An ‘unproductive’ spat
A pair of after-action reports commissioned by the city and state cited private miscommunications and public disputes between Walz and Frey as impediments to effectively handling the protests. At one point, Walz characterized the city’s response as an “abject failure.”
“Several interviewees blamed the Mayor and Governor for their public disagreements about the response to the protests and expressed that this was unproductive,” according to the report commissioned by the city, which was released in March 2022.
The state-commissioned report arrived at a similar conclusion: “Other state officials claim that the request became complicated when elected officials became involved (i.e., the Minneapolis mayor, the governor’s office).”
Another complicating factor, those after-action reports indicated, was the failure of city officials to articulate their needs. The requests made on May 27 “initially lacked clarity and that more information and time was needed for [the state’s emergency management office] to develop the necessary details of the mission to activate the Minnesota Guard,” one report said
