More than three years after protestors burned the Minneapolis police Third Precinct building following George Floyd’s murder, a local committee is seeking community input on its plan to turn the site into a Black cultural center.
The group presented its ideas to dozens of community members Monday night at the Hook and Ladder Theater and Lounge, next door to the former precinct building in south Minneapolis.
The old Third Precinct building remains barricaded and fenced off. Last year, the Minneapolis City Council decided that police should not return to the site, and voted for a new precinct building and community safety center to be built nearby , at 2633 Minnehaha Ave S.
Frederick Brathwaite, a local restaurant owner, is leading the effort to turn the site into the Minneapolis Black Cultural Center. He said the vacant Third Precinct building is a painful reminder of what happened in May 2020.
“It’s been standing there since it happened,” he said. “Nothing has been done with it. Every day, reminding us of what happened and giving us pain in our hearts.”