Businesses located at George Floyd Square sue Mayor Frey, Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Five businesses located at George Floyd Square are suing the City of Minneapolis and Mayor Jacob Frey for $30 million, claiming the closure of the intersection after George Floyd's murder hurt their businesses.
Why are the business owners suing?
George Floyd Square (FOX 9)
Business owners and brothers, Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, Ahmed Abumayyaleh, Nabil Abumayyaleh, and Samir Abumayyaleh, own Cup Foods. The brothers also own Menthol Tobacco and Southside Electronics, both located inside Cup Foods, located near 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.
Along with those businesses, the brothers own NMA Investments and residential apartments also near the intersection, located at the same address as Cup Foods.
The brothers claim in their lawsuit that after Floyd's murder, in response to the following rioting and protesting, the City of Minneapolis, under Frey's direction, placed "large concrete barricades" around the intersection of 38th and Chicago, blocking all traffic access, and "severely limiting" pedestrian access to the businesses in the area.
According to court documents, the brothers "pleaded" with the city and Frey to reopen the intersection because of the "devastating economic effects" and "staggering increase in violence" that the closure reportedly inflicted on their businesses.
The barricades went up in early June 2020, and the lawsuit says the city "promised" to remove them by mid-August of the same year. The brothers claim the city "broke" its promise and "refused" to reopen the intersection. The barricades were not removed until June 2021.
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Court documents allege the city "allowed" crime to overrun the barricaded area, which led to the brothers' businesses to suffer from "severe physical and economic consequences."
The lawsuit also mentions "barricade protectors," which were civilians reportedly "guarding" the intersection, allegedly not allowing visitors through. These protectors would tell visitors that the area was not meant to be used as "business as usual" and was only for "memorialization purposes" only.
The brothers also claim that the barricade protectors would sometimes not allow them to access their businesses.
According to court filings, the lawsuit claims that the intersection had a drastic increase in violent crime after the city limited police response in the barricaded area.
The lawsuit says that these reasons caused "severe" economic harm, property damage, loss of business income, public safety dangers, emotional damages and loss of property value.
Background
In May 2020, Floyd went to Cup Foods and 911 was called by an employee after he allegedly tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill.
Floyd was taken into custody, and was ultimately killed by then Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty in his murder.