On May 28, 2020, George Hupp, owner of the 92-year-old Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis, was busy boarding up the windows of his establishment along with his son and a few of his son's friends. George Floyd had been killed on May 25 and Minneapolis was ablaze.
Around 6:30 PM, Hupp says a crowd of about 300 people surrounded his bar. The rioters began throwing projectiles at the building while refusing to allow Hupp to leave, accusing the men of "white privilege."
“We thought they were going to kill us. They pretty much kidnapped us,” he said, adding, “We didn’t know if we were going to get out of there.”
Hupp and his son were eventually released and went home. Early the next morning, a surveillance camera on the property was blinded by a flash of light. It was several Molotov cocktails being thrown at the bar, which slowly burned to the ground.
This was early morning of May 29, 2020. Earlier that evening, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had finally agreed to send 100 National Guardsmen to Minneapolis to stem the rioting, burning, and looting that was destroying the city.
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had called Walz at 6:30 PM on Wednesday May 27, pleading for 600 National Guardsmen to be deployed to the city because the riots were getting out of control. Rioters had begun to torch the Third Police Precinct building, and it became clear that this was no longer a situation that could be handled by police.
Still, it wasn't until 2:30 the next afternoon that Walz ordered the National Guard to Minneapolis. "Walz said 'there’s an argument to be made' that adding soldiers to a protest over police brutality could be a 'catalyst' to the situation, and he was trying to strike the right balance," reported the Star Tribune.
In other words, he got cold feet.
Beyond dragging his heels on sending in the National Guard, Walz also has been accused of sharing confidential information with his then-teenage daughter, including law enforcements’ plans and the troops’ response times.
Hupp, who demanded an apology from Walz for the community, called Harris’ decision to pick him as her Vice Presidential candidate “absolute insanity,” and decried the state’s governor as “a criminal.”
“It’s crazy,” he said. “Why? Because of [his] total ineptness of leadership…[his] absolute ignorance of safety for people and the way of handling it properly.”
“He should have never been in the position he was in.”
"The Guard was given missions to support the Minneapolis Fire Department, St. Paul critical infrastructure, and the State Capitol complex," reports the Strib. Meanwhile, firefighters were trying to reach buildings that were ablaze but couldn't because of the danger.
By this time, the Third Precinct was too far gone to save. And Walz was looking for scapegoats to take the blame for his incompetent leadership.
"The average person maybe assumes that there’s soldiers waiting in helicopters to drop in like they do in movies," Walz told reporters the next week. "Actually, they’re band teachers and small business owners. They’re folks working in a garage in Fergus Falls who get a call that says you’ve got 12 hours to report to your armory."
Walz said nothing about the 18-hour delay in calling out the guard.
This was Walz on May 27.
Walz said he shared the “urge of just a primal scream” watching the bystander video, and that protesting is “how people express their pain, process tragedy and work to create change.”
“I would encourage them to do so with a mask, to socially distance,” he said. “We certainly don’t want to see things turn violent in any way, but I also think this is a pretty normal response.”
Yes. We wouldn't want those gasoline fumes from the Molotov cocktails to damage your lungs.
George Hupp has never rebuilt the Hexagon. Only an empty field is left of his family's business. But Hupp sees red every time he thinks of Walz's failures.
“He could have called [the guardsmen] in [but] he didn’t,” Hupp added. “I didn’t have a drop of water put on my place. Not a drop of water for those three and a half days! Crazy. It’s [a] complete loss of leadership, totally."
Creating a mythos surrounding Walz should include his lack of leadership during the George Floyd riots. There are a hundred George Hupps out there whose businesses are in ashes because Walz didn't want to upset the protesters.
