A Minnesota business owner recently spoke out about the events that unfolded under Governor Tim Walz’s leadership in the summer of 2020 and how it impacted his business. Long Her, owner of New Fashion Tailoring and Alteration in St. Paul, Minnesota, was forced to watch his business be completely destroyed during the summer of 2020.
Following George Floyd’s death in 2020, racial tensions across the country spiked, and violent riots ensued. In many cities, such as St. Paul, businesses were looted and torched, forcing owners and entrepreneurs to pick up the pieces. Reportedly, the riots that occurred between May 26 and June 8, 2020, set a new record for the most expensive riot-related insurance claims, amassing between $1-$2 billion in damages.
“When the rioters first came here they went and destroyed the strip mall on the left-hand side here, I was in my shop,” Her explained, recounting the horrific incident. “I witnessed everything and videotaped. My friend and I stayed in our shop until nightfall, and I was going to go to sleep and watch over my shop, but my friends said, ‘it’s too dangerous, let’s go home’ so we ended up going home that night.”
Her noted that when he returned the following day he found his store had been entirely leveled, leaving him devastated. “The next day when I came here to find that my shop was destroyed, as a man, I couldn’t do anything but cry,” Her said, while being translated by May Lor Xiong, a local Republican politician running for Congress in Minnesota’s 4th Congressional District.
According to Her, violent demonstrators broke through reinforced doors and looted his store, stealing all the inventory he had, amounting to roughly $200,000. “They took down the front door with the metal bars, they had some pliers they used to destroy the metal bars. And they came in there and took everything, took all the clothing, all the merchandise and my store,” he said.
The business owner claimed Walz needs to empathize with his constituents, especially if he becomes vice president.”If he gets to become the vice president, he needs to learn how to love the people here and especially Minnesota because of the destruction that happened during his watch,” he said. “He could be a good person, but he also needs to understand the people, the sufferings that they’re going through.”
Her continued, “It took me about a year and a half to two years to recover. During that time, a lot of people were scared to go out, and so I lost a lot of customers. People are not coming out to shop, and so I lost a lot of money and customers from that.” The local businessman raised complaints about other problems in the area, stating, “There’s a lot of homeless people sleeping in this area. It’s making it very unsafe for business owners and even shoppers, and so we need to have more police force to help us in this area, to protect the businesses and the people here.”
When asked if her feared a repeat of the 2020 riots, Her said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I hope it won’t with the lawlessness right here. The freedom that we have here, we love that. But also, a lot of things might happen, dangerous things that might happen to us and we have already witnessed devastation in 2020.”
Watch JD Vance toast Tim Walz below:
Featured image credit: By Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan – _GOV2769, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151249336
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