David Fhima was worried about rioting after the Chauvin trial but he refused to board up his restaurant, putting his faith in his neighbors and the cops.
Like many downtown Minneapolis business owners, David Fhima was concerned about the potential for violence after the jury’s verdict in the George Floyd murder trial.
Last summer, looters and vandals caused almost a half million dollars of damage to his restaurant, Fhima’s Minneapolis, during the unrest after Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Some business owners worried that even if former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three counts of murder and manslaughter in connection with Floyd’s death, the celebration could devolve into chaos, giving cover to people who came downtown to loot and cause damage.
On Tuesday afternoon, Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges, but the chaos and unrest that many had expected never materialized.
“Everything was great last night,” Fhima said. “There were no issues.”
Unlike many downtown business owners, Fhima refused to board his restaurant, choosing instead to put his faith in protesters to demonstrate peacefully and in police to take charge if things got out of hand. The entire city had been on edge for weeks, Fhima said, but “as soon as the verdict came out, you could feel almost like the air coming out of a balloon.”
Fhima described the atmosphere in Minneapolis on Tuesday as celebratory, even jubilant, though he said he hated using the term considering the circumstances – Floyd is dead, and Chauvin will likely spend decades in prison. “That doesn’t make us happy,” he said.
Steve Cramer, president and CEO of the mpls downtown council, an organization of downtown businesses, said last week that the situation in Minneapolis was “very tense” because of the trial and the police-involved shooting death of Daunte Wright in nearby Brooklyn Center.
“You could feel the collective sigh of relief downtown yesterday afternoon,” Cramer said in a written statement, calling for police reform and reversing the city’s racial disparities. “Downtown plays an important role in both priorities, and we look forward to the shared work ahead.”
Tim Mahoney, the owner of the Loon Café in downtown, said that on Tuesday night Minneapolis showed the world the goodness of its people, noting that there was no significant unrest, and a few hours after the verdict, the protesters dispersed on their own.
“The best outcome that could have happened happened,” Mahoney said, joking that “I’ve seen bigger and rowdier crowds on bike paths.”
Waiting for the verdict on Tuesday, Fhima and his workers passed the time by making sandwiches for the needy, which they passed out in homeless camps. In addition to running his restaurant, Fhima also runs a food kitchen to feed the poor across the Twin Cities.
“We felt like we needed to do something that was useful while the city was on edge,” he said. “We felt we needed to do something that was going to make everybody feel a little bit better, and the only thing we know how to do is to make food.”
Fhima said he believes much of the reason for Tuesday’s civil atmosphere can be attributed to the large security presence downtown, including National Guard members and law enforcement officers from Minneapolis and surrounding communities. Fhima said he understands some may argue that the lack of unrest is evidence that the security presence was unnecessary, but he called that a “false argument,” because “our track record sucks.”
“Look what happened this whole summer,” Fhima said, referring to riots and looting across the Twin Cities in the wake of Floyd’s killing. “You base decisions off experience and logic, and experience tells you it happened and logic tells you it might happen again.”
With the Chauvin trial over and the coronavirus vaccine being distributed, Fhima said he’s “more than hopeful” for the future of downtown. But, he said, “we had problems in downtown Minneapolis before all of this, so let’s not kid ourselves.”
Fhima said Tuesday night’s civility should send a message to city leaders about the need to have a strong, well-trained, involved and trustworthy police force in Minneapolis.
“I wish we didn’t. I wish we lived at the gates of Heaven where everybody is good and everybody has good intentions,” he said. “But we don’t.”