Minnesota business owners try to prevent further damage
Insight from Alana Carrington, Carrington Cares owner.
Alana Carrington, who runs a cancer charity in Minnesota, told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday that the widespread riots, sparked by the death of an unarmed black man while in police custody on Memorial Day, forced her to take action to protect her business without help from local leaders.
Carrington, the founder of the nonprofit organization The Carrington Cares Foundation, which helps cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments, said the riots have created “a huge impact on us.”
She added that the fact that the violence has erupted following the temporary shutdowns of business due to the stay-at-home orders enacted to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus has made matters worse.
Carrington said her focus in on trying to “get back to business.”
George Floyd, 46, was pronounced dead Monday night after he was pinned to the ground under the knee of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who has been fired from the force and charged with third-degree murder in the case.
In the days since Floyd’s death, unrest in every corner of the country left charred and shattered landscapes in dozens of American cities. Minneapolis has been the epicenter of protests since Floyd’s death Monday.
Peaceful protests quickly escalated to outright violence and looting. For several days after, city residents woke up to fires still burning from the violent protests.
Early Saturday morning, protesters were seen defying curfew orders issued as firefighters sought to put out several business fires after the fourth night of unrest.
Entrepreneurs in Saint Paul, Minn., including Carrington, took matters into their own hands and boarded up their properties in an attempt to protect their businesses from any damage.
“My business is inside of a business,” Carrington explained.
GEORGE FLOYD DEATH: THE CITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE PROTESTING AND RIOTING
“We’ve had to board up all the businesses around us to remain safe,” she added.
Carrington went on to say that “we had to board up everything so we cannot operate at all because of these riots.”
She said that she “felt abandoned” by her local leaders, adding that she was “outraged and upset.”
Host Jedediah Bila asked Carrington what her message is to the rioters “who have brought so much violence to so many communities and has forced people like yourself doing really noble work to shut down.”
“Right now my message is peace,” Carrington said in response. “We need peace and how we’re going to get peace is to everybody calm down and go home and let the law take care of this matter.”
She went on to say that she has been praying for peace since Floyd’s death.
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Carrington encouraged the rioters not to “take these matters into their own hands.”
“We just got to pray and trust god in this entire situation,” she concluded.
Fox News’ Lucia Suarez Sang and Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.
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