FEAR MINNEAPOLIS WILL BURN AGAIN
City throws up barricades and calls in National Guard before trial of cop for George Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS has begun to resemble a city under siege as it prepares for the trial of a former policeman accused of killing George Floyd tomorrow.
With the world watching, the city has thrown up barricades around the courtroom and drafted in extra officers and National Guard soldiers in fear of renewed violence.
A double perimeter of 12fthigh wire mesh barricades topped with barbed wire has been installed around the Hennepin County Courthouse in the city centre, where jury selection is set to begin before the trial opens on March 29.
The streets around the courthouse have also been closed while some stores and buildings have been boarded up to prevent a repeat of looting seen during last summer’s rioting.
It was sparked after a video emerged of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for nine minutes as he repeatedly pleaded that he could not breathe on May 25.
The incident triggered violent protests in Minneapolis, many other towns and cities in the US and also in the UK.
City leaders had to call in the National Guard following nights of rioting and looting as around 1,500 businesses suffered $1billion in damages and a Minneapolis police station was abandoned to the mob.
With months to prepare, the city has vowed to maintain law and order while allowing for peaceful protests, adding officers had undergone “de-escalation training”.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “This will be the culmination of a year-long barrage of trauma to our city. Safety has to be our top priority.”
An expected 2,000 guard members and 1,100 police officers will be on duty during key points of the trial, particularly when the jury retires in mid to
late April. However, the security presence could raise tensions.
Council president Lisa Bender said: “I don’t think we can police our way out of police violence.”
Today a silent march by Black Lives Matter Minnesota is expected to take place near the courthouse, with participants asked to wear black, a face mask and bring flowers and signs.
A coalition of 17 activist groups will stage a protest tomorrow and vowed to be present throughout the trial.
Angela Rose Myers, president of the Minneapolis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said: “Their justice, their safety,
is putting up barricades and hindering our First Amendment right for public assembly and protest. We are not here to hinder justice, we are here to deliver justice.”
Trahern Crews, founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, said he hoped for a peaceful outcome but did not rule out the possibility of unrest returning if Chauvin is acquitted.
He said: “The whole country is watching and I believe the majority of the country wants to see justice for George Floyd.”
A shrine erected in the south of the city, at the crossroads where Mr Floyd died, will be closed to traffic during the trial.
EXOTIC cat owners who were inspired to buy after watching Tiger King on Netflix last year are now turning their dangerous animals out on the street after realising they can’t cope with them.
More than 300 dangerous, large cats are living across the UK, according to the Born Free Foundation. Many are in regular homes, with owners who don’t have zoo licences.
Jamie Mintram, who runs The Ark wildlife sanctuary in Lincolnshire, which has eight exotic cats and 250 other wild animals, said: “We noticed an increase in people getting wildcats after Tiger King came out in the first lockdown.
“When people realise they can’t get a lion or a tiger in the UK, they look for the closest thing and we’ve had a lot of cases of wild cats such as serval and lynx cats being bought on a whim.
“People buy them to show off on
‘They are not cute
and cuddly’
social media and to have something different to brag about. But these cats are much bigger than a regular cat.
“They’re not cute and cuddly and don’t want to snuggle on the sofa, and when people realise they don’t make ideal pets they get dumped.
“In some cases they’re handed in but we have cats here that have just been turned out on to the streets. They can be dangerous creatures, it’s frightening.”
In Tiger King, zookeeper Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Schreibvogel, proudly showed off 176 big cats. But the series highlighted the danger of keeping such powerful beasts, with worker Saff Saffery having her arm bitten off by a tiger.
Joe, 57, is now serving 22 years in jail for trafficking animals, killing tigers and plotting to murder animal welfare activist Carole Baskin, 59.
In the UK there are 320 wild cats including 61 big cats – 11 lions, eight tigers, 11 leopards, 18 pumas, 10 cheetahs, two ligers and one jaguar. Jamie from
DANGEROUS: From top, a jungle cat and savannah cat at The Ark. Joe Exotic, the US tiger owner who sparked the trend for wild cats
The Ark said: “Another worrying thing is that people are trying to breed exotic cats with regular cats.
“It’s so terrifying. These are wild animals, who haven’t had thousands of years of domestication like pet cats. These two species would never normally meet in the wild and certainly not mate.”
To donate to the Ark’s running costs, go to justgiving.com/crowd funding/ arksos
YOU WON’T be surprised to find out I have more interest in physiology and psychology than etymology, the study of words. Discovering which previously under-appreciated words will be adopted by The Oxford English Dictionary each year has never really floated my boat.
But 2020 was seemingly only good for one thing – new words and phrases entering the vernacular such as R Value, coronavirus and Covid-19, which are all now part of our lexicon.
Those words are here to stay, but their legacy we can fight.
The UK is one of more than 100 countries to have enforced social distancing, more commonly known as lockdown, to reduce the rate of viral transmission.
The severity of lockdown varied in speed of implementation, duration and intensity from country to country and even region to region.
Lockdowns succeeded in lowering the R Value, but have also impacted on people’s work, education, travel, physical activity, sedentary behaviours, mental wellbeing and recreation.
They have affected every aspect of our lives, but arguably none greater than our metabolic health. Now, as World Obesity Day pointed out last Thursday, both the Government, and we as individuals, need to prioritise physical activity to boost our health and immune system.
We need to do this to recover from this pandemic, resume normal life and be ready to combat the next airborne virus that is heading our way.
The ubiquitous phrase “we’re all in this together” is only partly true. Lockdown effects have been felt from kids through to the elderly, salaried, selfemployed and principal carers.
But the financial consequences and impact on physical activity – and therefore health – have not been uniform across demographic or gender lines.
This needs to be accounted for when planning society’s long-term fitness rehabilitation.
Rightly, much has been made of the short and long-term effects of school closures, both educationally and socially.
A study by Sport England in
December found almost a third of children (2.3 million) were classed as “inactive” – meaning they did less than half an hour of exercise a day.
With the closure of schools, playgrounds, leisure centres, courts and pitches, it is hardly a surprise.
Only 19 per cent of children under 16 are now doing the recommended hour of physical activity a day, as opposed to pre-covid levels of 47 per cent.
Swimming is a compulsory part of the primary school national curriculum, requiring all children when they leave school to be able to swim.
But during lockdowns one million children have missed out on swimming lessons over the past year according to Swim England – a genuine tragedy given that drowning is the third highest cause of death in children in the UK.
IN SURVEYS swimmers are found to have higher wellbeing than nonswimmers .They are happier and healthier, exhibiting higher levels of self-confidence. In combination with the established benefits of exercise for any future lockdowns or pandemic, the fitness and leisure sector must be viewed as an essential service.
The Government has to formulate and execute a bold and ambitious plan to get our children moving again after lockdown. Otherwise their development, wellbeing and habitual behaviour could be negatively impacted for life.
Disparity is not just linked to affluence, but also gender.
The closure of fitness and leisure facilities has had a profound effect on women, as 54 per cent of UK gym members are female, making up 76 per cent of group classes.
For many the lockdown has been a national sit-down – 42 per cent of us are sitting down an extra 14 hours a week, 27 per cent an extra 21 hours and a further 15 per cent of people over 28 hours.
Along with firing up our heart, lungs and leg muscles we’re going to have to reupholster our sofas as well.
During the first lockdown I witnessed the motivation and commitment people had for being active. Now the nation appears to be in lockdown fatigue and with that comes the loss of motivation to stay active for our bodies and minds.
The increased restrictions and lifestyle changes have resulted in a move towards poor health behaviours.
We have seen increased alco