Armed Neighborhood Groups Form In The Absence Of Police Protection
As break-ins and fires raged in the first days of protests over the killing of George Floyd, Minneapolis seemed to descend into a security vacuum. So armed neighborhood groups started forming.
Cesia Baires knocks on the three apartment doors above her restaurant and a neighboring taqueria just before curfew.
A woman opens the door. Her two young children are inside.
"Remember," she says to them in Spanish. "Same thing as yesterday. I'm going to come check on you. If there's anything you guys need, give us a call right away."
Behind her a few men climb through the window and on to the rooftop to set up semi-automatic weapons as the curfew begins in Minneapolis. It's something Baires never thought she'd have to do as a small business owner, but then she found out these apartments were occupied.
"Material things we can replace, that's true," she says. "But there are families up
