Michael Orville Freeman is an American attorney and politician who served as the county attorney for Hennepin County from 2007 to 2023. While in office,he was the official responsible overseeing several high-profile criminal cases of excessive police force,including several unlawful killings by law enforcement officers. Freeman filed criminal charges against Derek Chauvin and three other Minneapolis police officers responsible for the murder of George Floyd in 2020,before the Minnesota Attorney General's office took over the case.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) is the sheriff's office for Hennepin County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. HCSO's main offices are in Minneapolis City Hall in the county seat of Minneapolis.
Kurt Zellers is an American politician who served as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013 and minority leader from 2009 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota,he represented the 34B district in Hennepin County. He was a candidate in the 2014 Minnesota gubernatorial election,losing in the Republican primary.
Occupy Minneapolis (OccupyMN) is a grassroots collaboration that began in October 2011 with a series of demonstrations in Minneapolis,Minnesota. Protesters have staged numerous occupations,most notably of the Hennepin County Government Center plaza.
The 2014 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 4,2014,to elect the governor of Minnesota concurrently with the election to Minnesota's Class II U.S. Senate seat,as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Jeff Johnson is an American politician. He was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2000 and served there from 2001 to 2007. Johnson left the legislature to run for state attorney general in 2006,but was defeated. Johnson served as a Hennepin County commissioner for the 7th district from 2009 to 2021. He was elected as the Republican National Committeeman from Minnesota in April 2011. Johnson was the Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota in 2014,losing to incumbent Democrat Mark Dayton,and again in 2018,losing to the Democratic nominee,U.S. Representative Tim Walz.
On November 15,2015,two police officers fatally shot Jamar Clark,a 24-year-old African-American man,in Minneapolis. The two shooters were Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. They were a part of the Minneapolis Police Department which subsequently placed the men on paid administrative leave. The night after Ringgenberg and Schwarze shot him,Clark died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after being taken off life support. His death resulted from one of the gunshot wounds the shooters inflicted on November 15.
The 2018 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 6,to elect the 41st Governor of Minnesota as incumbent Democratic governor Mark Dayton chose not to run for re-election for a third term. The Democratic nominee was congressman Tim Walz from Minnesota's 1st congressional district while the Republicans nominated Hennepin County commissioner Jeff Johnson. The Independence Party of Minnesota didn't field a candidate for the first time since 1994. Going into the election the polls showed Walz ahead and the race was characterized as lean or likely DFL.
Matthew "Matt" Grossell is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2017. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota,Grossell represents District 2A in northwestern Minnesota,which includes the city of Bemidji and parts of Beltrami,Clearwater,and Lake of the Woods Counties.
The 2022 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 8,2022,to elect the governor of Minnesota. Incumbent Democratic (DFL) Governor Tim Walz defeated the Republican nominee,former state senator Scott Jensen,winning a second term.
On May 25,2020,George Floyd,a 46-year-old black American man,was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin,a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk alleged that he made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down in a street. Two other police officers,J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane,assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head before Floyd was handcuffed. A fourth police officer,Tou Thao,prevented bystanders from intervening.
The following is a timeline of race relations and policing in Minneapolis–Saint Paul,providing details with a history of policing in the Twin Cities in the U.S. state of Minnesota from the nineteenth century to the present day. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office,with its headquarters in downtown Minneapolis,is one of the "largest law enforcement agencies in Minnesota" with division and unit facilities throughout Hennepin County. Twin cities,Saint Paul and Minneapolis,have their own police departments,the Minneapolis Police Department,which was established in 1867 and the Saint Paul Police Department. A union for rank and file officers in Minneapolis—the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis —was established in 1917.
Local protests over the murder of George Floyd,sometimes called the Minneapolis riots or Minneapolis uprising,began on May 26,2020,and within a few days had inspired a global protest movement against police brutality and racial inequality. The initial events were a reaction to a video filmed the day before and circulated widely in the media of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd struggled to breathe,begged for help,lost consciousness,and died. Public outrage over the content of the video gave way to widespread civil disorder in Minneapolis,Saint Paul,and other cities in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over the five-day period of May 26 to 30 after Floyd's murder.
Dolal Idd was a 23-year-old Somali-American man who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Minneapolis police officers at approximately 6:15 p.m. CST on December 30,2020,after he shot at them from inside the car he was driving. The fatal encounter happened in the U.S. state of Minnesota during a police sting operation.
The 2022 Minnesota Attorney General election was held on November 8,2022,to elect the attorney general of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Incumbent DFLer Keith Ellison narrowly won reelection to a second term against Republican challenger Jim Schultz.
Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr.,a 32-year-old black American man,in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08 p.m. CDT on June 3,2021. Smith was being pursued by a U.S. Marshals Service task force that apprehends wanted fugitives. The arrest operation had the participation of undercover agents from several local police agencies in Minnesota. The officers did not use body cameras or dashcams when apprehending Smith. Controversy over the lack of law enforcement footage of the arrest operation led to local police agencies ceasing aid to the Marshals Service's fugitive task force,and to changes to body and dash camera policies by the Marshals and other federal law enforcement agencies.
John Thompson is an American politician who served as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for the 67A district from 2021 to 2023. Elected in November 2020,he assumed office on January 5,2021. Prior to seeking elected office,Thompson was an activist supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and directed a local social justice organization.
In 2020 and 2021,several protests were held in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that coincided with judicial proceedings and the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin. As an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department,Chauvin was charged with the murder of George Floyd,an unarmed African American man who died during an arrest incident on May 25,2020. A bystander's video captured Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd struggled to breathe,lost consciousness,and died. Protesters opposed Chauvin's pre-trial release from jail on bail in October 2020. In the lead up to and during the criminal trial in early 2021,demonstrators sought conviction and maximum sentencing for Chauvin,and the enactment of police reform measures.
Amir Locke,a 22-year-old Black American man,was fatally shot on February 2,2022,by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis,Minnesota,where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman,and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6,2022.
The 2022 Hennepin County Attorney election was held on November 8,2022,to elect the County attorney of Hennepin County,Minnesota. On September 1,2021,incumbent county attorney Michael O. Freeman announced that he would retire at the end of his term after 24 years in the role. Former Hennepin County Chief Public Defender Mary Moriarty defeated former Hennepin County judge Martha Holton Dimick and became the first openly LGBTQ woman elected as Hennepin County Attorney.
