With Minneapolis on edge, politicians and some advocates call for peaceful protest

On Tuesday night, Pam Costain was one of 22 Twin Cities residents trained on how to prevent a political protest from turning violent. 

By Wednesday afternoon, Costain found herself compelled to use what she learned. She stood at the intersection of 34th Street and Portland Avenue, and engaged with demonstrators after Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman, was fatally shot near that cross street by a federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

“What I did today was not everybody’s cup of tea. I had to keep people not focused too much on the police who were protecting the crime scene,” Costain said in a phone interview after leaving the scene. “I told them that the focus needs to be on ICE and not local law enforcement.”

“I had three women in my arms sobbing about what happened,” Costain said. 

But she also spoke with five different men who took umbrage at her unsolicited advice to peacefully assemble, describing the protesters as “amped up and really angry.”

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s stomach-churning tragedy, Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for peaceful protest. 

At a press conference, Frey declared, “ICE — Get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” but also counseled residents “to show up with peace to march and protest” and “hug one another.”

Walz, meanwhile, said that an unspecified number of state patrol troopers who specialize in crowd control would descend onto Minneapolis to help keep the peace. For now, the National Guard would not. 

Walz and Frey were in their respective perches when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. Neither wants the disorder visited upon swaths of the Twin Cities that followed Floyd’s killing, including the Minneapolis police department settling a lawsuit filed by the ACLU over 12 injured protesters. 

As Minnesotans reel from yet another high-profile gun death, here are a couple of things to know about how elected officials, and at least some advocates, are responding. 

Holding off on the Guard

Walz was criticized by some for not bringing in the National Guard soon enough after Floyd’s death, and the issue dogged him into his vice-presidential campaign. 

On Wednesday a subdued Walz — he announced he would step down at the end of his gubernatorial term earlier this week — told reporters that the 13,000 Minnesota National Guard members received a “warning order” to prepare for possible deployment but nothing beyond that. 

The Walz administration’s message seemed to be that they would give Minnesotans a chance to peacefully respond to Good’s death before taking extensive action. 

At a Walz press conference, Bob Jacobson, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, fastidiously laid out what a peaceful response might look like.

“Demonstrators must remain safe and lawful, particularly around roadways,” Jacobson said, giving examples from walking across highways to shooting off illegal fireworks to damaging a property with graffiti as instances that could result in a fine or arrest. 

Channeling emotions through protest

Frey was not subdued. But the mayor — who began serving his third term on Monday — said violent protest would “take the bait” from a Donald Trump administration hungry for escalation.

“The federal government — to be clear — wanted us to respond in a way that creates a military occupation throughout the city,” Frey said. 

Other public officials including state Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, and Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, also urged a nonviolent response.

“I offer my condolences to the family grieving the loss of a loved one and urge everyone to step back, de-escalate, and let investigators fully examine the facts of what occurred,” Johnson said in a statement.