SAINT PAUL- A Minnesota businessman who watched helplessly as his St. Paul establishment was destroyed during the George Floyd riots in 2020 spoke to Fox News Digital about how the state, led by Gov. Tim Walz, failed to protect business owners like him.
““When the rioters first got here, they destroyed the mall that's to the left of here. I was in my store,” Long Her, owner of New Fashion Tailoring and Alteration in St. Paul, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital. “I witnessed the whole thing and I caught it on video. My friend and I stayed in our store until dark. I was going to go to sleep and watch my store, but my friends were like, 'It's too dangerous, let's go home,' so we ended up going home that night.”
Her, a Hmong immigrant, recalled being “scared” for her livelihood when she returned home that night but hoped the destruction would be contained to the other side of the street.
When Her returned the next morning to check on the store she had owned for decades, she discovered that her worst fears had come true and the place had been ransacked.
MINNESOTA RIOTS CONTINUED AFTER WALZ TOOK THE 'RESPONSIBILITY OF ENSURING' THERE WAS NO CHAOS
Long Her, left, a business owner in St. Paul, Minnesota, spoke to Fox News Digital about how the George Floyd riots in 2020 affected him and his business. (Getty Images)
““The next day when I came here and found out my store had been destroyed, as a man, I couldn't do anything but cry,” Her told Fox News Digital through translator May Lor Xiong, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota's 4th Congressional District.
He said rioters broke down his reinforced door and stole his store's entire inventory, amounting to $200,000.
“They broke down the front door with the metal bars, they had pliers that they used to break the metal bars. And they came in and took everything, they took all the clothes, all the merchandise and my store,” Her said.
Her told Fox News Digital that she tried to contact police multiple times and received no response. When asked about Gov. Tim Walz’s role in the response, which took several days to call in the National Guard, Her said that if Walz is to become vice president, he hopes he has learned from his mistakes in responding to the riots.
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Gov. Tim Walz waited several days to call out the National Guard as riots tore through Minneapolis in 2020. (Getty Images)
““If he becomes vice president, he has to learn to love the people here and especially Minnesota because of the destruction that occurred during his tenure,” Her said. “He may be a good person, but he also has to understand the people, the suffering they are going through.”
Several people who spoke to Fox News Digital said the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have yet to fully recover from the devastating riots that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and Her said it took about two years for her business to recover financially.
““It took me about a year and a half to two years to recover. During that time, many people were afraid to go out, so I lost a lot of customers,” Her said. “People don't go out to shop, so I lost a lot of money and customers because of that.”
He went on to say that security “wasn’t a huge concern” for business owners in the Twin Cities before 2020, but after the pandemic, “there are a lot more people shoplifting or stealing things from stores.”
“There are a lot of homeless people sleeping in this area. This makes it very unsafe for business owners and even shoppers, so we need more police force to help us in this area, to protect the businesses and the people here.”
Minneapolis is widely regarded as the epicenter of the movement to defund the police, and CBS News reported As of earlier this year, the city's police department is short 200 officers and the police force has been cut by 40% over the past four years.
““I don't care what party they are,” Her said. “They should be impartial when it comes to police force and putting more police on the streets to help the citizens.”
Fox News Digital asked Her if she fears that a situation like the 2020 riots could happen again.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz arrive at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
““I don't know what's going to happen,” Her said. “I hope it doesn't happen with the lawlessness that reigns here. We love the freedom we have here. But there are also a lot of things that could happen, dangerous things that could happen to us and we've already witnessed the devastation in 2020.”
“We want to make sure that we're prepared, that whoever is in office should make sure that when something like this happens, they send in the National Guard to protect the people, the citizens and the businesses. That way, we won't have to go through so much destruction.”
