around the city’s police headquarters. Also Wednesday, Brooklyn Center’s mayor lifted a citywide curfew order, citing continued calm in the community.

Chauvin’s guilty verdict sparked celebrations Tuesday evening, and law enforcement officials who oversaw Operation Safety Net said they were preparing to scale down police presence in the area.

“The goals of Operation Safety Net were met, which were to ensure we didn’t have massive property destruction and chaos in our streets,” Assistant Department of Public Safety Commissioner Booker Hodges said. “And we have to thank for that our citizens of our great state and those who came here to express their First Amendment rights.”

Fencing and other barriers around state, county and city buildings will also start to come down in the coming days, as the law enforcement operation moves to its next phase. Those barriers could return later this summer as Chauvin returns to court for his sentencing hearing and the other three officers charged in Floyd’s death face trial.

State Patrol Col. Matt Langer and National Guard Adj. Gen. Shawn Manke said their forces were demobilizing in a “strategic way” and thousands of officers, soldiers and other law enforcement staff would be returning home in the coming days after deploying to Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“We’ll continue to ramp down and hopefully have all of our soldiers and airmen off this mission very shortly because, frankly, the need of the local law enforcement is no longer there,” Manke said.

Roughly 120 Nebraska and Ohio state troopers who came to Minnesota on Monday to help with law enforcement response had returned home or were planning their return travel, Langer said.

The law enforcement leaders thanked the Twin Cities community and demonstrators for keeping the peace amid the trial and said they hoped to learn from their experience should future court proceedings or incidents require a similar response, which some in the community had criticized as excessive.

“We knew that Minnesota could do this here,” Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said. “And you were a beacon of light to our country and across the globe.”