Transcripts For CSPAN Minnesota Gov. Walz Holds News Conference 20240712

And unrest happening in minneapolis in response to the death of mr. Floyd. Gov. Walz good morning, everyone. This has been the most difficult week in minnesota in recent history and maybe in our entire history. Our community, especially our black community, is hurting beyond words. Minneapolis and st. Paul are on fire. The fires are still smoldering in our streets. The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish, much like we failed unheard, much like we failed to hear george floyd as he pleaded for his life as the world watched by people sworn to protect him, his community, our state. Philando castile, silenced, unheard, so many other friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers senselessly died in our street. And now generations of pain is manifesting itself in front of the world, and the world is watching. One of the first people i called after seeing the video was valerie castile, philandos mother. We have become friends since the killing of philando. For those watching today who are not familiar, philando died in front of his loved one and his child and left them behind and the grieving mother who has become an advocate for justice, for reform, but more importantly an advocate for kindness and decency. When i talked to valery, she said first and foremost seek justice, seek fairness and reach out and show kindness. Visceral pain, a community trying to understand who we are and where we go from here. Im joined today by attorney general ellison, by Major General john jensen, colonel linger of the Minnesota State patrol and commissioner john harrington. I spoke this morning with reverend jackson who much like valerie said a prayer for our state. Said a prayer for those grieving, said a prayer for peace, then also said something very important. This is the moment where we start, but every time we get to this place, we never start the process to make sure it doesnt happen again. And that commitment amongst leaders in our community, watching this happen across the united states, watching another name be added, and for those of us old enough, to rodney king, to mike brown and no george now george floyd. The situation on the ground doesnt allow us at this time to tackle those issues. The very efforts in our community, our libraries, businesses, those nonprofits and government entities, our light rail system, are all shut down from this. We have to restore order to our society before we can start addressing the issues. Before we turn back to where we should be spending our energy, making sure that justice is served, justice is served swiftly and the we learn something from what george floyd gave on monday. Now i want to just be very clear. I am going to have the team talk about what transitioned last night when the state assumed responsibility over the security of the third precinct, the state secured critical assets and where the plan Going Forward to ensure tonight our buildings do not burn, our citizens are secure, and that space that we are going to create allows us to get back to the conversation of serving justice and making sure that we are not adding to that list of unheard names. I want to be very clear and speak to that community. The very tools that we need to use to get control, to make sure that buildings are not burned and the rule of law collapses are those very institutional tools that have led to that grief and pain. I understand clearly there is no trust in many of our communities. And the differentiation between the Minneapolis Police department that we witnessed losing trust of those they are there to serve is very difficult for people to make for those standing up here with me. I understand that. I will not patronize you as a white man without living those lived experiences of how difficult that is. But im asking you to help us. Help us use a humane way to get the streets to a place where we can restore the justice so that those that are expressing rage and anger and demanding justice are heard. Not those who throw firebombs into businesses that our community of colors have worked so hard to build back up areas that were blighted at one time and are thriving because of and theirepreneurship hard work. A library in an area where our children, as we know, are institutionally put behind and the achievement gap for our community of color is a shame on this state, that we continue to talk about and dont repair it. The tools to help with that burned last night. I want to just call out very, very clearly as we put our presence on the street to restore order, it is to open that space, to seek justice, and heal what happened. I will not in any way not acknowledge that there is going to be that pain. But my first and foremost responsibility to the state of minnesota is the safety and security of all citizens. We cannot have the looting and the recklessness that went on. We cannot have it because we cannot function as a society. And i refuse to have it take away the attention of the stain that we need to be working on is what happened with those fundamental institutional racism that allows a man to be held down in broad daylight, and thank god a young person had a camera to video it. Because theres not a person here or listening today that wonders how many times that camera is not there. These are tough questions. These are things that have been brewing in this country for 400 years. We have people out there putting themselves on the line to try to put out fires and our firefighters that are under attack. Those are the things i am asking you. Help me restore that order. We will do that under state leadership and state guidance. You will hear directly of them of once that decision is made, and that First Mission was executed around 3 45 at the third precinct, we will see a difference. So im asking you and you will hear from them to talk about this. I also want to think about what happens when we dont have that. People who are concerned about police presence, of an overly armed camp in their neighborhoods that is not seen in communities where children of people who look like me run to the police, others have to run from. So i understand that that is out there. But last night i got a call from a friend and a dedicated public servant. Senator torres rey called, from her district and it was on fire. There werent any police there. There were not any firefighters. There was no social control. And her constituents were locked in their house wondering what they were going to do. That is an abject failure that cannot happen. We must restore order to that. Senator torres reyes fought her whole life on these issues of inequities and making sure that peoples voices are lifted up. What she understands is none of us can lift those voices. None of us can tackle those problems if anarchy reigns on the street. I also want to address an issue and this one is on me and i will own it. Earlier this morning when this mission was carried out, under my direction to resecure the third precinct, to do so in a manner of which i am proud of how it was executed by the team, no injuries and no lossoflife, a reestablishment to put the fires out for those business, a cnn reporter and crew was arrested by the state patrol. A few minutes after hearing that, i was on a call with cnn president jeff zucker who demanded to know what happened. I take full responsibility. There is absolutely no reason Something Like that should happen. Calls were made immediately. This is a very public apology to that team. It should not happen. I want to be clear for those of you listening. I think our minnesota reporters know this. Im a teacher by trade and i have spent my time as governor highlighting the need to be as transparent as possible and have the press here. I failed you last night in that. And it does not escape me that we are here on the catalyst that lit this spark by what happened with the police detainment of george floyd and the idea that a reporter would have been taken while another Police Action was in play is inexcusable. So to cnn, to the cnn team, to the journalists here, this is about having a plan. That is what these folks are going to talk about. This is about having an aggressive approach to understanding what the community needs. To not coming in heavyhanded with them, but to create space where the story can be told. In a situation like this, even if you are clearing an area, we have got to ensure there is a safe spot for journalism to tell the story. The issue here is trust. The community that is down there that is terrorized by this, if they see a reporter being arrested, their assumption is something is going to happen that they dont want to be seen. That is unacceptable. We will continue to strive to make sure that that accessibility is maintained. That not only that, the protection, security and safety of the journalists covering this is a top priority. Not because it is a nice thing to do. Because it is a key component of how we fix this. Sunshine, disinfectant and seeing what is happening has to be done. So again i appreciate president zuckers call. I appreciate his understanding in a situation that he was rightfully, incredibly angry. And that falls squarely on me. That apology has been issued. And i think Going Forward to make sure it doesnt happen again. It is time for us to clean our streets. It is time for us to execute today in a way that shows respect and dignity to communities. Im going to ask for a lot of help today of those folks who want to see it. It is my expectation that justice for the officers involved in this will be swift. That it will come in a timely manner. That it will be fair. That is what we have asked for. I have been in contact with the county attorney. And i am confident that those very things i just said will happen. We will continue at the bca to do a fair, a full, and swift gathering of all of the evidence involved. But i would reiterate again for so many of us, not all of that is done in every other case where all that evidence is gathered before. I would ask that the swift justice be carried out. So minnesotans, your pain is real. The chapter that has been written this week is one of our darkest chapters. And we can choose a few things. We can choose to try and get past this. We can choose to put a force out there and stop things from happening. We can hope that in the midst of covid19 it passes by. And we dont have to turn that mirror to look at the harsh reality of those underlying gaps, whether it be health care disparities, whether it be educational disparities in our communities of color, whether it be policing disparities in our communities of color, whether it ourealth acquisition in communities of color, they are all very real. We pride ourselves on a state of openness. We pride ourselves on a state of being friendly. I have talked a lot about one minnesota. That was not on display last night. I dont naively think everything heals, and you come to the forefront, and you say it will be better. This is a community that demands and should expect more than words. They should expect results. Lieutenant governor flanigan and i have tried to make equity the center of everything we have done. But obviously in minneapolis on monday night, there was not a lot of equity for george floyd. His family is probably wondering where the one minnesota is for them. And that is on us, us as minnesotans. Us as the governor and the team that works with me to put the things in order to establish order in our streets, to establish and rebuild trust in our communities, to lift those voices up to be heard, not pleading for their lives, but demanding the changes necessary so no one else is put into that position. So i would like at this time to turn it over to minnesotas attorney general keith ellison. A. G. Ellison governor, thank you. Martin luther king said many years ago that riot is the way that the unheard get heard. He did not condone it, but he said to the nation as a person who always protested peacefully, that dont just dismiss that and ignore it and relegate it to just criminality and bad behavior. Actually ask yourself what is going on there . And is it something that we as a society absolutely must Pay Attention to . I think we must Pay Attention to it. I would like everyone to recognize the fact that the National Guard just a week ago was administering covid19 tests to help people. To help people. The presence you see on the streets, dont react to them the way you might react to the Minneapolis Police department. It is not the same group. They have different leadership, different authority. And their job is to try to bring peace and calm back again. Please remember that this is not the group that you associate with unfair conduct. But it is a group that in fact just a week ago was trying to make sure minnesotans could survive and thrive and live because we are still in the middle of a pandemic. It is that sense of service, when they get involved, when it comes to natural disasters, storms, floods, rain, diseases, now they have to restore order on the streets. Force. It is making sure everybody can operate peacefully. So please accept it as that. Im asking it of our community. Everybody keeps asking the question, when . When . When . When . When . This is a perfectly legitimate question. It is important to know that under minnesotas statutes, the primary jurisdiction for criminal prosecution is with the county attorney in which the offense occurred. And i believe that the message has been sent and received that the wheels of justice must turn swiftly. Not unjustly, expeditiously, thoroughly, fairly, swiftly. It is important that people have confidence that accountability , no matter who you may be, is how we live in minnesota. Let me also say that this prosecution, this investigation, this criminal process is important, and it is, and the whole country and the whole world is looking at it, cannot solve the problem. As the governor so eloquently said, events like this start and they come to a conclusion, but we never start the process of real reform. I will submit to you that myself and commissioner harrington, under the leadership of the governor, have already started a process on the working group on preventing and reducing Deadly Force Encounters with the police. We have a report that we want attention from the legislature and the entire community on, to focus on that so that we could really get to the bottom of this when it comes to issues of use of force, when it comes to officer wellness, when it comes to community feeling, training issues, all kinds of things to bear on this issue. And it is not just those things. We believe i believe the real work of our working group is the implementation of this. And that really begins in earnest now. And is more important now i think than ever. So i just want to, as i conclude my remarks, i want to say that we have to have the situation where lake street, a precious jewel of our state, is a place where minnesotans can walk again. Where businesses can be safe again. But i want to conclude that if the message was, this situation with with mr. Floyd is intolerable, absolutely unacceptable, it must change, that message has been sent and received as well. And the governor, myself, the lieutenant governor, all of us are committed to that longterm change. I could tell you i spoke with many legislators who feel the same way. People in the Philanthropic Community feel the same way. I think we are going to do some real changing. We are not just going to fix the windows and sweep up the grass. We are going to fix the broken shattered society that leaves so , many people behind based on their historical legacy of being in bondage and servitude, then secondclass citizenship, and now fraught with disparities from conservation to housing to wages and everything else. With that i want to hand it over to general jensen, Major General jensen who will further elaborate. Thank you very much. Maj. Gen. Jensen good morning. I am Major General john jensen, general of thent Minnesota Army National Guard. I have been the adjutant general since november 17. What i will describe this morning very quickly is the actions of the minnesota National Guard since we were mobilized under the governor walzs executive order. Like many minnesotans i woke up yesterday morning to the news that the minneapolis mayor had requested National Guard support. The only difference was i opened up my phone and there was a text from commissioner harrington. It wasnt the newspaper or the morning news that notified me of that. So immediately yesterday morning made contact with the commissioner. And we began planning on the potential deployment of the minnesota National Guard in support of minneapolis. For those of you that may not understand how Emergency Management works in minnesota, i am just going to take a quick moment and explain it. In minnesota Emergency Management coordinators with the cities of minutes minneapolis, st. Paul and dilute outh may request National Guard support through the state e. O. C. So in accordance with that, the minneapolis mayor made that request of the minnesota National Guard, which traditionally comes with the request is the layout of the capability needed and exactly the problem that is trying to be solved. Typically the request for the guard and that type of information comes the same time. Sometimes it lags. So when it lags, what we do is we begin preparing for an unknown mission. But in this case we sort of knew what we might be doing as it related to civil disturbance in minneapolis. It is very important we know exactly what we are being asked to do so we make sure we have the right equipment. We mobilize the right number of soldiers, and the right number of soldiers and airmen who will support those soldiers that are going to conduct the mission. That element was lacking. But with the governors decision to allow me to continue to plan, we began notifying soldiers early yesterday morning of a pending mission. Once we notified our soldiers, again with the governors verbal approval, we began mustering our soldiers and moving them into the metro area, knowing that the most likely probability of deployment was going to be minneapolis. As we met as a senior team yesterday afternoon, the one topic that continued to be discussed was the lack of clarity and the lack of a mission and a description of what exactly the minnesota National Guard needed to do. My concern to the governor was twofold. One, i didnt know what special equipment i might need to accomplish the mission. And two, i was very concerned about being asked to move to an unfamiliar area of minneapolis under the cover of darkness. I wanted to get out when it was still daylight, where my soldiers and my airmen could become familiar with the terrain and familiar with their mission. We never got such mission assignment. We never got such mission description. Yesterday, we performed four missions in support of the governors executive order. The First Mission came from the governor directly. That came when we were notified of an immediate and pending threat to the state capital. My immediate advice to the governor was to assign that mission to the minnesota National Guard. And he agreed. With one caveat, and that is the state patrol also wanted to support that mission. In cooperation with the state patrol, we began that mission. The second and Third Mission came together. It came from st. Paul, specifically it was to provide security to the Ramsey County Law Enforcement center and the Minnesota Bureau of criminal apprehension. The key part of that security was to ensure that st. Paul Police Officers were not required to secure those facilities. They were therefore relieved of that duty and able to respond throughout the city of st. Paul throughout the day. And then the last mission we did receive yesterday evening was an Escort Mission for the Minneapolis Fire Department. The concept of the operation is that we would move, link up with the Minneapolis Police department and as they went into unsecure and dangerous areas that we would secure the area so they could perform their lifesaving and property saving missions. And we continued to do those missions through the evening. As the governor indicated, a quarter after midnight this morning, the governor authorized a law and Order Mission into the third precinct, what we would call in the military a clear and security mission. So under the leadership of the state patrol, and the department of Public Safety, the minnesota National Guard was assigned a task and a mission in support of the state patrol. We would follow the state patrol and we would help secure the area that they cleared. Our soldiers remained in that area, as i speak now, still on that mission, still securing that location. So people and mdot can come in and begin the cleanup of that area. Now we also picked up one other mission with the city of minneapolis. I will not cover the exact details, but it is ongoing right now with the Minneapolis Police department. I am very proud of the relationship of the minnesota National Guard and the Minneapolis Police department that goes back to super bowl 52. The chief and i worked together during that super bowl. So we have had opportunities to serve together, and i have a lot of respect for him. We will continue to operate in minneapolis until such time the governor relieves us of that mission, and we will do so in support of the department of Public Safety and the Minnesota State patrol. So that is just a little bit of background of what the minnesota National Guard did since yesterday morning when we first were notified of a possible deployment, through the deployment and through our mission set last night and early this morning. My recommendation this morning to the governor was that i continue to do the state capital mission, and that i continue to do the mission in support of the Minneapolis Fire Department. I believe both of those are very critical missions, both to the state and to minneapolis. And then we will conduct follow on missions again to the Minnesota State patrol and the department of Public Safety. At this time i would like to introduce the commissioner of the department of Public Safety, commissioner john harrington. Mr. Harrington good morning. My name is john harrington. I am the commissioner of the department of Public Safety. Governor walz tasked me to prepare options and capacities and capabilities to respond to the civil unrest protests, but more importantly and really more directly, to the unlawful behavior of the arsonists, the thieves, the burglars, the vandals who were tearing apart the city of minneapolis. I want to make it clear that that is i think a clear line of demarcation that we were operating under, because it is fundamental to the department of Public Safety. It is fundamental to the state patrol that we take an oath to support the constitution, and that we believe our work is absolutely essential to allow everyones First Amendment right to have their voices heard. We were not deployed, and we have not been deployed, and we will not be deployed to stifle free speech. But we will not and can not allow unlawful, dangerous behavior to continue. Im particularly proud of our relationship with both the minnesota National Guard and the department of Natural Resources and colonel leahy from the department of Public Safety and the Minnesota State patrol. We called and they came. And literally, it was that it doesnt make it much more complicated than that. Im going to need you here in the city, and i may need you for two or three days or may need you longer than that, and i can t tell you what i may need you to do yet, but i know i need you and they came. They began preparing readiness to be able to move folks from all over the state of minnesota, literally from miles and miles away to come to the metro area to be prepared to help us keep the peace. Over the course of the day, i met with my counterparts in minneapolis and st. Paul to talk about what missions they needed the state to help them fulfill. The department of Public Safety, at that point, was calling to say we are here to support you. We are your partners. Tell us what you need, and we will backfill, we will fill in the gaps and tell us the resources. And we will help you get it. And we did get some very specific missions and in other cases we got no real mission at all. In the absence of a real mission, we began to identify where the critical needs were. We tasked the state patrol, we tasked dnr, we tasked the minnesota National Guard to do specific missions we needed them to do. We also tasked them to be flexible because if things continue to evolve, we might need to pivot, and we might need to shift from a static post of guarding Critical Infrastructure to a fastmoving operational approach of restoring order. About midnight last night, i was party to a call where that pivot had to be made, where the mayor of minneapolis called and said, they had no more resources, and they were not able to meet the Public Safety needs and control the behaviors that were occurring on lake street. They had lost the 3rd precinct and was concerned about a gas main, and there was concerns about continued looting and fires burning while the city of minneapolis, and different from our first night, had comparable concerns of looting and fires being set in the city of st. Paul, so we had to divide our resources to meet the needs of both of the twin cities. The task the governor gave me was Pretty Simple actually. Because it was to hold together a team that could go in and keep the peace, protect people. Protect them, protect their safety, protect their lives, protect their liberty. And to protect property that was being burned up literally every minute that we delayed. Then the county sheriff was one of my first calls. Sheriff hutchinson immediately moved into action to give us support. We already had dnr. We already had state patrol, minnesota National Guard. We had not tasked them with what we needed to do yet. We created a plan. The police chief offered support. The chief of police for metro transit offered support. And with that came together, we ballparkher a 250 catchall team to go in and restore order on lake street. We created a mission. It was very specific. Im a missiondriven person. We talked about the fact that we were going to be respectful of peoples rights, that we were going to keep the peace and make people safe, and the we were going to follow our training and protocols by making a public announcement that they need to clear the streets. They didnt clear the streets, arrests were imminent. We made those announcements repeatedly so no one would be confused about our intent or what we were there to do, and we began to move to clear the streets. I will tell you that the vast majority of the great people of minnesota and the great people of minneapolis who are, who are still having their guts ripped out about the floyd murder, and we will call it a murderer. Thats what it looked like to me. I dont want to prejudice this from a criminal perspective. Im calling it as i see it that point. They werent the people out there on the streets at 3 00 in the morning when we arrived. The people that were out there in the street in 3 00 morning were not the good people of minnesota, the good people of minneapolis. They werent the people that wanted to mourn the loss of a friend, a relative and a neighbor. And then they saw the National Guard, Minnesota State patrol and this cadre this team moving , down the street, the vast majority of them did what we thought they would do. They left. There were a few that decided not to leave. That was a choice that they get to make, but we had advised them what that choice would result in, and we took action to respectfully and carefully take folks into custody as was necessary. And it was a very limited and very structured and extremely disciplined approach in making those arrests. We are very proud of the fact that despite what you have seen over the last few days of gas and canisters and foggers, almost no chemical agent was necessary to be used last night. We did it the oldfashioned way. Command presence, a uniformed presence, and a clear intent to keep the peace, restore order and to keep people safe. My task today is a little different. Having accomplished that mission and i think we have secured those streets, and i appreciate the fact that i have National Guard folks Still Holding that ground that we took last night. We need to keep that ground, and we need to prepare for what may come today. Our task today is we are bringing together a unified command of metro Police Departments, sheriffs departments and other Law Enforcement jurisdictions and other Public Safety entities into a multiagency command center, where we will create a plan that will keep the peace, maintain the peace and prevent further lawless behavior in the city of minneapolis, in the city of st. Paul, and surrounding suburbs. We are going to do this the right way. We are going to do it with full knowledge that our oath is to serve the state of minnesota, to serve the communities and to protect them. We are fully confident that we can do that mission, and that we can do it while still ensuring that the Constitutional Rights of those who need to have their voices heard and who need to freely assemble can be protected. I can tell you that no one could have heard mr. Lloyds voice in the chaos of the screaming, and the shouting and the fires at 1 00 in the morning on lake street. My job is to make sure that tonight, that the community is safe, and that our team is ready and prepared to keep it safe. With that, i am very pleased to introduce the colonel of the Minnesota State patrol. Colonel matt langer. Langer thank you, commissioner. My name is matt langer and i have the honor of serving as the chief of the Minnesota State patrol. As it pertains to the city of minneapolis this week, thinking about what to say this week and difficult is the first word that comes to mind and doesnt seem to represent everything that has occurred, but it represents the challenges Minnesota State patrol has faced the last couple of nights as we have worked hard to combat the lawlessness, the dangerous behavior and the criminal activity that has occurred both in the city of minneapolis and in other places. I speak specifically to last night. As you heard shortly after midnight between midnight and , 1 00 a. M. , the governor asked the state patrol to quell the unrest that was occurring in and around the 3rd precinct. There are many challenges in that area. One of the many challenges is there were fires set, and the Minneapolis Fire Department was and they get there were extinguished those fires because they were shelved by those who were demonstrating. But the commissioner explained we assembled a team of transit pdn county Sheriffs Office and National Guard and we assembled that team quickly, swiftly and strategically and we descended into the city of minneapolis with one goal in mind, to safely and quickly as possible recover the ground that had been lost to lawless activity and make it safe again and then restore order in the area, to get it presentable so that we could move into the future tonight and beyond with a much different picture of what it means to be a resident, citizen and your ability to demonstrate peacefully. Thats a mission we took on and thats what we did overnight. It was difficult and dangerous work for everyone involved. The people that are demonstrating, those caught in the middle of the demonstration without the desire to demonstrate and the First Responders that are there trying to do good work. We had people that suffered minor injuries. Im thankful. They stayed on the line and continued their good work because we needed every single one of them to do this job. We remain ready with the National Guard, doing our best to hold that ground well and making sure we restore order, clean that spot up and better than it was before and continue our efforts to make sure that Public Safety is of paramount concern as we move forward both tonight and into the future and Work Together to restore order across the entire city of minneapolis. Just as a side note we had a , couple of missions across other places, our responsibility at the State Capitol ap the city and the city of st. Paul on things occurring on university avenue. Mobile Response Team assets. One thing i note, we have troopers in the metropolitan area from all across the state of minnesota. It was an opportunity we afforded them to make staffing boost that is within the purview of the executive branch and state patrol to do on very short notice. Those officers that responded from all across the state of minnesota come for an unknown period of time and work hard to make minnesota what it should be a safe place for everybody. Thank you. Gov. Walz i would note before we take questions, and we will try to take every one or as many as you have i would note to the , reporters here in minnesota, it was about three weeks ago i stood in front of you and passed 500 deaths by covid19 and said on the 29th of may, we would pass 1,000 and that will happen today. We believe again numbers are down. I. C. U. Bed capacity is stable, and we are doing everything we can, and as you heard from the folks speaking, the vast majority of people who are out there expressing their First Amendment rights and the rage about what happened to george floyd, were Wearing Masks and doing their best. Before i go to questions, the desire to get back to normal is so overwhelming for everyone and so many have said what else can happen . We have witnessed this. But i think it is an important time to pause about this. The problem is so many of us, thinking that normal is where we want to go. Normal was not working for many communities. Normal was not working for george floyd precovid19, its certainly not working right now. As you heard the attorney general talk about, that work that we are trying to look at to use this as a point and not just rhetorically, but a point to make changes. Mary, we will start. [indiscernible] public . Bout the the public did not see you, here you, you did not address gov. Walz i dont think it is important to be on tv. You expected me to do we were in a support role as state law shows. Once it became important that the city of neapolis would not be able to complete that, i was directing the state to take that over. This is my responsibility. [indiscernible] thinkalz i think if you i didnt, that is the case as a reporter. In the moment of as we were staying in the lane we were asked to support this and as it deteriorated, it was a total there was a decision we made to come in front of you at that time because that was the transition point. The state is the lead element now starting at 12 05 and those missions carried out. I will try to make myself as risk available as possible. The feedback i was watching and you were seeing and to be candid, when the third precinct was abandoned, it seemed at that point in time that was a time to move. [indiscernible] did you evacuate . Gov. Walz i stayed i have electronic tools. We were out all night and we were taking calls and adjusting. I was able to track as the situation unfolded and evolved. There was a dangerous task that i test the state patrol and National Guard to take it. Those of you watching it as the lawlessness was burning down the third precinct, that cant be allowed to happen. It did to time to it took time to plan this area plan this. [indiscernible] gov. Walz yeah i will let my , leadership come back up there. You are absolutely right. That speaks to itself that by shortly after 10 00, it , became apparent. The way this works is the mayors ask and take charge and let the folks come up here. I think the decision to make and not engage. I want to just be clear, there is philosophically an argument to be made that an armed presence on the ground in the midst of where we just had a Police Killing is seen as a catalyst. My point to that was we dont , need a catalyst, its already burning. And so this is trying to strike that balance. I am a total agreement with that. You will not see that tonight there will be no lack of leadership and no lack of response on the table. Should there have been [indiscernible] gov. Walz i would ask ill answer this. Potentially. But the decision on that as its made from the city, and on this i would agree with them, we saw one the first night, decisions were made up until about 8 30 last evening, and it appeared that things were relatively peaceful on that. There was a decision whether you occupy the entire city and shut it down. In retrospect, im assuming yes. We would say that, but at the time, and again would it have simply started that movement faster and would we have seen it moved out of the third precinct . It is a valid critique and point. Yes. [indiscernible] gov. Walz the leadership of communities is led by local leadership and their police force. They were at that time had sources in reserve, they were not being requested. The reason we are standing here today is if this would have been executed correctly, the state would not have led on this. The state would have supported those and would have moved forward. That did not happen. So now today, we are taking that. We are making the decision to go and moving forward. I would go back to toms question, had we known we wouldnt see that or the capability to do it should the , state come in . I want to be clear with the exception of the state troopers who have a very specific statutory requirement on the highways, order is to the local police and sheriffs. We dont have a builtin police force. General jensen is not a police force. Dps has experts in there, but these are not the police force that are on their streets with their people. Thats a decision that was a made. It was in reserve and keeping in mind as this unfolded, the request came from st. Paul for the guard to be activated at 5 00. I had moved on a warning order earlier than that to be prepared. You are really supposed to wait until you get them and start moving them in. By 5 00 yesterday, our guard troops were coming from all over. They were getting activated and we were prepared to carry out those missions and they were there. As you heard, some of these folks say those missions never came. [indiscernible] gov. Walz i will let our folks talk. Yes. Yeah again, as it relates to Emergency Management in minnesota, county Emergency Management coordinators do exactly what you just asked. They define what they need and what they want and negotiated along with the agency they are asking for. Its not always the National Guard. In this case it is the National Guard. The reason why it is negotiated with the National Guard is to make sure we have the capability to do the mission thats being asked. So yes, we are always in support of the local leadership. The local civilian leadership. I have no authority to self deploy the minnesota National Guard anywhere in the state. I have no authority whatsoever. And so i follow exactly what you laid out. Civilian leadership, civilian elected officials make the request and then we work with them. If im not accomplishing their task and their mission, i risk failure of mission. I also risk the chance that i might break the law. Right . I cant just march my soldiers down into minneapolis and say this is what john jensen believes we need to do. Thats not how our Government Works and that is not how our military responds to the civilian leadership. What you asked that is exactly right, that is exactly how it is supposed to work. [indiscernible] gov. Walz i think that is a question you will have to ask mayor frey. [indiscernible] gov. Walz i think the commitment to hold the third was not one i felt comfortable with and not one we discussed during the day. The potential that the third precinct would not held, thats correct. [indiscernible] third precinct we are told they would be evaluating at some point especially what they thought [indiscernible] response if that happened, given what we saw last night . Gov. Walz the turning point where we were prepared, and thats where we moved in. We didnt believe that 3rd should be given up and starting and it is not, taken back starting at 12 15, executed about 3 40 a. M. I simply think that this, im like all of you watching it, you cant have civil order deteriorate, and then have to make a calculated decision about the force going in there escalate it does it stop it and , endanger civilians and those are the decisions you heard it is local Police Departments is how this works. We are not a police force, the state. We have abilities to come and backfill. The closest we have to a police force is the state patrol. But thats not their normal [indiscernible] dangerous, putting people at risk. Why allow this to get to that point . I understand gov. Walz [indiscernible] the force to be able to go. Again we are seeing it and there was no definitive answer and im seeing what you are seeing, there was still officers in the 3rd precinct until 9 00 or so, maybe 10 00. Certainly all those tools are there, and i think and if thats the planning stage right there and dont take these folks from what they are doing. Thats what is being done over the last 24 hours as we prepared for this. But once again, the order structure of this and many of these i have spent 24 years in the National Guard myself. I am very familiar with how these work. Im familiar with what general jensen is asking. They get their mission order. I made sure my troops were packing the proper equipment, go through the things we needed to do. Those never came in many cases. In different situations, we werent asked to help why is this situation [indiscernible] why not take proactive gov. Walz if we had seen two days ago, maybe yesterday. I will be the first to tell you that, in any of these things if , you are not secondguessing and you are not looking at the decisions, you are going about this all wrong. The lessons learned, potentially so. We have to count on our partners. And im not sure that quick moving group of anarchists that was moving so quickly. One of the things to prevent this from happening like at the , super bowl or the rnc, 18 months of planning went into that, 18 months of planning and prepositioning. 18 months of joint powers agreements 18 months of lining , up the materials that were there to make sure all those situations could be there. Once you lose control like that, im deeply concerned about the bad actors. I want to be very clear. We own this. We own this in minnesota. But there is certainly as people saw this unfold, the concern was how many people would make their way here that are simply in that business. Its a valid question. For me as i look at that. I have to operate in real space and realtime, and last evening was the second day we saw it, and from 8 30 or during the day until 8 30, we saw this in st. Paul and continued to ask. The state patrol was tasked on many of this. They did stop a lot of that along the target and some of those. That is what was being asked from them. But it happened from about 8 30 when the sun went down, when what i saw was the person breaching the barrier at the third and then the decision to pull back out. I need to make sure i get to everybody. Governor, it sounds like you were going to allow demonstrations and protests and stuff . These would be in violation of Standing Orders of no more than 10 people. Gov. Walz no, we are not allowing any of those. The absurdity in the middle of covid19, when we have worked so hard to keep people from congregating if you think you could this goes back to people agreeing to do this. I want to say this, watching what happened to george floyd [indiscernible] [please stand by] i am going out because this cant happen again. The idea that we would go in there and break up those expressions of grief and rage was ridiculous. The problem was not having expectation that a crowd that big over such a volatile issue, we have seen this happen in city after city whether it was ferguson, l. A. , we have seen these things. That is when we started planning, started asking. You are seeing holes in planting. That is sure as these things start to happen. Let dave finish up. What is the rules for the rest of the day and night . Gov. Walz we certainly, this is the plan that will be presented to me. We want to be prepared to present that to minnesotans by 2 00 or so. A lot of it will be the operational things you would expect to happen that were asked. They will be there, there will be a presence out on the quarters. We will start to do that. I will ask again, i need to ask minnesotans, those in pain and those who feel like justice has not been served yet, you need to help us create that space so justice will be served and my beectation that it will swift and that we are able to maintain that order. That plan will start to happen what we are trying to separate is the lawful First Amendment of citizens who need to express that from the folks who were clearly i am telling you what, the farthest thing from peoples on their minds is they are burning down a 3 00 a. M. Ed store at on lake street is george floyd, that is what we need to get. Reporter a question for you and one for the general. First of all, are you gov. Walz quite candidly, i do not think this is a secret to anybody, the tension between the Minneapolis Police department and many of their communities is pretty well known thing. I am certainly i do not know any way to express it other than they have lost faith in them and felt like they were part of the problem. Certainly, seeing a uniformed Police Officers knee on George Floyds neck on monday pretty the publicyou what is thinking toward that. I do not think you could think that was a mistake of who was leading that and how it changed the tone of what was there. I am concerned. I think it would be disingenuous. I know that this is painful. This is hard. There will be recriminations and going back and looking at this, as there should be. My top priority now is the immediate security to make sure that what happened in the last 48 hours does not happen tonight. The state has assumed that responsibility. I do not think it will be easy, because this whack a mole thing and these folks are really good at causing destruction, but the way we stop it is in able is enable these tools with the support of the public to make sure that we isolate these folks. Again, as the commissioner said, the idea that you think you can firebomb a building and not be arrested and spend serious time in jail, i understand that. But the idea that we do not want to make people who are out there still asking, what about george floyd . What happened to those people . What happened to the people who did this . That got lost in 48 hours of anarchy. Thats what we are going to put again. Reporter [inaudible] gov. Walz i do not know. I will use this as an opportunity again, as i said, i am apologetic that this happened. I understand the community would believe if this were targeted. As i told jeff zucker, the president of cnn, i do not care at this point what the circumstance was, why they got arrested. It is unacceptable and we needed to correct it. As far as others, who can answer . Reporter [inaudible] anybody that was charged was arrested . Gov. Walz yes, in st. Paul they have made arrests on burglary, arson charges. I know burglary, for sure. They have been arrested. I do not know if they have been charged yet. I think most of them were done in the last 24 hours. It is breaking into the grocery stores, the target, breaking into the walgreens, the pharmacies they have been decimated with the folks who were seeking opioids under the pharmacy stop. So we have been chasing that around. Weve been chasing the folks who were setting fires. There have been arrests made. Again . The number, i dont have that. I asked both of minneapolis, st. Paul and other folks that are part of our unified command to get me information by this morning, but i have not received it yet. I am hopeful to have numbers from the last 24 hours, and we will get it to you as soon as we can. Reporter i wanted to ask about your reaction to the president s tweet last night and what he said about minnesota. Gov. Walz i spoke with the president last evening. At that point in time, it was in the process of where i said we would assume control of this, that it was unnecessary. I did not know he was going to tweet. It is just not helpful. The city of minneapolis is doing everything they can. If mistakes are made and there is an accountability, we need to do that. But in the moment where we are at, in a moment so volatile that anything we do to add fuel to the fire is really challenging, so as i said, i spoke to the president. He pledged his support of anything we need in terms of supplies. There is a way to do this without inflaming. This one is so difficult, as i said, the tools of restoring order are viewed by so many as the things that have oppressed problem in thes first place. So it would be more helpful if we need help, we will ask, but at this point i am confident that the plan we have put together today to restore this order. Reporter looking at culture do you think [indiscernible] gov. Walz i think that the commissioner and attorney general, when we first came to office last year, this is one of the things we wanted. I said as a governor that the the nightmare scenario of having a Police Involved shooting they started working this. Well, thank you, governor. I think this is the time to talk about how we do meaningful deep dive reform. We took a year to grab in a number of people from diverse interests in the community, people from the community, the civil rights community, lawenforcement, Law Enforcement from across the state there. We met for about a year. We had professional assistance from the group that guided the 21st Century Policing process that president obama started. And we came up with a number of key recommendations. We will get that report to you. We hope that you write about it. But this supercharges the need for the effort. It was a few observations and a few recommendations. One observation is, a lot of the Deadly Force Encounters are not concentrated in the twin cities. In fact, a majority of them were in greater minnesota, although many were in the twin cities, half of them were people in a Mental Health crisis. We talk about officer wellness, officers dealing from crisis to crisis to crisis, being able to check in, get right before they go back and engage the public. We talked about changing and reviewing the use of force standard. We talked about making the sanctity of life an essential principle, which mayor hodges did when she was the mayor. We made duty to intervene. We are recommending that be essential. Meaning if you are a police officer, you see a fellow officer doing something wrong, you cannot just say, its not me. You have to do something about it. We came up with a number of other principles that i think a really helpful, very useful involving training, and a number of things. And i think that now there is a need to further the effort. I will say that i think that looking at systemic patterns and practice problems in Minneapolis Police department is an appropriate conversation at this time. I think that we need to really do some deep diving and make sure that our Law Enforcement professionals are really serving the public, the whole public. So i will say that i hope that our state Legislature Takes up some of the initiatives we have in there, that the Academic Community will take up some of it, training communities will take up some of it. One of the recommendations was a dual or joint response when there are chemical or Mental Health crises going on, so it is not just officers that do not have the training on how to deal with somebody in that situation. So that is a priority. And i will hand it to commissioner harrington. Commissioner harrington ok. The other point i will bring in is this group was based out of community. We brought in folks from a variety of different diverse and geographic communities. We brought in folks from the disability community, to make sure that all kinds of voices were heard. One of the voices i heard most clearly was the need for Community Healing and community health. And so one of the recommendations that we put forward, we still think it was important before, but i have never seen as acutely important as it is right now, for Community Healing. The question we asked, and i ask with you, how does a Community Recover when its heart has been ripped out . Reporter [inaudible] in question being held in custody during this . How could Something Like that happen . Commissioner harrington we are making sure we are following their guidance as we move forward in seeking criminal prosecution. Reporter [inaudible] we have heard that the last few days. Commissioner harrington we are in the middle of an ongoing investigation. I cannot speak to much more of that than past practices, in these cases, they work with the county attorney to make sure that they have checked all of the is and all the ts and making sure everything is in order before they make an arrest. And we have been following that protocol with mr. Freeman, the county attorney. We have history with county attorney freeman in terms of past cases. Some of them successful, some of them not successful, based on what your perspective is. Reporter [inaudible] commissioner harrington we are aware that there is a sentiment that is different. But from the point of view of have the pursuit of trying to find out, what are the facts that surround that, and being able to create enough probable cause or enough basis for a criminal charge. That is pretty much cop 101, and that is what we are working toward. Reporter [inaudible] gov. Walz absolutely. Reporter [indiscernible] gov. Walz i might need to listen to Law Enforcement on this one. These are great questions. My hope is, and again, hope is not a plan, but i think that what minnesotans understand, what is at stake here, getting back to the focus of george floyd and community issues, that tonight needs to be different. It must be different in the questions you are asking. We will use what we have. We will use the tools. I will ask john if he wants to answer. I think this is something that we still do not finish our work in the regular session. I think we are coming back on the 12th, probably, working with the legislature. I think there is a great desire to figure out how to do this. The tragedy of this, as i said, is a community that felt this tragedy. A community that believes that they were that this has happened to. I hear people sometimes say the system is broken, and communities of color will say the system is working fine for certain people, not us. I think we need to take a hard look about reinvesting, bringing lake street back. Were hoping there is insurance for these folks, Different Things we can do. But certainly getting our vitality back is one. Lets go to theo. Reporter [inaudible] gov. Walz good. The first question, are they armed . Yes, they are currently armed. A little background on that. Yesterday, we received what i assessed was a credible threat, specifically to the minnesota National Guard. That credible threat was made available to us by the fbi. I shared that with governor walz , along with my recommendation that i felt as though it was a credible threat, and as a result we should arm the minnesota National Guard. Governor walz concurred with me and authorized me to arm the minnesota National Guard. What are the limits of their use of force . We traditionally do not talk about the use of force, because it is an operational issue, but i will tell you this. Our guardsmen maintain the right to selfdefense. I think that is where im going to leave it as it relates to the use of force for the National Guard. Thank you. Reporter governor, i think i heard [inaudible] gov. Walz hopefully around 2 00. Give us a little bit of time as we finalize this. We brought up the Capital Building before, these symbolic targets people have talked about, the folks some of it was online. That is the request i made of the National Guard. Before the cities needed to ask for what they needed was the preservation of the capital and the capitol grounds, so that will still be enforced. Week reporter [indiscernible] gov. Walz they are, and they have been. Reporter so, the mayor that [inaudible] gov. Walz i certainly think, and im not going to speculate. I think probably the assumption is that there are folks that come in, but we need to make sure that we all miss. The thing that sparked this is a homegrown minnesota thing. Reporter [indiscernible] gov. Walz i do not know that. I think we cannot tell that right now. But i think much of how a lot of this happened, certainly all the things that have led to this this is minnesota. I do not think it changes the calculus of how did we get to this, how do we respond to it. Reporter [inaudible] gov. Walz i am taking ownership of it. It is ours. We own it. Reporter [indiscernible] gov. Walz i said that my issue reporter [indiscernible] gov. Walz in the Minneapolis Police department. I will assume response ability ility if the issue was the state should have moved faster. That is on me. I do not think a lack of leadership. I think a lack of understanding what we needed to ask for. That is in retrospect. That was the responsibility. Now it is our response ability responsibility. I think they are doing everything they possibly can in in a situation that is unprecedented. I do not think that is a cop out. That does not mean you cannot do anything about it. I think they are responding accordingly. We are learning a lot. These situations are planned for. But it was 18 months of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars. This came about after the killing of george floyd on monday night. It started to ramp up when the video came out on tuesday. It accelerated into wednesday and thursday and here we sit. Back to you. Reporter [inaudible] typically in a situation where you have witnessed a crime and you have you are immediately able to apprehend the suspect, it would be not unusual to have made an arrest, brought that person in, then offered to the county attorney what you were able to cobble together in terms of information to seek a criminal charge. If there was no criminal charge, because you did not have sufficient information, then the person is released pending further investigation. In this case, because there was a lag time between when the event occurred, when the video came out, and when dca was brought into this, there was not that same immediacy. And so a criminal investigation was initiated by the bca very quickly, working in coordination with amy sweezy to follow the protocols that mr. Freeman has outlined that he wants us to follow in terms of an officerinvolved death case. So we are following the protocols that were established. We continue to follow those. We continue to meet with the county attorney. We continue to meet with the fbi and u. S. Attorney, as we continue to seek justice and to seek what can we do and what we are allowed to do in bringing this case to a conclusion. Reporter [inaudible] we do not have that authority. That is why we typically always have a Law Enforcement officer with us on our missions, so we have that support immediately available. But no, we do not. Gov. Walz one more question. Reporter you talked a lot about plans, are you prepared right for [inaudible] gov. Walz the responsibility to ensure it does not happen falls upon me, and i will do everything in my power to do that. As i said, i spent 24 years in the National Guard. I am surrounded by good people. We are pulling the assets in. I will need the help of minnesotans. I will need folks to cooperate. I want to acknowledge of the pain that people are feeling, the need to get justice. I am going to respond to peters question on this because it was an excellent question. He asked about the charges and things. I am not an attorney. I listen to them. And they are very, they are very concerned that the governor has to be very careful about what we say on this case. We want to make sure that everybody gets justice and it gets done, but the questions minnesotans have and the outrage they are feeling, i am feeling them. It is taking all of my willpower to maintain what is being asked, but the way to get justice is to make sure that civil order is maintained, that we make it clear that there is an expectation that justice is moved forward. And as attorney general ellison says, this is a point in time we forget. We cannot forget george. We cannot forget the aftermath of this, as if we would, but we have to get back to that point of what caused this all to happen and start working on that. The anger and frustration and the wondering why this is, this is a community that year after year, decade after decade, and generation after generation hears this. I know folks are listening. Their answer should be, i will believe it when i see it. I will believe it when equity means something. I will believe it when the policies change. I will believe it when my child gets the same education as your child and color does not matter. I get it right now. We are asking an awful lot to be based on faith. And that has not panned out. But i want to say, this is a state that we again, i think we are coming to grips with the good that we have. It has always been about striving to do better and do more. I am not trying to sugarcoat this. Much like with covid19, i have had to tell you it will get worse before it gets better. This is not going to be an easy journey. But the one thing we have to ensure, that civil order is maintained so there are changes. None of us can live in a society where roving bands go unchecked and do what they want to do, ruin property, and the expectation is, where are the police . This is the conundrum. Where are the police in the that got us in this situation on monday night, and where are the Police Last Night . I have heard from people, i am nervous about the National Guard. It is a flashpoint. I understand that. I have heard from those same people with a different tone, wheres the National Guard . So over these next 24 to 48 hours, work with us to get this situation controlled. I want to talk with those mayors who are up 24 7 in minneapolis and st. Paul, it is not about calling out someone on lack of leadership, it is about an issue that developed and all of us figuring out how to get there. This is volatile. This has been building for decades. This flashpoint came to us and now what are we going to do about it . And it happened in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic. So give us a chance. We will get to pick our paths very quickly. How are we going to be seen by the world in the coming days . How are we going to be seen after that . How are we going to respond to one another . And then what are we going to do about it . And again, if i were everybody in these communities, i would say, i will believe it when i see it. So the first task at hand is get civil control back. Get justice, moving quickly and fairly. And Start Talking about , together, how do we rebuild, how do we rebuild trust in the police, how do we rebuild those stores, how do we rebuild a society, how to we send that face to the world that sees us for so many positive things, but we need to recognize that this is what they are seeing. We need to take a hard look and figure out how to change that. I want to thank you all. I will close because of the importance i have talked about with the press. Deepest apologies to the reporters that were out there. Again, that cannot happen. We will do our best today, and i in makingll of you, sure that we have peace and security today, make sure the story is told. I am asking our team to make sure that press credentials, the ability to move you in protecting needs to be out there so this is covered. Let us know on that. Please make sure that is happening. Please show the world everything that is happening here through that lens of professional journalists, who ask the questions you are asking today. Thank you all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] after the death of george floyd, an africanamerican man who died while being arrested by Minneapolis Police, former Vice President joe biden said americans need to confront institutional racism. He met with mr. Floyds family and made these remarks shortly before an officer was taken into custody on thirddegree murder charges