George Floyd

I was recently talking to a friend who was in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020 when protests began against police brutality and racial inequality.

I had always referred to this period as the Minneapolis Riots.  The term my friend used was Minneapolis Civil Disobedience.  Certainly the two terms have drastically different connotations.  Riot is typically associated with violent action.  Civil Disobedience is associated with an absence of violence.

The discussion migrated to the Posse Comitatus Act which limits the power of the federal government is the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.  It was originally put in place to stop military occupation of the former Confederate States.  An exception was made in Little Rock during desegregation.

Doing some research, I found out the Insurrection Act of 1807 provides for a statutory exception to Posse Comitatus.  Insurrection Act has been invoked during conflicts with Native Americans, labor conflicts, desegregation, Hurricane Hugo and 1992 Los Angeles Riots.