For his handling of George Floyd’s killing by police, Tim Walz has largely been commended by progressives both nationwide and on the local level. The vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor’s role in the 2020 case has come back into view since he was selected as Kamala Harris’s running mate on Monday.
Many have credited Walz for tapping Keith Ellison, the attorney general, to prosecute the case, which resulted in an unlikely conviction of the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of Floyd while on duty. Former officers J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were later convicted for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
“At the time, the Hennepin county attorney [Mike Freeman] was someone who the community did not have any trust in being able to try the case effectively,” said Elianne Farhat, executive director of the political advocacy group TakeAction Minnesota. “So the community and George Floyd’s family raised the demand that the case be moved to the attorney general. What we saw is that [Ellison] and his team led a powerful case and those police officers were ultimately held accountable.”
