How Minneapolis became America's flashpoint for protests
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People protest after the killing of Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 8 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
More than a week of continuous protests in Minnesota provoked the ire of President Trump, but they don't show signs of winding down.
The big picture: Minnesota's Twin Cities, front and center in anti-ICE protests, have been a decade-long hub for demonstrations against state-sanctioned violence.
Driving the news: More than a week of protests have followed the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
- Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy U.S. military forces to Minneapolis in response to the protests.
- "First: Donald Trump wants chaos," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said in a Wednesday night statement. "He wants confusion. And, yes, he wants more violence on our streets. We cannot give him what he wants. We can — we must — protest: loudly, urgently, but also peacefully."
Here are some of the protests of the past decade in the Twin Cities:
Jamar Clark
Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by Minneapolis police in November 2015.
- Clark's death sparked more than two weeks of Black Lives Matter protests, including occupation and demonstrations in and around a police station. People were injured by gunfire at one demonstration.
- The two Minneapolis police officers involved in Clark's shooting did not face charges after investigators concluded they acted in self-defense.
Zoom out: As of 2015, Black people were 8.7 times more likely than white people to be arrested for low-level offenses in Minneapolis, according to an ACLU report.
- "This constant harassment by the police has eroded any sense of trust and respect for local law enforcement," the ACLU wrote.
- A 2023 Justice Department report found that the Minneapolis Police Department continued to unlawfully discriminate against Black and Indigenous people in its enforcement activities.
Philando Castile
Philando Castile was shot and killed in July 2016 during a traffic stop. The aftermath of the shooting was live-streamed on Facebook by Castile's girlfriend, who was a passenger in the car.
- In 2017, Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of all charges in the shooting by a jury.
- Protests ensued after both the shooting and the 2017 verdict in Yanez's trial.
- Yanez agreed to leave the police force after his trial.
George Floyd
George Floyd's 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer spurred nationwide Black Lives Matter marches and a wider racial reckoning across politics, justice, business and education.
- In 2021, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the murder. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges, transferring him to federal custody to serve a 20-year sentence, which superseded the state sentence.
- Prominent Trump supporters have since pushed for the president to pardon Chauvin.
- Three other former police officers who were at the scene of Floyd's arrest — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao — were also charged with Floyd's death both in Minnesota and in federal court. All three served time in prison and have since been released.
While Minneapolis did see peaceful protests in the immediate aftermath, the city was also harrowed by violent demonstrations, including one that burned a police station, as well as burning and looting that devastated businesses across the Twin Cities.
- A 2022 report said Minneapolis city leaders weren't ready for the scale or intensity of civil unrest.
Yes, but: Years after Floyd's killing, the momentum for racial justice has collapsed.
- In 2025, 72% of Americans said the increased focus on race and racial inequality did not lead to changes that improved the lives of Black people, per Pew Research.
Daunte Wright
Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot during an April 2021 traffic stop.
- During protests, police deployed "occasional gas canisters" and sprayed chemicals at protesters who approached the police station fence.
- Several dozen protesters were arrested. The protests sparked days of curfews, which were defied.
Zoom out: In December 2021, former Minnesota police officer Kimberly Potter was sentenced to two years for killing Wright while attempting to take him into custody.
- Police said she accidentally pulled out her gun instead of a Taser.
Go deeper: ICE shooting returns Minnesota to epicenter of upheaval
